Teaching

I have taught a range of courses spanning conservation biology to eukaryote molecular genetics, undergraduate to graduate, and with class sizes from 1 to > 500 students. Here I present only courses in which I have actively taught in the last few years, although bend this rule a bit for descriptions of the field courses. Note that I am on sabbatical for 2013-14 and teaching only a handful of field courses.

Undergraduate

Field Courses

I have taught over 50 field courses since I started at Queen’s University. About half of these I teach at the Queen’s University Biological Station (QUBS), while the others have been taught at various locales in China, East Africa (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania), and Latin America (Costa Rica, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico). The emphases for these courses vary but typically encompass natural history, ecology and conservation biology. For many of my field courses (often co-taught), I create individualized websites and we have students create a course blog. Below are links to course websites with blogs:

Biodiversity Conservation of East Africa

2018 – https://kenya2018.sclougheed.ca
2019 – https://kenya2019.sclougheed.ca

Ecology of a Biodiversity Hotspot. The Brazilian Atlantic Coastal

2020 – https://queens-brazil2020.sclougheed.ca

Aquatic diversity & environmental assessment – China-Canada

2011 – https://canadachina2011.wordpress.com
2012 – https://queensuchina2012.wordpress.com
2013 – https://canadachina2013.wordpress.com
2014 – https://canadachina2014.wordpress.com
2015 – https://canadachina2015.wordpress.com
2016 – https://canadachina2016.wordpress.com
2017 – https://queensuchina2017.wordpress.com
2018 – https://chinacanada2018.sclougheed.ca

Ecology & Conservation Biology in Mexico

2015 – https://queensumexico2015.wordpress.com
2017 – https://queensumexico2017.sclougheed.ca
2018 – https://yucatan2018.sclougheed.ca
2019 – https://queensumexico2019.sclougheed.ca

Ecology and Conservation in Northern Patagonia

2012 – https://qupatagonia.wordpress.com

Lecture & Lab-Based

Biology 440: Speciation & Macroevolution

This course explores evolutionary processes and the patterns that they produce at and above the species level. We’ll begin with a brief reprise of microevolution and the purported distinction between it and macroevolution, if indeed such demarcation can be sharply drawn and is useful. This is followed by detailed considerations of theoretical underpinnings and empirical examinations of models and genomics of speciation (contrasting different mechanisms), adaptive radiation, evo/devo, cladogenesis, and origins of higher-order taxa, and reconstructions of evolutionary history of focal groups of species. Later in the course we explore deep-time evolution including such things as the causes, rates, and consequences of mass extinction. Of particular emphasis will be the vastness of time over which life on earth has evolved and the different eons, periods and epochs of geological/evolutionary time and the hallmark events that demarcate them.

Course Syllabus | PDF |