Course Description

Competence Overview

Assessment

Assignments

Readings

Syllabus (Hardcopy)

Paleontology is the study of fossils which are the remains and traces of past living things. The investigation of fossils is essential to our understanding of how life originated and evolved on earth. Fossils provide us with critical information regarding the character and age of the most significant biological events in earth's history, including: the earliest forms of life, the pivotal development of multi-celled plants and animals, the rise and demise of the dinosaurs, the adaptive diversification of mammals, and the origin of our own species.

This course will examine how fossils can be used to decipher ancient patterns of development and change within earth’s physical and biological systems, how biodiversity patterns for fossil groups compare to living groups, and how the anatomy of plant, invertebrate, and vertebrate fossil groups evolved in both form and function. Other topics will include: fossil preservation, determining the age of fossils, reconstructing ancient environments and ecosystems, biogeography, lifestyles of fossils, dinosaurs, mass extinctions and evolution.

Learning Experience: This course is offered via the internet and makes use of the exciting and growing graphical resources available there on paleontology topics. Students will be introduced to major paleontology principles and issues through readings, links to multimedia resources on the Web, structured discussions, virtual labs and simulations, virtual fossil specimens, a self-guided fieldtrip to a natural history museum or fossil site, and original inquiry into a current topic in paleontology. Assessment of student learning will be based on participation in course activities, lab reports, an essay exam on course readings, and development of a detailed research paper on a current issue in paleontology. The research paper will follow a scientific journal format and will employ scientific reasoning.

COMPETENCIES OFFERED: S-4; S-1-A; S-1-B; S-2-A;S-2-C; S-3-E (and Pre-99: PW-2; PW-4; PW-5; PW-G; PW-I; PW-O)

1. The home address of the class is: http://www.depaul.edu/~kdowning/vp/coursepage/vp.htm Please do not distribute this URL. It is for your personal use during this quarter.

The best way to get a feel for the Virtual Paleontology site is to explore it. For a general site map press here.

As you explore Virtual Paleontology, pay careful attention to the schedule and weekly assignments. I have included a self-assessment table to help you keep track of your progress

Technical Questions/Problems about your computer should be directed to DePaul's ATD department and not the instructor. See the link on the Depaul homepage for technological help.

Inform the instructor of broken links or exciting new ones that you have located.

BROWSER INFO:

The Virtual Paleontology materials are built and optimized for Internet Explorer (4.0+ versions). It is strongly recommended that you use Internet explorer since the latest course version was tested with this program. If you find the graphics are not lining up properly or other script problems occur, you may need to download (for free) the latest version of these programs. NOTE: In a pinch…. these browsers are available to students on the DePaul Computer Lab terminals.

Also note that the course was optimized for 1024 X 678 pixel and 800 X 600 pixel monitors. Please adjust your monitor's resolution accordingly. You may also wish to limit (i.e., close) the number of tool bars your browser has open to see more of the graphics.

Speeding Up The Graphics:

If you have a pre-pentium PC computer or corresponding "old MAC", graphics will take longer (or substantially) longer to load. You can speed up things somewhat by not deleting the cache file that will store the course graphics.

While DePaul’s server is usually very reliable, it may go down from time to time. Hang in there it will come back. If it happens during a chat session we will reschedule.

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