Like all sciences, ecology is more than a set of discipline-specific facts and concepts. It is a way to make sense of the patterns and processes found in nature. To that end, when SimBio author Dr. John Roach teaches Ecology, he strives to ensure that whatever topic the class is focused on, students are also practicing how to think like scientists.

Course-Wide Learning Outcomes:

• Demonstrate how a systems-thinking approach in which the structures, functions, relationships, and emergent properties of living systems are explicitly described can help explain ecological patterns and processes.
• Show how models—including mathematical, graphical, and conceptual models—can be used to generate testable, often quantitative predictions about system dynamics.
• Employ the scientific method in the investigation of ecological patterns and processes.
• Demonstrate how predictions derived from clear hypotheses can be evaluated with ecological data.

Full Syllabus Course Schedule Only  SimUText Ecology Webinar

Dr. John Roach is lead author and architect of Climate Change and several other SimUText Ecology® chapters and tutorial labs. He periodically teaches Ecology using SimBio's materials at the University of Montana.