Welcome to Coral Biology for Reefkeepers!!!!
I hope the next 11 weeks will be of great interest and benefit to you all.
The classes are scheduled to provide an in-depth look at many aspects of corals, but there is no way to cover all aspects of corals completely in the time allotted. I hope what is learned here will be but a beginning in your further investigations about these fascinating animals. I am going to be covering a great deal of material, and will try to keep the information both practical to reefkeeping, and understandable to all those who do not have a strong science background. I want everyone to be comfortable with the material, and I urge you to post any questions, no matter how trivial or “stupid” they may seem. There are no “stupid” questions, and I would hate for anyone to miss something important because I keep using a word that no one knows its meaning – or something similar.
Also, there may be times in my lectures where I say something that is conflictory or even contrary to what is written in the readings, or from what you may have read or heard elsewhere. Rest assured there are reasons for this. However, I do not want anyone to hesitate to ask, if I do not explain, why this is the case. In most cases, it will be because there is an ever-increasing body of knowledge and/or theory regarding the subject matter.
I will be assigning a lab project in two weeks, and another a month after that. You will have a month to complete each of them, and I will provide instructions at that time. I will also provide all details of the lab assignments as a handout to be posted on the website.
We will have weekly question and answer chats in the irc chatroom to answer any questions you have from the previous lecture, to discuss further any aspects of the material, to go into more depth in areas of interest, and to just open up the subject for discussion. I want this to be a fun chat time, although perhaps we can spend the first half-hour in formal protocol for question and answer (or as long as it takes to field all questions), and the remaining time can be an informal chat. I do not want to spend any time answering questions that do not pertain to the previous weeks’ lectures. If someone has a question they forgot to ask, or couldn’t make it to a previous chat, please post your question on the discussion board. I will answer the questions as best I can within 2 days, and probably much less time than that.
We will have a single course long project that I will describe at the end of the first lecture. You will have three months to complete it, starting next week. All details of the project will be posted on the website. This will be fun, and I hope that you can use the skills you acquire as we progress through the class to help complete the project.
I will be giving a weekly quiz on the lecture material as an email attachment. You will have to send these back to me for grading. After you get graded, I will send back the quiz along with a complete explanation and answer sheet. The quiz will be from material in the required reading and from the lecture notes. Nothing will be from the suggested reading, although you may find the answer to the question quite easily in the suggested reading if you look.
There will also be a final exam – open book – at the end of the course. You will turn in your exam and your course long project at the same time. I will grade them and return them to you. Upon completion, you will receive a certificate of completion for the course. The person with the highest score in the class will receive a prize for their accomplishment. It will not be a trivial prize, either, so do not fear that you will be getting a cheap plastic trinket for your hard work. The prize may be of my choosing, or it might be of your choosing – I have not decided yet.
I find myself in an uncomfortable place, as the first week’s reading assignment is quite lengthy. I do not want any of you to think that all the weeks ahead will be equally strenuous, but this first section covers a great deal of information which is of general interest to everyone; not only in regards to corals, but to coral reefs and the holistic view of them than must be considered when isolating a specific group (taxon) of animals like the corals. Just as a rainforest is not a rainforest without trees, a coral reef is not a coral reef without corals. They coral reef needs corals and corals need the community of the reef in order to survive.
At the end of the class, there will be a two-week “mini-course” of new information that has been found since these lectures were created. I will be doing this after each class for those who have taken the previous class to keep up on new developments. We will post information about this mini-course soon.
Finally, I warn all of you there is a possibility this class will go longer than scheduled due to my often-extensive travel. In late January, I will be presenting at a conference in Paris, and may not be able to get required Internet access for class related issues. Other trips are unlikely to impact my ability to attend to this course, although there may be schedule changes that will be posted in advance. I apologize for these inconveniences, but will make every attempt to make sure the course proceeds as smoothly and expeditiously as possible for all.
So, onward we go into the exciting world of coral reefs. Everyone, put on your face masks, put your snorkel in your mouth…fins on? Divers down!!!
I hope the next 11 weeks will be of great interest and benefit to you all.
The classes are scheduled to provide an in-depth look at many aspects of corals, but there is no way to cover all aspects of corals completely in the time allotted. I hope what is learned here will be but a beginning in your further investigations about these fascinating animals. I am going to be covering a great deal of material, and will try to keep the information both practical to reefkeeping, and understandable to all those who do not have a strong science background. I want everyone to be comfortable with the material, and I urge you to post any questions, no matter how trivial or “stupid” they may seem. There are no “stupid” questions, and I would hate for anyone to miss something important because I keep using a word that no one knows its meaning – or something similar.
Also, there may be times in my lectures where I say something that is conflictory or even contrary to what is written in the readings, or from what you may have read or heard elsewhere. Rest assured there are reasons for this. However, I do not want anyone to hesitate to ask, if I do not explain, why this is the case. In most cases, it will be because there is an ever-increasing body of knowledge and/or theory regarding the subject matter.
I will be assigning a lab project in two weeks, and another a month after that. You will have a month to complete each of them, and I will provide instructions at that time. I will also provide all details of the lab assignments as a handout to be posted on the website.
We will have weekly question and answer chats in the irc chatroom to answer any questions you have from the previous lecture, to discuss further any aspects of the material, to go into more depth in areas of interest, and to just open up the subject for discussion. I want this to be a fun chat time, although perhaps we can spend the first half-hour in formal protocol for question and answer (or as long as it takes to field all questions), and the remaining time can be an informal chat. I do not want to spend any time answering questions that do not pertain to the previous weeks’ lectures. If someone has a question they forgot to ask, or couldn’t make it to a previous chat, please post your question on the discussion board. I will answer the questions as best I can within 2 days, and probably much less time than that.
We will have a single course long project that I will describe at the end of the first lecture. You will have three months to complete it, starting next week. All details of the project will be posted on the website. This will be fun, and I hope that you can use the skills you acquire as we progress through the class to help complete the project.
I will be giving a weekly quiz on the lecture material as an email attachment. You will have to send these back to me for grading. After you get graded, I will send back the quiz along with a complete explanation and answer sheet. The quiz will be from material in the required reading and from the lecture notes. Nothing will be from the suggested reading, although you may find the answer to the question quite easily in the suggested reading if you look.
There will also be a final exam – open book – at the end of the course. You will turn in your exam and your course long project at the same time. I will grade them and return them to you. Upon completion, you will receive a certificate of completion for the course. The person with the highest score in the class will receive a prize for their accomplishment. It will not be a trivial prize, either, so do not fear that you will be getting a cheap plastic trinket for your hard work. The prize may be of my choosing, or it might be of your choosing – I have not decided yet.
I find myself in an uncomfortable place, as the first week’s reading assignment is quite lengthy. I do not want any of you to think that all the weeks ahead will be equally strenuous, but this first section covers a great deal of information which is of general interest to everyone; not only in regards to corals, but to coral reefs and the holistic view of them than must be considered when isolating a specific group (taxon) of animals like the corals. Just as a rainforest is not a rainforest without trees, a coral reef is not a coral reef without corals. They coral reef needs corals and corals need the community of the reef in order to survive.
At the end of the class, there will be a two-week “mini-course” of new information that has been found since these lectures were created. I will be doing this after each class for those who have taken the previous class to keep up on new developments. We will post information about this mini-course soon.
Finally, I warn all of you there is a possibility this class will go longer than scheduled due to my often-extensive travel. In late January, I will be presenting at a conference in Paris, and may not be able to get required Internet access for class related issues. Other trips are unlikely to impact my ability to attend to this course, although there may be schedule changes that will be posted in advance. I apologize for these inconveniences, but will make every attempt to make sure the course proceeds as smoothly and expeditiously as possible for all.
So, onward we go into the exciting world of coral reefs. Everyone, put on your face masks, put your snorkel in your mouth…fins on? Divers down!!!
