• pick papers
• think about how to divide up group
• create instructions for activity

• Need new questions for the Oak paper
• broaden questions to attempt to understand patterns in context of processes introduced

There is no scenario where giving them a reading the last week is a good idea. Revamp so they can come to class and brainstorm about something.

• update questions to link with previous topics

the current questions really didn't work last year. Need to make them broader, more integrative, and make them tie in the ideas in the frankenpaper with the other processes discussed thus far

• update questions to link with previous topics

• update questions to link with previous topics

The McGill paper is very...thorough. A shorter paper with more empirical examples would work better for the course.

The schedule site gets too long by the end of the semester with all the questions for readings. These should get moved to separate pages that are linked to the schedule page.

• pick priority effects paper
• update questions to contrast with niche lesson

Change questions for Swenson & Enquist paper
Add:
What is phylogenetic conservastism?
Are functional traits always conserved?

• update questions to link with previous topics

• create frankenpaper
• update questions

Late in the semester, the students are tired and overwhelmed. Group discussions are less lively and useful. Figure out group activities to motivate exploration of the ideas and concepts in the papers would be more useful. They respond well if I am at the board having them help my brainstorm, free-associate, diagram, etc. But if I sit in the circle, they stop engaging because it is too routine.

Move to biogeography section of course

Unless we lose a day to hurricanes, in which case this can be absorbed.

Use pages 9 and 10 from Rosenzweig and the Chapter by White?

• pick new paper
• make new questions

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3790543/

• pick coexistence paper to highlight the niche/biotic interaction perspective
• update questions to really focus on what this perspective says about biodiversity dynamics
• class activity discussing a scenario and applying the perspective from these papers?

The tree of life reading didn't work. It does not make a compelling argument to the ecologists about the need to focus on and preserve evolutionary history. I need to find a different reading for next year

The 1987 paper worked fine for generating discussion, but there were some accessibility issues with some of the older ideas that hung some students up. There is a newer Ricklefs paper that is worth looking at to see if it can replace the 1987 paper: A comprehensive framework for global patterns in biodiversity

• update questions to link with previous topics

The environmental heterogeneity frankenpaper does a nice job of walking them through what is known about how environmental heterogeneity influences biodiversity. Next year, maybe make one for each of the process lectures:
Biotic-Abiotic processes
Stochastic Neutral
Dispersal
Biogeographic Processes

Use Gillespie or Wieglet? Gillespie is a classic, but Weigelt really explains the evolutionary processes well.

• pick papers
• write questions

Check the reading list to make sure it is actually representative of the various fields being covered.

• update questions to link with previous topics

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/366/1577/2536.short

It looks at PD and FD in the context of TD and what differences in those patterns across geographic space may indicate.

Next year, add a question to make them think about the White and Hurlbert results in the context of metacommunties. Which metacommunity models are they implicitly employing in their interpretation of their results?

For this year, we'll just demonstrate metrics using taxonomic diversity, but in the future it would be interesting to go through phylogenetic and functional as well. Start with a question: how does rodent exclusion affect diversity of plants? and go through different ways to approach.

• update questions to link with previous topics

Redo day one as Dornelas vs skeptical group. Have that one be a class discussion like Diversity-Productivity.
Day 2 as Hillebrand and Brown

• update questions to link with previous topics

• pick new papers to split class up to discuss different hypotheses
• create approach for class discussion

Next year I should add/modify questions for papers so that they refer explictly to papers earlier in the semester to help students synthesize ideas across topics. For example, to the Local-Regional questions I added one to make them think about whether the Tilman & Pacala in the context of Ricklef's ideas about how adding to the pool shouldn't impact local richness in a traditional coexistence framework. More questions like this next year.

Radars: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-doppler-radar-can-track-bird-migrations-180952834/
Genetics:
Satellites:

Redo BEF lecture as 1 paper from Tilman- style BEF and one from Wardle? And have them discuss the pros and cons of each?

The MCGill paper did not set up the Kraft paper well. Substitute in the Weiher paper from later in the semester?

• update questions to link with previous topics
• add a question to think about the White and Hurlbert results in the context of metacommunties: Which metacommunity models are they implicitly employing in their interpretation of their results?