CornellX_UQx: BIOEE101x Sharks! Global Biodiversity, Biology, and Conservation

CornellX UQx | BIOEE101x

Sharks! Global Biodiversity, Biology, and Conservation

July 22, 2019  - August 18, 2019  — 16:00pm UTC time

Prerequisites

Secondary School (high school) biology

Time Commitment

We estimate 4-6 hours will be needed per week. 

What You'll Learn

How do scientists study sharks? The short answer is that we tell stories — because every hypothesis is in essence a story — and we test those hypotheses using ever more refined techniques and approaches. We’ll pursue this theme of hypothesis testing throughout our course.

Sharks are part of a larger group, formally known as chondrichthyans that includes the sharks, skates, rays and chimaeras. We’ll consider all of these animals. This is an exciting time to be a biologist because of the explosion of new research using advanced technologies. Digital communication helps scientists quickly exchange information, knit together research teams, and find a global community of people committed to the study of sharks. Unfortunately, such progress is happening at the very moment of a looming extinction crisis that threatens the very survival of sharks and places our focus on actions to conserve sharks.

Sharks! explores the global biodiversity and evolutionary history of chondrichthyans. We talk about weirdnesses of their anatomy and link their features to swimming, feeding, breathing, and breeding. There is a rich media record , but we are going to do a lot more than curate that information for you. Our goal is to show you how to think about questions in biology and to teach you approaches and a philosophy that you can continue to apply to virtually any group of organisms.

Week 1  The Big Shark Picture - Biodiversity and Evolution — begins July 22

• Explore the habitats and biogeography of sharks around the world.
• Learn how scientists name and observe chondrichthyans.
• Use evolutionary trees to study the 14 living orders of chondrichthyans.
• Discover some special localities in the chondrichthyan fossil record.
• Take a deeper look at the sharks that Hollywood loves.

Week 2 Miracles of Evolution - Functional Morphology and Physiology — begins July 29

• Link body form and function to understand chondrichthyan biology.
• Relate tooth anatomy to jaw function and feeding.
• Tour the circulatory system and its many roles.
• Learn the many modes of chondrichthyan reproduction and link them to survival.

Week 3  Thinking like a Shark - Brains and Behavior — begins August 5

• Debunk myths about chondrichthyan intelligence.
• Imagine the sensory world of chondrichthyans.
• Explore how sharks use and generate electricity.
• Interpret sophisticated and surprising behaviors. 

Week 4 Sharks in the World - Human Interactions, Ecology, and Conservation — begins August 12

• Connect sharks to food webs and learn why they matter.
• Examine long standing relationships between sharks and people.
• Consider impacts of commercial fishing and global trade.
• Identify critical conservation issues and how you can take action.

Instructors

William E. Bemis
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University

Heath Cook
Doctoral Student, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University

Content Availability

New content will be released each week. The course topics build on one another, so it is best to move through the course sequentially.

Grading and Successful completion of the Course

• A grade of 55% or more correct responses on the Check Your Understanding problems combined is considered successful completion. Point totals are specified for each question.
• Watch lecture videos and interviews.
• Participate in Discussion Forums. Once per subsection (sometimes more), you will be invited to post and respond to posts on designated topics in our discussion forums. Discussions are a great opportunity to help you develop analysis and writing skills. Here, you can also post and answer questions regarding the course. For more information on Discussion Forums, please refer to the Discussion Forum below.

Discussion Board Etiquette