Saturday 15 March

• I've uploaded the slides from yesterday's short lecture on polar seas, and also for the upcoming lecture on conservation. You now have access to slides for all the lectures. Remember that material from yesterday's video will be covered on the final exam, so I hope you were taking good notes!
• I've also uploaded the last study guide, which covers polar seas and conservation.
• Don't forget that the final exam is coming up very quickly. It is Tuesday the 18th starting at 7:30 p.m. There will be a Q&A session Monday evening at 7:00 in B206 Earth and Marine Sciences. Kory will hold his regular office hours on Monday, and I will hold extra office hours on Tuesday from 5:00-7:00 p.m., right before the final exam time.
• DRC students: Please report to the regular lecture hall before the exam. I will escort you and the proctor to the room where you will take the exam.

Wednesday 12 March

• Slides from today's lecture on coral reefs have been uploaded. You have everything you need to prepare for the quiz on Friday.

Tuesday 11 March

• The next study guide, covering sandy shores, estuaries, and coral reefs, has been uploaded. This will get you well prepared for the quiz on Friday, which covers those topics plus the deep sea.

Monday 10 March

• I've uploaded slides from today's lecture on estuaries. The next study guide will be posted tomorrow afternoon.
• The last quiz of the quarter will be given on Friday. It will cover the deep sea, sandy shores and estuaries, and coral reefs.

Friday 7 March

• The slides from the deep sea and sandy shore lectures have been posted. The next study guide will be posted after Monday's lecture on estuaries, which overlaps quite a bit with what we covered today in class.
• Don't forget to change your clocks on Saturday night! Daylight Saving Time starts at 2 a.m. Sunday morning.

Monday 3 March

• I've posted the slides from the kelp forests and plankton lectures. I also fixed the problem with the rocky intertidal slides so you shouldn't have any problem downloading them.
• Also for your studying pleasure: I added two worksheets to the Study Aids page. There's a worksheet on the rocky intertidal and kelp forests, and one for the pelagic realm and deep sea. We'll cover the deep sea on Wednesday, and depending on what material I get through I may post a modified worksheet for Wednesday's lecture. In the meantime, though, you're all set to study for the quiz on Wednesday.
• Oh yes, if you skipped class this morning, there is a quiz on Wednesday. It covers the rocky intertidal, kelp forests, and pelagic systems.
• Before lecture this morning I showed the early bird arrivals a short video of sleeping sperm whales. If you've ever wondered how whales sleep, since they have to come to the surface to breathe every so often, here's a description and video of how at least one species manages to do it. It's pretty cool stuff!

Tuesday 26 February

• EXTRA OFFICE HOURS: I will be in my office tomorrow morning BEFORE the exam in case you wake up with some really last-minute questions. I'll be there around 8:00. Come on by if you have questions, or just want a pep talk before the exam.
• I'll post the slides from the rocky intertidal lecture later today.

Friday 22 February

• Slides from today's lecture on marine ecology have been uploaded. I didn't quite get through the end of the lecture this morning, so pay attention to the last couple of slides. I'll go over horizontal subdivisions of the sea on Monday, but you'll need to read up on larval ecology and climate change.
• The web site for your textbook has lots of stuff that will help you prepare for the exam on Wednesday. Please check it out and use it!
• There is also a worksheet on ecology posted to the Study Aids page. You now have all materials you need to study for the exam. Still have questions? Take 'em to your study group, or to one of us in office hours.

Thursday 21 February

• Well, bummer about the cloudy sky last night, we weren't able to see the lunar eclipse. Oh well, we'll just have to wait until December 2010 for the next one to be visible from California.
• The Q&A session for the second midterm will be Tuesday, 26 Feb, from 8:00 p.m. until whenever you stop asking Kelly questions. It will be held in our usual lecture room.
• Don't forget to bring the necessaries for the exam on Wednesday. You should know what they are by now. If you've forgotten, refer to the announcements before the first exam. Remember, we will not have extra scantrons or pencils for you.
• NEXT WEEK'S LAB: You will not be meeting for formal lab sections next Thursday. Instead, you will be visiting the Seymour Marine Discovery Center on your own time during the week of 26 Feb - Mar 2. The visiting hours for the SMDC and directions to get there are on their webpage. Your student ID card gets you in for free, so you will not have to pay the entry fee. However, you MUST sign a class roster at the front desk to get credit for your assignment. If you turn in a completed assignment but do not sign the roster you will get a big fat zero on the assignment, and that's a rather stupid reason for getting a zero.

Tuesday 19 February

• I hope you've enjoyed your holiday weekend and are ready to get back into the swing of things. We had a good turnout for the field trip over the weekend -- about half the class showed up to go tidepooling at Natural Bridges. It was great to see everybody out in the field.
• Tomorrow we have a guest lecturer with a special friend. Glenn Stewart, from the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group, will give a talk on predatory birds and the research objectives of the SCPBRG. He will bring with him a peregrine falcon, which you will get to see up close and in person. What does the fastest animal on the planet, which just happens to be a bird, have to do with life in the sea? Stay tuned. . .
• Next Wednesday (27 Feb) will be the second midterm exam. It will cover material from fishes through marine ecology, which will be the topic of Friday's lecture, including Glenn's lecture on predatory birds. If you didn't do as well as you would have liked on the first exam, NOW is the time to start preparing for the next one. There is still enough time in the quarter to pull up your grade. Please come to office hours or arrange to meet with me or one of the TAs if you would like help.
• Lastly, there will be some spectacular goings-on in the night sky tomorrow, if the weather clears up enough for us to see them. The moon will be passing through the earth's shadow, for a total lunar eclipse. It's the last one until December 2010, so you should take advantage of the chance to see something this cool. NASA promises vivid colors of reds and turquoises.

Wednesday 13 February

• Whew! I've uploaded all of the slides and study guides that you will need to prepare for the quiz on Friday. Today's slides on pinnipeds, otters, and polar bears have been uploaded, as is the study guide for marine mammals.
• Your TAs will be returning your graded exams in lab tomorrow. The mean on the exam is 140, which is the lowest passing score possible. If you find yourself on the downhill side of 140, we strongly suggest that you take steps NOW to improve your performance on the next exams. Remember, the TAs and I are available weekly to meet with you, and we will gladly arrange to meet you at a different time if you can't make it to our office hours. Please do not hesitate to ask us for ways to improve your understanding of the course material. We want everyone to do well in the class.
• The key to the multiple-choice questions is available on the Study Aids page of the class web site. The key to the subjective questions is posted outside my office door (D480 EMS).
• On a more positive note, I recently found this article about a leatherback turtle that made an incredible voyage across the Pacific Ocean. I'm always fascinated to learn more about animals we know so little about. I hope you also enjoy this article.

Monday 11 February

• I've finally had some time to get the site updated and have uploaded 3 lectures of slides: fishes, reptiles, and cetaceans/sirenians.
• You can consider this an early heads-up: There will be a quiz on Friday. It will cover fishes, reptiles, and mammals. The worksheet on fishes and reptiles has been uploaded. It includes seabirds, which won't be covered until Friday, but it'll be there when you're ready for it. In fact, there's a handout on seabirds that you might find useful for Kelly's lecture on Friday. Feel free to download it and bring it to class. I will upload the worksheet on mammals after Wednesday's lecture.

Tuesday 5 February

• As you prepare for tomorrow's midterm exam, keep in mind the following last-minute reminders.
• There will be a Q&A session tonight, at 8:00, in our usual lecture hall. Anna will be there to help you answer your questions.
• I will be in my office tomorrow morning at around 8:30, in case you have any really last-minute questions.
• Don't forget to bring all the items you need to take the exam. See previous entry for details.

Wednesday 30 January

• Slides from the second lecture of invertebrates have been uploaded.
• The second quiz will be on Friday. It will cover fundamentals of biology, microbes, and seaweeds/marine plants. Don't forget to bring your clicker!!
• Lastly, the first midterm is scheduled for next Wednesday. It will cover all lecture material through this Friday's lecture on invertebrates. I will have the invertebrates study guides posted after lecture on Friday.
• For the exam on Wednesday you will need to bring:
  • a pink full-page scantron form
  • a #2 pencil with eraser
  • a photo ID
• I'm still waiting to hear about a room for a Q&A session on Tuesday evening. I will let you know when and where it will be held.

Monday 28 January

• Today we began a 3-day-long lecture on marine invertebrates. Because we'll be covering a lot of information on these animals, I'm going to post all of the slides from this set of lectures. The slides from today's lecture have been uploaded.
• A student in the class, Natalie Kwa, has sent me a link to an extraordinary video on the Internet. The beginning of the video is about bioluminescence in the deep sea, and the second part is about cephalopod behaviors. The footage is some of the most spectacular I've ever seen, especially the very last scene. Check it out here and prepare to be impressed! And thanks to Natalie for sharing this find with me.

Sunday 27 January

• The slides from Friday's lecture on seaweeds and marine plants are now available.
• I've also uploaded two more study guides, which you may helpful, as we do have our first exam coming up soon.
• Speaking of the first exam, on the Study Aids page you will find a few samples questions from previous exams. Of course there are no guarantees that any of these questions will show up on the real exam, but they should give you an idea of the kind of questions I ask and the topics I think are important. You can also get a good idea of what to study by completing the study guides. Just remember that the study guides are not intended to be comprehensive, but to get you started in the right direction.

Wednesday 23 January

• The slides from today's lecture on marine microbes have been uploaded, along with the answers to today's quiz.
• You can access your quiz score via your account on einstruction.com. Each question is worth 1 point, for 10 points total. Overall the scores were very good, so you're doing a good job of keeping up with the course material.
• Is anybody missing a clicker? One was turned in after class. If your clicker has gone AWOL, let me know and we'll see if I have it.

Friday 18 January

• Slides from today's lecture on fundamentals of biology have been uploaded.
• To the student who registered his or her clicker as Student 111: Unless I know your name, I will not be able to give you credit for quizzes or attendance. Please re-register your clicker with your name. You do not need to be concerned that anyone other than me will be able to see any of your scores or attendance records.
• If you were in class today you know that we did a practice run with the clickers. I think for most people things worked. However, if you had any difficulties, please call the technical support people at einstruction (1-888-333-4988). They will be able to answer your questions and help you trouble-shoot your problems.

Thursday 17 January

• Yesterday I met with a very nice young lady named Kaitlin Thomas. She took Life in the Sea a year ago and did very well in the class. This quarter she is the Learning Support Services tutor for Life in the Sea. The tutoring is free to all UCSC students and could very well be the key to success in this class. Here is a flyer Kaitlin sent me about the tutoring program and how to take advantage of it.

Wednesday 16 January

• Slides from the lectures on water and motion have been uploaded.
• I've also uploaded the first worksheet to the Study Aids page. Use both your textbook and the lecture notes as references when you work on these questions. The worksheets will give you a pretty good idea of how well you're understanding the lecture material. If you have any difficulties with them, please bring them to office hours.
• We'll be using clickers for the first time on Friday and most days from then on. Please remember to bring your clickers to class every day. If you're still having problems getting your clicker registered, here are the instructions. You can also call the technical support people at einstruction.com. They have been very helpful to me, and are very nice.

Monday 14 January

• I have uploaded an updated syllabus which you can access here. The schedule of lectures or labs hasn't changed, but I eliminated the last lab of the quarter to make room for the presentations during the last week of classes. All it really means for you is that you won't be doing the Marine Habitats lab.

Friday 11 January

• Slides from today's lecture on geology have been uploaded.
• I want to give the clickers a trial run next week, so please get them and enroll in the CPS class over the weekend. We need to make it all works for everybody before we do the first real attendance check and quiz.

Wednesday 9 January

• I have uploaded all of the slides from today's first lecture of the quarter. For other lectures, text slides won't be uploaded, so you can't rely on the web page to provide all the information from lecture.
• A student brought to my attention after class that I may have misspoken about when lab sections begin meeting. To set it straight, labs DO NOT meet tomorrow. Labs will begin meeting NEXT THURSDAY (17 January) and you must attend the first section to hold your space in the class.

Wednesday 2 January

• Happy New Year! I hope you had a good holiday break and are ready to learn about things that live in the sea. The TAs and I are looking forward to a good quarter with you.
• Lab manuals, textbooks, and clickers are available in the BayTree Bookstore. Make sure you buy the correct clicker. The one we're using for Life in the Sea is from CPS and is white with blue buttons. You will need to purchase your lab manual before the first day of lab and bring it with you every week. It includes all of the lab exercises you will be doing this quarter, as well as a copy of the course syllabus and other handy items.
• The course textbook, Marine Biology, is on 2-hour reserve at the Science and Engineering Library. If you are going to read the book at the library instead of buying your own copy, you still need to purchase a clicker and course registration code from the bookstore.
• Instructions on how to register your clicker for the class can be downloaded here. The class key, a vital piece of information, is on this page and will also be given in lecture next Wednesday.

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