BI 103H - General Biology-Mushrooms

4 Credit(s)

Through field, classroom, and laboratory work students identify and develop an understanding of mushroom evolution, structure, function and place in the ecology of the areas we study. Required Saturday or Sunday trips to the Cascades and Central Oregon Coast.

Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

1. Describe the diversity of fungal life and differentiate between fungi and other organisms.

2. Describe natural selection and explain evolutionary processes and selection pressures that lead to fungal diversity.

3. Correctly identify 30-50 useful, edible, and poisonous mushrooms and describe how these are related to ecosystem structure and human activities.

4. Describe the phylogenetic relationships among fungi and arrange them on a phylogenetic tree. 

5. Diagram the basic fungal classification system and apply correct use of scientific nomenclature.

6. Apply scientific inquiry to biological sciences.

7. Evaluate and critique scientific information from various sources (journals, magazines, newspapers, television, the internet) for scientific reliability and validity.

8. Apply current sampling methodology protocol to understand and describe how and why fruiting body production varies through seasons.

9. Examine a habitat and describe the ecological processes and predict interactions between fungi and the other organisms in that environment.

10. Diagram the flow of energy and matter through ecosystems and describe how fungi participate in the processes.

11. Evaluate selective advantages of various organismal interactions.

12. Relate patterns of population growth to ecosystem dynamics.

13. Describe and illustrate fruiting body characteristics of an unknown species to apply the use of a dichotomous key for identification.