You’re in for a wild ride! Parasites are all around you, every day, hidden and unnoticed but ubiquitous. And yet it is entirely possible (even likely!) that you’ve never before encountered parasites in your biology education. This makes for an explosive combination: you’re about to learn about a secret world hidden under everything that is familiar to you, a world of organisms with adaptations so weird, so grotesque, so elaborate, that their existence defies belief. But I assure you - parasites are very, very real.
Never hesitate to reach out if you have questions, concerns, or just want to chat. You can reach me at chelwood@uw.edu.
Can’t wait to dive in!
-Chelsea
Chelsea
Wood
Associate Professor, School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences
FISH 318B
chelwood@uw.edu
Office hours: Mondays 1:30-2:30pm in FISH 318B
Gabby
Commisso
Teaching Assistant, School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences
FISH 262B
gcom@uw.edu
Office hours: Wednesdays, 10:00-11:00am in FISH
262B
Connor
Whalen
Teaching Assistant, School of Aquatic & Fishery Sciences
FISH 262B
cjwhalen@uw.edu
Office hours: Thursdays 3:00-4:00pm in FISH 262B
This website will be your resource for all course content, but we will use Canvas for announcements, submitting assignments, and keeping track of grades.
This class is conducted in person. Students are expected to participate in class to fully benefit from course activities and meet the course’s learning objectives. Students should only register for this class if they are able to attend in person.
Science education research has demonstrated that students who take an active role in their learning learn more and retain that knowledge longer; therefore, it is in your best interest to prepare for and actively participate in class meetings – including small group activities and whole-class discussions. One thing that may help you participate in class is bringing questions you have written out ahead of time. I will sometimes use a random name generator to call on students at random.
MWF, 12:30pm–1:20pm in FISH 107
FISH 406AB – Tuesdays, 9:30am–12:20pm in OTB 206
FISH 406AA – Tuesdays, 1:30pm–4:20pm in OTB 206
BIOL 180
5 credits
Note that, for 5 credits, the University of Washington expects students to devote 15 hours per week to this course [1 credit = 3 hours per week].
This course involves writing, research, and data analysis and students will therefore need to make use of their personal computers. For students without access to a personal laptop, it is now possible to check out UW laptops for an entire quarter. Contact the Student Services office iamsams@uw.edu for details.
All course communications will occur via Canvas, so please remember to update your notifications settings in Canvas so that you receive updates and announcements at least daily. You are always welcome to get in touch with Chelsea or your TAs via e-mail. We will respond to any e-mail from you within 24 hours during the week (might be longer over weekends).
The responsibilities of the instructor and teaching assistant are to:
The responsibilities of the students are to:
Parasites are ubiquitous: no ecosystem exists without them, and among all of Earth’s species, parasites outnumber non-parasites. But because they are usually small and hidden within their hosts, parasites can be easy to overlook. This course will introduce students to these rarely studied creatures, which span the entire tree of life, occupy all of Earth’s habitats, and influence many ecological processes.
Our material will survey all metazoan parasites, most protozoa, and some bacteria and viruses, addressing their distribution, ecology, and physiological effects on human and wildlife hosts. Because this is an ecology course, we will survey parasite diversity in light of evolutionary diversification. Phylogenetic relationships within and among groups will provide the framework for the course.
Within this phylogenetic framework, the bulk of our time will be spent exploring general disease ecology theory through relatable case studies of individual taxa. We will explore fundamental principles of parasite populations and communities. We will investigate the effects of parasites on host populations (e.g., host population regulation), communities (e.g., parasite-mediated competition), and ecosystems (e.g., nutrient availability). We will strive to put parasites into a food-web context, assessing the impacts of parasites on food webs (e.g., connectance, nestedness, energy flow, biomass, food chain length) and of food webs on parasites (e.g., dilution effect hypothesis, biodiversity-begets-biodiversity hypothesis). Finally, we will use our accumulated knowledge to make predictions for how disease transmission might respond to human impacts like biodiversity loss, climate change, and urbanization and will evaluate the interventions available for wildlife and human disease control (e.g., vaccination, culling, environmental modification, biological control).
By the end of the quarter, I expect you will be able to:
From UW’s Faculty Resource on Grading: “An Incomplete is given only when the student has been in attendance and has done satisfactory work until within two weeks of the end of the quarter and has furnished proof satisfactory to the instructor that the work cannot be completed because of illness or other circumstances beyond the student’s control… To obtain credit for the course, an undergraduate student must convert an Incomplete into a passing grade no later than the last day of the next quarter… An Incomplete grade not made up by the end of the next quarter is converted to the grade of 0.0 by the Office of the University Registrar… An Incomplete grade does not count for registered hours nor in computation of grade-point averages.”
Students at the University of Washington are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic conduct, professional honesty, and personal integrity. Plagiarism, cheating, and other misconduct are serious violations of the University of Washington Student Conduct Code (WAC 478-120). I expect you to know and follow the university’s policies on cheating and plagiarism. Any suspected cases of academic misconduct will be handled according to University of Washington regulations. For more information, see the University of Washington Community Standards and Student Conduct website.
I don’t expect anyone in this class to engage in academic misconduct – parasite ecology is a window into a new and exciting world, and cheating robs the cheater of the opportunity to explore and know that world. But just in case, I will state up front my policy for addressing academic misconduct: if you are caught cheating, falsifying data, plagiarizing, collaborating on assignments in a manner that is prohibited, or committing any other kind of academic misconduct as defined in the Student Conduct Code, you will receive an automatic zero on the assignment and the case will be referred to the College of the Environment for a Student Conduct Process hearing. If you are caught twice, you will receive a zero in the course and the case will be referred for an additional hearing.
Using an AI-based tool like ChatGPT on writing assignments like the FISH 406 term paper removes your opportunity to get to know the parasites, hurting you in a number of ways.
You might think, “I’m never gonna be a parasite ecologist, so what does it matter whether I do these assignments or let an AI do them for me?” Maybe you won’t become a parasite ecologist. But the skills that our assignments will teach you (writing, critical thinking, hypothesis development, creative problem-solving) are valuable across a range of professions. If you let AI do assignments for you, you’re missing a great opportunity to build those skills and make yourself marketable across a variety of fields.
Not only that, but AI is bad at a lot of stuff, and creativity is a particular weakness. AI just vomits out what it has already seen in its training dataset. The FISH 406 term project asks you to think creatively. Your human brain can generate much better ideas than a robot brain.
Here are some tips for avoiding the temptation to use AI-based tools:
My policy is: if I discover that you have turned in AI-generated work, I will give a grade of 0% for that assignment. But that shouldn’t be your primary deterrent. Remember that using AI will leave you with fewer skills than you otherwise might have. Don’t let AI take away your opportunity to learn and grow!
Diverse backgrounds, embodiments, and experiences are essential to the critical thinking endeavor at the heart of higher education. I expect you to follow the UW Student Conduct Code in your interactions with your colleagues and me in this course by respecting the many social and cultural differences among us, which may include, but are not limited to: age, cultural background, disability, ethnicity, family status, gender identity and presentation, citizenship and immigration status, national origin, race, religious and political beliefs, sex, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and veteran status. Please talk with me right away if you experience disrespect in this class, and I will work to address it. DCinfo@uw.edu is a resource for students with classroom climate concerns.
It is crucial that all students in this class have access to the full range of learning experiences. At the University of Washington, it is policy and practice to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law. Full participation in this course requires the following types of engagement:
Lecture: the ability to learn from several in-person lectures per week; the ability to complete two written and timed exams; the ability to compose research papers; the ability to give an oral presentation
Lab: the ability to participate in weekly in-perosn lab sessions; the ability to participate in group discussions
If you anticipate or experience barriers to your learning or full participation in this course based on a physical, learning, or mental health disability, please immediately contact the instructor to discuss possible accommodation(s). A more complete description of the disability policy of the College of the Environment can be found here. If you have, or think you have, a temporary or permanent disability that impacts your participation in any course, please also contact Disability Resources for Students (DRS) at: 206-543-8924 V / 206-543-8925 TDD / uwdss@uw.edu / http://www.uw.edu/students/drs.
Roles and responsibilities
Washington State law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy. Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form.