LFU:online

Course goals and learning outcomes:  

-          Trace the history of scientific thought since the Renaissance and develop an understanding of the relationship between scientific revolutions and societal response in terms of living in a changing, dynamic world 

-          Learn the fundamentals of evolution and phylogenetic trees. 

-          Develop a detailed understanding of the co-evolution of the Biosphere and different components of Earth climate system and the geosphere with an emphasis on the evolution of dinosaurs and its relatives.  

-          Develop a detailed understanding of how paleontologists reconstruct these animals and their environment through time within the context of a historical science. 

-          Learn about our own world from one that was very different, yet linked to todays world by studying Earth history and the history of life through the lens of the rise, dominance, and demise of “dinosaurs” during the Mesozoic Era. 

-          Be able to identify the major dinosaur groups and explain the evolutionary novelties of each group. 

This course introduces you to a broad spectrum of basic scientific concepts (geological, zoological, ecological, evolutionary, and climatological) and how scientists use those to decipher events in “deeptime”. Note, this course is not just a “dinosaur” course. This course will also offer an introduction on how geoscientists use the fossil record and scientific techniques to trace the history of life on earth and answer questions about the causes and consequences of major extinction as well as radiations of different organism groups (not only dinosaurs but also other vertebrate animals and plants) through time. The course will introduce scientific concepts that can be used to evaluate hypotheses about catastrophic events such as impacts from space, volcanic eruptions, and climate change and their impact on global biodiversity and the trajectory of life on Earth. This course will draw from many different scientific disciplines, incl. vertebrate paleontology, biology, geology, and paleontology. 

The University of New Orleans International Summer School program has a mandatory class attendance policy. All students are required to attend class for all morning classes and any required afternoon and/or weekend fields trips and lectures. No unexcused absences are allowed. However, LFU students who have to miss a UNO class due to LFU examinations in the first two weeks of our program, can receive one excused absence for this. Any further unexcused absences will result in an academic penalty. Each faculty member determines the penalty for missed classes. Most professors deduct a letter grade for each additional missed class day. For details, please refer to your course syllabi, which will be distributed on the first day of class. The listed ECTS credits are a recommendation by the University of New Orleans Innsbruck Summer School, based on contact hours, anticipated out-of-classroom requirements such as field trips, and projected workload for readings, assignments, and exam preparation. Mail: Center-New-Orleans@uibk.ac.at