Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Survey of the natures, causes and consequences of pest problems and of the natural and applied factors and processes that determine their occurrence and intensity.

COURSE DETAILS:

Course Description: The course will introduce students to Pest Management and will cover the fundamentals of pest problems, sampling and pest management theory, in addition to the main tactics used in pest management programs and ecological principles underlying biologically-based management strategies.

Outline of Topics:  Topics covered include a background to the history of pest management, invasive species, sampling methods and design, pest management theory and economic decision levels, population dynamics, as well as physical, cultural, biological, behavioural, and genetic control tactics. In addition the course will cover genetically modified organisms, the impact of evolutionary processes on pest management, biodiversity and different aspects of biological pest control.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

To provide opportunities to:
1.  evaluate and summarize papers in the primary literature critically.
2.  find information from the primary literature.
3.  present material clearly and confidently to others. 
4.  work cooperatively with others to achieve a goal. 
5.  identify interesting questions and to form these as testable hypotheses.
6.  evaluate the relevance of data and interpretations based on data.

Learning objectives:
To be able to critically evaluate basic and applied problems in Pest Management.
To read, interpret, evaluate and summarize papers from the primary scientific literature.
To discuss alternative approaches to interpretation of data.
To synthesize information from multiple sources and clearly write about complex subjects.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

RECOMMENDED READING: