WWU BIOL 410, Animal Behavior, Winter 2012 (revised 1/11/12)
Biol 410 Lecture & Discussion, 4 credits, CRN 13095, 13096: in AIC West303at 08:30-09:50on M, W, F
Course Instructor:Dr. R. A. Anderson
Consultation hours, in BI 311 or BI 351: M- F,10:00-11:00,
Secondary contact methods: by ear via phone, 650 3992, or by eye via e-mail at
Text: Animal Behavior, 9th Edition, by John Alcock
Midterm Exam: Friday, February10, 8:30-9:50(plus team take-home exam)
Final Exam:Thursday, March 10, 1030-1230 (team & individual sections)
Exams may comprise a number of short answers and definitions, and a few moderate-length expository essay questions, and will be based on text, lecture and lecture-reference figures, and videos. Make-up exams are given under only the rarest of circumstances. It is necessary to be timely both for individual and team portions of exams.
Team Term Paper Choice Date: January 9
Individual Annotated BibliographyDue Date: March 2
Team Paper Due Date:March 7
The team term paper is on a mutually agreed upon behavioral topic of synthetic review, wherein you provide an analytical history of past questions and past research (perhaps summarized in tabular form), then discuss very recent and current research, then move on to what questions must yet be answered, what hypotheses must be tested, and what methods and animals should be used in the research. Refer to comments below on more detailed expectations, including the requirements and role of the Individual Annotated Bibliography.
Earnable Pointsfor all students (these are approximations only):
Classroom participation 5+ Annotated Bibliography 24+ Term Paper 76 + Mid-Exam 105 + Final Exam 150 = 360;
Percentage Grading Scale: 90-100% = A, 79-89% = B, 68-78% = C, 57-67% = D.
Schedule and other course requirements:
We will try to buildperspective on animal behavior, then proceed through the basic tasks of animals, wherein they cope with abiotic factors, prey, and predators, then we will dive into the complexity of development and maturation of an animal into mate seeking and mate competition, reproduction, parental care and sociality, that is, into the panoply of conspecific interactions. We will roughly follow the orders of the chapters as presented in the textbook. Note that we will be covering at about 2 chapters per week. You will be expected to read the text and exam available lecture reference notes in anticipation of the day’s topic.
The quality of your classroom participation is judged by the quantity and quality of your questions, ideas, and answers that you provide in the lecture-discussions. After the first midterm I intend to list and announce on Blackboard (perhaps also via e-mail, but do not depend upon this)those individuals with whom I choose to discuss in the next lecture the topics for that next lecture. Thus, the student must have knowledge of the relevant textbook material and the information from the previous lecture. I will ask a basic question of each forewarned student, and I also expect that the student will present a somewhat original and erudite question or comment for the rest of the class and me to consider. Each student will have two formal opportunities, but each individual, of course, is invited to contribute questions and comments at other times. I will take role several times; if you are absent you will lose 1 pt for each absence, and the losses are subtracted from the participation points.
My “lectures” are not in linear outline form, rather they are integrative and include hand-written concept maps on the board and also powerpoint slides. I insist that you think and participate. I will not dictate notes to a passive audience, although I do provide organized notes on-line for any topic the textbook does not present adequately. Of course, all powerpoint slides will be available no later than one day after they are presented in lecture.
Several videos may be shownfor video-and-discussion. You are responsible for the knowledge presented in the videos.
The topic of your term paper must be approved by January 9, and must be formally approved via e-mail from me. The paper is due at 11 am on Wednesday, March 7. Late papers will lose 3 points per day and will not be accepted after 5pm on Monday March 12. See below for paper format.
Course Description:
Investigation of the component processes and adaptive functions of animal behavior in an ecological and evolutionary context, with an introduction to the questions asked, hypotheses proposed, and methods used in the study of animal behavior.
Course Objectives:
To enable students to develop a fundamental understanding of how animals function in an environmental context; to engender understanding that despite the diversity of animals, there are a number of similar problems with common solutions that are being investigated by theoreticians and empiricists. Students will be introduced to these experimental, hypothetico-deductive approaches to the study of animal behavior.
Topic Itinerary for BIOL 410
TopicsLecturesRelevant
Text Chapters
An Evolutionary Approach to Animal Behavior Jan 9 1
(theory and practice of animal behavior)
Animal Behavior, in Perspective (Document #12 on Blackboard)Jan 11 & 13 1
Understanding Proximate & Ultimate Causes of BehaviorJan 18 & 20 2
(understanding causes of bird song)
The Development of BehaviorJan 23 & 25 3
(focus on the effect of heredity on behavior)
The Development of BehaviorJan 2730 3
(focus on the importance of environment & learning on behavior)
The Control of Behavior: Feb 13 4
(neural mechanisms of sensation and perception, and their outcomes)
The Organization of BehaviorFeb 68 5
neurohormonal patterns & daily & seasonal rhythms
Mid-Term ExamFeb 10, Friday
Anti-PredationFeb13 6
(avoiding, evading, escaping, & deterring predators)
Food AcquisitionFeb 15 &177
(the causes & consequences of the how, when, where of seeking which food)
Habitat Selection, Dispersal, Migration, TerritorialityFeb 20248
(choosing where to live and when to live there)
WP students begin submitting http addresses
of Animal Behavior in the News articles Feb 24
Communication: Feb 27 9
(features & functions of signaling & receiving information)
Reproductive Behavior & Sexual SelectionMar 210
(sexes differ in reproductive roles & how reproductive success is achieved)
Annotated Bibliography DueMar 2
(24 pts/ non-WP students & 3% of WP grade)
Sexual Selection & Mating SystemsMar 5 11
(mating “systems” are outcomes of numerous factors)
WP students offer revision edits of Ann. Bibs (2% of WP grade)Mar 5
Parental Roles and Care, and Offspring Conflict & Brood Parasitism Mar7 12
(natural selection on reproductive success of the individual)
WP students submit revised Ann. Bibs (5% of WP grade)Mar 7
Team Term Paper: DUEMar 7
The final draft is due, along with first drafts of each individually
written section that includes the track-changed editorial suggestions
by a team mate; note that this work includes all students.
Non-WP students must document their good effort with
their individual first drafts of their assigned sections,
thereby potentially affecting their course grades.
Note that WP students get graded on drafts and editsand final submission
(15%, 5%,20% of course grade, respectively).
Social Behavior, Cooperation, KinshipMar 913
(the behavioral ecology of inclusive fitness and group-living)
WP students submit revision of Animal Behavior News articlesMar 9
(5% of WP course grade)
WP students submit WP team answers to 8 study guide questions Mar 12, 5pm
and post on Blackboard to help class prepare for Final exam.
(5% of WP course grade)
If there is a take-home team section, it will be due on Wednesday Mar 14
Final Exam on Thursday, 10:30-12:30Mar 15
The WP Assignment for “Animal Behavior in the News:”
Using the http science news websites listed on Blackboard, find 3 recent news article on Animal Behavior, and send the http addresses to Dr. Anderson. Then for one news item, go to the original article, and use that article to improve the news article for scientific veracity and clarity. That is, you will edit the news article. Changing phrases and adding in a paragraph or two would be expected, because the articles are sometimes oversimplified and miss interesting features or mislead the reader inadvertently. Because you are functioning as an editor of the news article, try to be sure to provide clarifications and better explanations than the news reporter did.The changes you provide on the Science in the News article are likely to be modest, and you may want to retype the whole article thus making it easier to show your edits as tracked changes. Try it and then talk to Dr Anderson if you are uncertain about whether you are giving the editing sufficient effort. Be sure you send Dr Anderson the pdf of the original article that was the source for the news article.
Reminder of what is on the syllabus, in regards to your team review paper:
Some Guidelines for the Individual (annotated bibliography) & Team Writing (term paper) Assignment:
A Synthetic Review Paper on a Focused Topic in Animal Behavior
The purposes of this assignment (and some of the details of requirements) are:
1)for you to learn about a behavioral phenomenon in Dr. Anderson’s list and which stimulates your curiosity;
2)for you to develop (a) the skill of thorough (both in-depth and with breadth) self-teaching, and (b) critical thinking in your learning about the topic of choice, thereby concisely summarizing, evaluating, and synthesizing the putatively reliable knowledge in the scientific literature;
3)for you to develop skill in using the Information Retrieval Systems such as Biological Abstracts, Biological and Agricultural Index, Current Contents, Medline, and Web of Science at the WWU and UW libraries and introducing you to the many journals and books archived at libraries;
4)To develop proficiency at summarizing content of the scientific papers you are using in developing your review paper; refer below to “Annotated Bibliography Guidelines & Requirements.”
5)for you to develop proficiency at writing a scientific review paper, including appropriate referencing of material:
- Each citation should also include the page number or Table number or Figure number that is the source of the information that you are citing,
- You must try to include the entire pdf of each journal article cited at least the same articles as you showcased for Annotated Bibliographies. If the paged referenced is from a book chapter for which there is no pdf, then photocopy that page and submit it along with the paper copy of your synthetic review paper.
- It will be necessary to photocopy each referenced page (or table or figure) of the prevalent publications mentioned in B, above, and place each of those referenced pages in order of citation, and place it as an Appendix to your Team Research Paper.
6)to give you an opportunity to learn from and to educate your current and future Biol 410 peers:
- Each student on the team receives the penultimate draft of the section that another student on the team has written, and
- Each student must write provide editorial comments of another student’s section in the form of tracked changes in ms word.
- Then the tracked changed section from each student will be compiled together by one of the students on the team as a “penultimate draft with tracked changes”
- The penultimate, track-changed draft will be submitted by e-mail to the other team members and to Dr. Anderson.
- The final draft of the paper must be submitted two ways:
a) stapled & three-hole punched (including the Appendix) and b) as a file in MS word.
Two excellent books that have chapters discussing Review Papers, Essays, and Term Papers are:
Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences by V. E. McMillan
A Short Guide to Writing About Biology by J. A. Pechenik.
Another book that is recommended to help you in accessing the literature and in writing is:
A Student Handbook for Writing in Biology by K. Knisely
Copies of these books may be available at the bookstore or in the library. We will have one photocopy of the most useful chapter of each book available on my bookshelf outside my door in BI 311; you may borrow it (or borrow the book from me during office hours) for one-half hour at a time. Also available to borrow are two of the better examples (although not necessarily outstanding) of a paper written by past students.
Some Suggestions for Writing the Paper:
Be sure to introduce your topic in a manner that will interest the reader; you should have a compelling question (or problem to solve) and a logical rationale that entices the reader onward. Like any introduction to a topic, you should begin more broadly, then become more specific; and in the process you must provide adequate definitions and explanations of concepts and conditions to orient the reader. You must convince the reader to accept both the soundness of your rationale and the stated reasons for the importance of your question. You must also state the objectives of your paper in the introduction to the topic.
Your papers certainly will be comparing and contrasting (for both cause and effect) the differences in behaviors of animals, and the ecological, evolutionary and phylogenetic correlates of those capacities. As you develop the body of the paper you must present a somewhat logical sequence of concisely summarized results. It may be useful to present summarizing tables and flow charts (concept maps).
Develop a sense of direction as you synthesize and integrate the knowledge. Be focused on answering your original questions and fulfilling your objectives. You must develop a chronology of the discovery of knowledge of the phenomenon under study. That is, showcase discoveries that changed earlier perspectives and refuted prior hypotheses; arrive at the prevailing ideas, questions, and hypotheses and discuss the possible approaches (e.g., new experiments, new technologies, new animals used) that may answer these questions and test these hypotheses. It is useful to compare, contrast, and evaluate results of different studies in your drive toward answers and solutions.
One useful approach at splitting the expertise and effort is to work on the same several questions-and-hypotheses, but then each person focuses on a different major taxon of animal. This approach could make the paper fairly easy to write together, with a team-written beginning and ending, whereas each internal section is unique to individual student. Alternatively, each person focuses on a separate sub-topic, and reviews all major taxa that have been studied for that subtopic. Each person should review another student’s penultimate draft and provide tracked changes in MS word to the student and to Dr. Anderson. The individual contribution to each paper must be denoted with that person’s initials at the end of the title for that section they wrote. Dr. Anderson recommends 4-6 students per team term paper.
Try to concisely paraphrase, and avoid quotes whenever feasible. One common approach is to first write down the direct quote, saving it within a “quotations” file, then rephrase it in another file, using this rephrased verbiage from then on. Of course, sometimes the original statement is so concise that paraphrasing does injustice to the elegance of the author’s writing; hence, a quotation in this case would be acceptable. Use the style of citation provided in Pechenik’s book and Knisely’s book.
Your conclusions should refer to the original question and objectives; you should review and summarize the main points of your paper. You should provide answers to your original questions and meet your objectives, and you should try to develop new questions and new objectives or suggestions for future research. Use the Evaluation Sheet as a guide for writing the paper.
Note that the minimum acceptable length of a synthetic review paper for a 3-4 person team is 24 to 30 double-spaced pages (in 12 point,New Times Roman, with 0.6-0.8 margins, in MS Word), excluding title page and literature cited, and that the minimum number of references is 36-48. It is to be expected that more accomplished efforts will be at least 50% longer with at least twice as many references, most of which are primary literature (original research papers).
Ask other students to read the suggestions above and the Evaluation Sheet below, then have them critically read and constructively edit the penultimate draft of your paper. Finally, read your paper aloud to determine if the paper is pleasantly readable.
Annotated Bibliography Guidelines & Requirements
Writing a paper reviewing research literature is easier when each participant constructs annotations for the references in your team synthetic review paper. Each student must have a minimum of 12 thorough annotations. More are needed for a high grade…and note that there is to be no overlap among students in the annotations submitted. Thus a team of four students collectively turns in 48 unique annotated bibliographies, that is, each student turns in 12 at minimum.
An adequate annotation is commonly eight to twelve lines long (narrow margins, 11 font). The annotation generally should include, but not be restricted to:
A brief, succinct description of the major question(s) that the paper addresses, perhaps including the rationale.
brief comments about the type of scientific article; that is,
a)does the paper report on empirical research that is observational, comparative, or experimental, and was the work conducted in the field, a mesocosm, or in the lab, or