Educating about Animal Behavior: A Broad Perspective: Announcement

In one of the first all-day symposia devoted to education issues at an ABS national meeting, eleven presenters at the 1999 meeting discussed a range of projects related to educating about animal behavior. The program was well attended, with close to 100 attendees per session and well over a hundred for Trish McConnell’s “applied behavior session” featuring live dogs! Chuck Snowdon ended the day with a keynote talk that emphasized how important maintaining visibility will be to our future as a Society and as a scientific field. Summary papers from the symposium can be found at the ABS website, under the Education area.

Proposed by Penny Bernstein (Kent State University Stark Campus), in cooperation with the Education Committee, the symposium was designed to showcase a wide variety of initiatives in animal behavior education. These ranged from programs in undergraduate/graduate education, to educating pre- college teachers and students, to zoo programs, veterinary courses, public radio and television broadcasts, applied animal behavior consulting, and educational websites. It emphasized diversity and visibility. The twin goals were to increase member awareness of the diversity of initiatives, and to increase visibility of the Society by building a more unified approach to education.

After an introductory talk by Penny Bernstein, explaining the title and goals for the symposium, Martha Chaiken (Rutgers University) presented an overview of the inquiry approach to education. Through excellent examples and references, she demonstrated why this approach is seen as an increasingly important way to teach, and why animal behavior courses lend themselves particularly well to this form of “participatory learning”; they can be an excellent way to demonstrate a wide array of biological concepts and techniques.

Bob Matthews (University of Georgia) provided information about his WOWBugs project, an NSF-funded initiative that enabled him to turn his animal behavior research into a highly-successful, inquiry-based teaching program for K- 12 educators. Kelly Lewis (Carolina Coastal University) also talked about educating K-12 teachers and students, summarizing a number of inquiry-based programs she developed and ran in public schools in South Carolina, working with Mary Crowe under an NSF-funded program.

Joanne Oliva-Purdy (Baltimore Zoo) presented a program that utilized the resources of the Baltimore Zoo for undergraduate and graduate training in animal behavior. David Shepherdson (Oregon Zoo) also talked about zoo utilization, presenting 2 of the programs developed at the Oregon Zoo, one for K-12 teachers and one for the general public visiting the zoo. The former program allows teachers to learn about animal behavior by participating in intensive courses that emphasize observing, and developing behavior projects, using animals at the zoo. The latter program encourages the public to participate in ongoing research by making observations at particular exhibits.

Mike Renner (West Chester University), chair of the ABS education committee, highlighted the current and future ABS education initiatives. These include the teaching awards, a new education area on the ABS website, possible initiatives concerned with children’s literature, and a possible NSF workshop focusing on the value of animal behavior in education.

Ben Hart (University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine) discussed animal behavior in veterinary training – how he and others helped pioneer the inclusion of this topic, with the resultant recognition of a new, separate specialty in the field. Both Ben and Lynette Hart (University of California, Davis, Center for Animals in Society) provided ample evidence of the growing importance of animal behavior to clinical practice. Lynette provided an international perspective, focusing primarily on how the Japanese are attempting to increase research in human-animal interactions, an area that is also growing rapidly in this country as people seek a better understanding of their pets and help with pet behavior problems.

Trish McConnell (University of Wisconsin) picked up on this theme. She demonstrated how important the field is to members of the general public who seek help with training or with pet behavior problems. Through her demonstrations and presentation, Trish reminded the audience that applied animal behavior has had a tremendous impact on a large number of people. Trish’s presentation featured 2 live dogs, and as far as anyone can remember, was the first time the Animal Behavior Society annual meeting has actually included live animals behaving!

Chuck Snowdon capped off the symposium with a stunning outline of what we need to think about and try to accomplish if we are to succeed long-term as a Society and as a scientific field. As he noted, the general public, teachers, and funding agencies need to be reminded why our field is of value and why it needs to continue. Education – in all aspects – is our best bet to remain a visible, viable organization and to demonstrate to others that animal behavior is a critically important field of study.