Educating in Animal Behavior: An invited POSTER session
Presented at the Animal Behavior Society 38th Annual Meetings Hosted by Oregon State University ,14 - 18 July, 2001, Meeting hosts: Dr. Lynne Houck and Dr. Andy Blaustein (OSU Dept. of Zoology). Organizers: Kim Sullivan (yejunco@biology.usu.edu) and Penny Bernstein (pbernstein@stark.kent.edu)
Abstracts
Please contact the authors for more information about their projects
| 1: A field course teaching animal behavior as a science | ||
| Peter A. Bednekoff | Dept. of Biology, Eastern Michigan Univ., Ypsilanti, MI 48197 | peter.bednekoff@emich.edu |
| Abstract | ||
| Every biology course spends a few minutes on the scientific process. Too few give students opportunities to practice the process. I will be teaching animal behavior at our field station. The format is a three-day block in each of three weeks. Students, working in groups, will spend the majority of their time conducting, analyzing, and presenting small experiments. During the first week, I will provide detailed methods. During the second week, I will provide potential hypotheses and rough methods, but students will be required to choose the details of experimental designs. During the third week, students will conduct projects they have identified and designed. Each project will be presented to the rest of the class. My primary goal is for students to experience science while observing animals. In pursuing this goal, we are likely to 'cover' the classic topics of animal behavior while explaining and linking projects. | ||
| 2: Ineffective Central Place Foraging by Behavioral Ecology Students | ||
| J. H. Benedix Jr. | Department of Biology, DePauw University | jbenedix@depauw.edu |
| Abstract | ||
| This laboratory exercise is based upon a study of central place foraging in nesting starlings published by Kacelnik (1984, J. Anim. Ecol., 53:283-99). It utilizes the marginal value theorem to predict optimum load size for a bird foraging in a food patch that is a given distance from the nest. In the lab students play the role of a foraging bird and must try to maximize their rate of food delivery to their "nest". They are timed by a partner and can later determine what their optimum load size was, based on travel time to the patch and the loading curve for food collection in the patch. Typical results are that the students underestimate the number of food items they should collect before returning to the nest, and thus forage less efficiently than the birds in the original paper. The lab is a good demonstration of how neural processing systems might be shaped for specific kinds of tasks by natural selection, such as the selective forces that have acted on the starlings to be effective central place foragers. Similar selection has not necessarily acted upon humans, who, with all their neural processing power, are unable to perform this task efficiently. | ||
| 3: Observing tongue-shows to promote understanding of communication and improve observation skills | ||
| Penny L. Bernstein* | Department of Biological Sciences, Kent State University Stark, Canton OH 44720 | pbernstein@stark.kent.edu |
| Abstract | ||
| Adult humans are both excellent nonverbal communicators and observers who respond appropriately to even the most subtle signals. But most are not aware of using these skills. This exercise is designed to help students become more aware of their nonverbal signaling behavior and improve their observation skills by exploring cases of 'tongue-shows'. A message analysis approach is used. Students explore what information a communicator may be providing with the signal and the recipient may be reading in context as a response is formulated. Tongue-shows are used because students initially think they are odd and rare, and soon find out they are not, and because there are published data about the signal to which student data can be compared. Students observe 3 cases on their own; pooling of all cases in class discussion results in a preliminary message analysis. Students then form more detailed hypotheses, gather more cases, and develop a more detailed analysis, or move on to another signal. Experiments can be designed to test the proposed messages and compare them with the published data. | ||
| 4: Teaching the Fundamentals of Behavioral Research Methods | ||
| MarthaLeah Chaiken* | Department of Psychology, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY 11549 | martha.chaiken@hofstra.edu |
| Abstract | ||
| This poster offers a set of topics to be included in a course on behavioral research methods, with suggested exercises, readings, and other resources. Topics include the ethics of animal research, the logic of interspecies comparison, defining the units of behavior, recording behavior, sampling behavior, statistical analysis of behavioral sequences and interactions, and taking account of changes in the organism. Your input is requested to help develop this outline as a resource for society members and as a presentation at the next meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. The aim of the SFN poster will be (1) to increase awareness of the kind of training required to develop meaningful behavioral protocols, (2) to encourage more widespread inclusion of such training in neuroscience programs, and (3) to encourage more neuroscientists to seek collaborations with specialists in the study of behavior, specifically ABS members. | ||
| 5: Using laboratory exercises in animal behavior to improve critical thinking skills | ||
| Thomas E. Dickinson | Department of Biological Sciences, University College of the Cariboo, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada V2C 5N3 | tdickinson@cariboo.bc.ca |
| Abstract | ||
| A common objective in undergraduate courses is the development of skills needed to communicate research in peer-reviewed journal articles. This poster describes an approach used to teach these skills using lab exercises in animal behaviour. The sequence of labs takes students through a progression of exercises involving ethograms, releasers, habituation, foraging theory, mate choice, and human social groups. The assignments progressively (and cumulatively) build on a student's ability to write the sections of a scientific paper: Results, Methods, Discussion, Introduction, Literature Cited. Rather than ask students to produce the whole paper at once, each exercise focuses on one aspect of the paper at a time and adds new skills to previously developed ones. In addition to experiencing animal behavior directly, students improved their ability to think critically. Blind scoring of questionnaires and paired (before/after) statistical comparisons showed that students who progress through this sequence of exercises significantly improve their ability to evaluate published scientific research. For example, these students better identified the key predictions made in a study as well as the crucial data used to test those predictions. Moreover, these students were better able to articulate how a particular study advances a point of theory. | ||
| 6: Behavioral research projects with insects in laboratory courses | ||
| Mary M. McCoy | Biology Dept., Washburn Univ., Topeka KS 66621 | zzmccm@washburn.edu |
| Abstract | ||
| A laboratory exercise has been created for use throughout the semester in an upper-division majors' entomology course at Washburn University. The students use live insects or arachnids to develop research proposals and subsequent research projects. Each student selects a species from a variety of arthropods I keep in culture, and maintains those organisms during the semester. Students keep detailed records on rearing and on behavioral observations, develop a series of questions regarding the behaviors seen, and explore supporting entomological literature in the development of their research. Laboratory sessions involve ongoing collaborative brainstorming on the projects, and culminate in presentations of the work. Discussion of the various behaviors observed occurs through the semester. This exercise has been very successful in increasing student interest in research, in animal behavior, and in the arthropods themselves, and student assessments of the exercise have been quite favorable. | ||
| 7: Exploring animal behavior in laboratory and field: An ABS-sponsored laboratory manual. | ||
| Bonnie J. Ploger* & Ken Yasukawa | Department of Biology, Hamline University | bjploger@piper.hamline.edu |
| Abstract | ||
| Exploring Animal Behavior in Laboratory and Field is a new laboratory manual that will be published by Academic Press in 2002. The book is organized to support instructors interested in encouraging students to design their own experiments, while providing plenty of directed exercises for those preferring a more traditional pedagogy. Exercises illustrate current theoretical issues and methods used by biologists, psychologists, and anthropologists who study animal behavior. Topics include describing behavior, causation and development of behavior and behavioral ecology. Both field and laboratory exercises are included on a broad variety of taxonomic groups from arthropods to people. These peer-reviewed exercises present some of the most successful, practical and exciting of the exercises that ABS members use in their courses, and many exercises have been tested in education workshops at ABS annual meetings. The exercises, although designed for undergraduate courses in animal behavior, can be adapted for non-majors to graduate-level courses, and can be useful to anyone seeking ideas for student projects on animal behavior. | ||
| 8: Animal Behavior Society membership as a supplemental 'textbook' for courses in behavior | ||
| Thomas C. Rambo* | Dept. of Biol Sci., Northern Kentucky University KY 41099 | rambot@nku.edu |
| Abstract | ||
| In my undergraduate upper division course in animal behavior, I try to give students an understanding not only of forms of behavior research, but also of the world of scientific investigation, writing, and communication. Initially, I used various collections of 'readings', but now I require students to join the Animal Behavior Society. Therefore they receive the journal and the newsletter. This approach has been very successful. Every issue of the journal has papers that are accessible to the students and that are pertinent to topics being covered in class. Students read the papers and discuss them in class, taking turns leading the discussions. These research papers help the students learn the implications and applications of the behavioral principles they learn in class, and ensure that students (and the instructor) are introduced to the most up-to-date developments in the study of behavior. As an added benefit, ABS student membership is significantly less expensive than any available book of readings, and it continues after the class has ended. | ||
| 9: Incorporating the National Science Education Standards with college sciences | ||
| Thomas McK. Sproat | Dept. of Biological Sciences, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, KY 41099 | sproat@nku.edu |
| Abstract | ||
| State boards of education are adopting standards for science education in K-12 classrooms. Many states are using the National Science Education Standards (NSES) as a template for their own state models. The NSES were developed by the National Research Council as guidelines for science education. The NSES emphasizes cross-disciplinary and inquiry-based approaches to science education. While most universities do not have prescribed educational guidelines for their science programs, an understanding of the NSES by college science faculty can be quite useful. Guidelines in the NSES can be used to improve the quality of science education at the college level. Additionally, science faculty can use the NSES and state science education standards to develop education and research opportunities for K-12 teachers. This poster presents an overview of the NSES and its six focal standards. Participants will be encouraged to interpret how their research may compliment specific NSES standards, as well as how their own teaching may benefit from the NSES guidelines. | ||
| 10: The energetics of bird migration: an applied project in optimization. | ||
| Kimberly A. Sullivan* & James A. Powell | Department of Biology, Utah State University & National Science Foundation Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Uta | kasulliv@nsf.gov |
| Abstract | ||
| We developed a laboratory exercise involving the bio-energetics of migration across the Gulf of Mexico as part of the BioMathLab project at Utah State University. The goal of this project was to create a vertical ladder of quantitative laboratory exercises in the biology curriculum. This exercise has been used successfully in junior/senior level ornithology classes, as an independent project in freshman/sophmore calculus classes and in senior classes in applied mathematics. Because of the wide array of physical mechanisms, units and mathematical techniques, the solid biological context and good 'story line', this project has been particularly good at encouraging the development of integrative problem solving. Pre and post lab assessment tests indicate that on average students did not have command of this knowledge at the onset and this activity improved their skills. | ||
| 11: New uses for the traditional macaroni model for teaching the evolution of behavior | ||
| Becky C. Talyn | Department of Biology, DePauw University, Greencastle, IN | btalyn@depauw.edu |
| Abstract | ||
| Folks have been using colored macaroni and similar items to model foraging success and prey crypsis for quite some time. This same design can be modified to demonstrate many additional principles in the evolution of behavior. I will present designs for using three colors and two sizes of elbow macaroni and plastic grass mats to demonstrate behavioral and evolutionary principles. These include mate choice, alternative mating strategies, learning and search images, life history traits, tradeoffs between multiple strategies, selective pressures or in variable environments, stabilizing selection, and effects of group size and genetic drift. Handouts will be available with detailed procedures for some of these, as well as ideas for using this design in investigative labs where students design their own experiments. Finally, I will present data collected by students using this design to address some of these principles. | ||
| 12: Animal behavior as a part of humane education: Canine behavior and bite prevention as an applied example. | ||
| Stephen Zawistowski*, Sheryl Dickstein Pipe & Jacque Schultz | Department of Education, The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 424 E. 92nd St. New York, NY 101 | stevez@aspca.org |
| Abstract | ||
| ASPCA humane education programs are designed to help individuals develop an understanding of animals and respect for them. Many of the activities include animal behavior as an important component. Animal behavior serves several functions in the program design. It helps to ensure on interactive learning experience through the employment of multiple sensory modalities, it helps establish links between human and non-human animals through behavior and it simulates interest because people typically find animal behavior fascinating. | ||
* denotes presenting author. Please contact the authors for more information about their projects.
