Stephen
H.
Jenkins
Emeritus
Professor of Biology
University of Nevada, Reno
Research
Individual Variation in Behavior -- Most of my recent empirical research involved individual variation in the behavior of kangaroo rats. My interest in this was sparked by the discovery that Merriam's kangaroo rats (Dipodomys merriami) exhibit great variation in food-hoarding behavior, from larderhoarding most of the seeds they harvest in their burrows to scatterhoarding most of their food in small, widely dispersed caches throughout their home ranges (in the lab where most of our studies have been done, burrows are artificial next boxes and "home ranges" are sand-filled arenas). Here is a link to my CV, which lists publications on this and other research topics: CV for Stephen H. Jenkins, August 2011 .
How science works:
evaluating evidence in biology and medicine (Oxford University
Press,
2004) -- In this book, I use some contemporary examples of
diverse
questions in biology and medicine to illustrate how scientists
develop
and test hypotheses. The main topics are Does vitamin C
benefit
health?, Can dogs identify criminal suspects by smell?, Why
are frogs
in trouble?, How do animals find stored food?, What causes
cancer?, Why
do we age?, How does coffee affect health?,and How
will climate
change affect the spread of disease?One of my major aims
was to
give nonscientists some tools for thinking more critically
about
science stories in the news, not so they could reject what
they read
more authoritatively, but so they could separate the wheat
from the
chaff more effectively. Here is a link to view the cover of the book and here is a link for
more information about it.
Feral Horse
Population Model
- This is a computer program that
simulates the population dynamics of feral horses. It was
written under
a
contract from the National Wild Horse and Burro Program of the
Bureau
of Land
Management and is designed for use in comparing various
management
strategies
for feral horses.
The Windows version of the program is available for download by clicking on the link below. To install it, save eqsetup.exe in a suitable directory on your hard drive. Then click on eqsetup.exe to begin the installation process, and follow the instructions which appear on the screen.
Download Windows Version: eqsetup.exe (This is version 1.40, loaded on 2 April 2002.)Teaching
I taught the
following courses regularly in recent years at UNR. Please
contact me for recent syllabi or answers to specific
questions.
Biology 125 --
How
Science Works: Biological Case Studies: This is an introductory
course for nonscience majors focusing on critical thinking.
Here is a
brief description:
Science impacts our lives in countless ways. Our health depends on advances in basic biology and medicine. Wise environmental policies depend on understanding ecology and evolutionary biology. New scientific knowledge raises new ethical dilemmas. Yet too often nonscientists are content to leave science to the scientific “priesthood”, thinking that science is too complex and requires too much training and technical skill for ordinary mortals to understand.
Learning to think critically about scientific questions has several implications for students as individuals and as members of society. They will be able to evaluate news about health and nutrition more effectively, which may contribute to better personal decisions about these issues. They will also be prepared to vote more intelligently about issues that involve science, or about candidates for public office based on their positions on these issues. They will learn that science plays an important role in many personal, ethical, and social decisions, but is rarely the determining factor.
We will try to meet the main goal of this course by using concrete examples to consider three general questions:
(1) How can we use observations, comparisons, experiments, models, and other methods to develop evidence about new ideas?
(2) How can we use quantitative methods to evaluate evidence and cope with uncertainty?
(3) How can writing sharpen critical thinking about ideas and evidence in science?
Biology 314 -- Ecology & Population Biology: This is a core course in ecology for students majoring in Biology and related fields. It includes topics in evolutionary ecology, physiological ecology, population ecology, community ecology, and ecosystem ecology. In addition to standard lectures, we use several case studies in ecological analysis that involve discussion of problems in small groups and independent writing assignments. In Spring 2008, the case studies were Dissecting changing ranges (global climate change and butterfly distributions), Search for the missing sea otters: an ecological detective story, and Is framing fruitful (educating nonscientists about climate change)?
Biology 434 --
Mammalogy: This
is an introduction to mammalian biology including structure,
function,
evolution, behavior, ecology, and biogegraphy. There is a
lecture
component and a laboratory-field component in which students
learn
characteristics of mammals, identification of local mammals,
and field
techniques for behavioral and population ecology. Students
typically do
a project which culminates in a scientific paper.
Do you have a
question?
Send an
email to jenkins at unr dot edu.