BIO 481/681; Spring 2009; Tuesday Thursday; 01:00-02:15pm; 

Room: WRB 2020

PRINCIPLES OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

Instructor: Dr. Vladimir Pravosudov

FA 140C; Office hours: Tuesday 3-4pm, or by appointment

Phone: 775 784 1271; email: vpravosu@unr.edu

Textbook: ANIMAL BEHAVIOR, by John Alcock, Eighth Edition (2005)

INFORMATION:

● Syllabus

● Research written project (group project)

Final drafts of written projects must be submitted via turnitin.com

Only one member of each group needs to register with turnitin.com in order to submit the assignment.

Class ID 2567878; password: Pravosudov

Only the final draft of the project should be submitted via turnitin.com; first draft and references list should be submitted directly to me via email.

LECTURES (lecture outlines will be posted prior to lectures in pdf format):

(1) Jan 20:  Course organization; History of Animal Behavior 

(2) Jan 22:  Scientific Method; read Chapter 1 of the textbook; paper 1; paper 2

(3) Jan 27:   Scientific Method, Textbook Chapter 1, paper 1; paper 2

(4) Jan 29:   Natural Selection and Adaptations; Textbook Chapter 6; paper 3

(5) Feb 3: Natural Selection and Adaptations; Groups and topics for written projects have to be finalized and approved.

(7) Feb 10: Natural Selection and Adaptations; Neural Mechanisms of Behavior; Textbook Chapter 4.

(8) Feb 12:  Neural Mechansisms of Behavior; Neuroecology; paper 6; paper 7.

 (9) Feb 17:  Neural mechansims of behavior; Neuroecology; paper 8, paper 9; List of references with descriptions is due. Please email your list to me (vpravosu@unr.edu) and also provide a hard copy in class. This assignment is worth 15% of the total project grade.

(10) Feb 19:   Neuroecology; Bird Song System; Book Chapter 2

(11) Feb 24:  Bird Song System; Book Chapter 2; Paper 10, paper 11

(12) Feb 26: Hormones and Behavior; Textbook pp. 160-173; Paper 12, paper 13, paper 14  

(13) Mar 3:  Hormones and Behavior; Textbook pp. 160-173

(14) Mar 5: 

Sample questions to Midterm 1

Sample questions to Midterm, part 2 

(15) Mar 10:  Midterm (in class), please bring calculators!

(16) Mar 12: Development of Behavior; Textbook Chapter 3; Paper 15, paper 16, paper 17.

(17) Mar 24:  Development of Behavior; Textbook Chapter 3; Paper 15, paper 16, paper 17.

(18) Mar 26:  Development of Behavior 

(19) Mar 31:Development of Behavior ; Biological Clocks, textbook pp. 148-160.  First draft of the written project is due. Please submit a paper copy and also email me the draft.  DO NOT use turnitin.com for the first draft! Please remember that the first draft should be formatted correctly because correct formatting is worth 10% of the project and it will be evaluated on the first draft!   

(20)Apr 2: Development of Behavior; Biological Clocks

(21) Apr 7:  Biological Clocks

(22)Apr 9:   Migration and Navigation; textbook pp. 130-140; paper 20; paper 21

(23)Apr 14:  Migration and Navigation; paper 22; paper 23

(24)Apr 16: Evolution of Social Behavior, paper24; textbook chapter 13

(25)Apr 21:  Evolution of Social Behavior, paper25, paper26

PRESENTATION SCHEDULE

(26)Apr 23:  Evolution of Social Behavior; Student Project Presentations (please note that I have moved the start of students presentations a class earlier because we have too many presentations to fit comfortably into just 3 lectures. We will finish the lecture material and have only 3 student presentations on April 23rd.

Sample Power Point Presentation

Exam study questions

(27) April 28: Project presentations; Written projects are due. Please remember to submit a hard copy of the cover page with signatures from ALL group members directly to me either in class or in my office before 5pm. Submit the entire project via turnitin.com

All group presentations will be evaluated by EVERYBODY in class. Your evaluations of these presentations is part of the project and you will receive 2 points for each evaluation (all evaluations are worth 5% of the project grade). These are not bonus points, so please try to attend all presentations or you will loose points. I will hand out evaluation forms at the beginning of each class.

(28) April 30:  Project presentations

(29) May 5:   Project presentations 

Each group member should email me their evaluation of project efforts by the other group members. If other group members contributed equally, their effort score should be 100% and if they did not contribute at all, their effort score should be 0%. Please score each group member and email these scores to me. I will average these scores and adjust the project grade according to these scores to insure fair evaluation.

If I don't hear anything from you, I would assume that you agree that your group members contributed at 100% effort.

FINAL EXAM: Thursday May 7, 12-2 pm; same room

GRADING:

Quizzes - 25%

Midterm - 20%

Final - 25%

Written Project 30%

Grading of the Group Project:

 Presentation: 10%

Scoring Presentations of other students: 5%

Correct Formatting: 10%

Literature with brief description of each paper: 15%

Review of the chosen topic: 30%

Research Proposal: 30%

Formatting of the project will be graded on the first draft submission (due on March 31^st) so make sure that your project is formatted properly!

 Literature with brief description of each paper (minimum of five) will be graded upon initial submission on February 17^th.

Grades will be assigned as straight percentages, with 100% being determined by the highest score on any given test, not by the highest number of points possible (unless of course somebody gets 100% correct).  That is, if the highest exam score is 90%, then all exam scores will be divided into 90 to determine their percentage score (e.g., a score of 80 on that test would be 88.9%).  Letter grade cutoffs will be (94%+ - A, 90-93% - A-, 87-89% - B+, 83-86% - B, 80-82% - B-, 77-79% - C+, 73-76% - C, 70-72% - C-, 67-69% - D+, 63-66% - D, 60-62% - D-; <60% - F.