BIO 481/681; Spring 2012; Tuesday Thursday; 01:00-02:15pm; 

Room: FA 253

PRINCIPLES OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

Instructor: Dr. Vladimir Pravosudov

FA 256; Office hours: Thursday 3-4pm, or by appointment

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

Textbook: ANIMAL BEHAVIOR, by John Alcock, 9th Edition (2009)

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 4723223; 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.

IMPORTANT DATES:

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

(1) Jan 24:  Course organization; History of Animal Behavior 

(2) Jan 26:  Scientific Method; read Chapter 1 of the textbook; paper 1; paper 2

(3) Jan 31:   Scientific Method, Textbook Chapter 1, paper 1; paper 2

(4) Feb 2:   Natural Selection and Adaptations; Textbook Chapter 6; paper 3

(5) Feb 7: Natural Selection and Adaptations; 

(7) Feb 14: Natural Selection and Adaptations; Neural Mechanisms of Behavior; Textbook Chapter 4.

(8) Feb 16: Neural Mechansisms of Behavior; Neuroecology

 (9) Feb 21: Neuroecology; paper 4; paper 5,  

(10) Feb 23: Neuroecology;paper 6; paper 7; Bird Song System; Book Chapter 2; 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.

(11) Feb 28: paper 8, paper 9, Bird Song System; Book Chapter 2

(13) Mar 6:  Hormones and Behavior; Textbook pp. 170-181; Paper 12, paper 13, paper 14

(14) Mar 8: Hormones and Behavior

Sample questions to Midterm 1

Sample questions to Midterm, part 2 

(15) Mar 13:  Midterm (in class), please bring calculators!

CURRENT GRADES

(17) Mar 27: Development of Behavior; Textbook Chapter 3

(18) Mar 29: Development of Behavior 

(19) April 3: Development of Behavior ; Biological Clocks, textbook pp. 153-168. First draft of the written project is due. Please email the draft directly to me - only one copy from the group.  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) April 5: Development of Behavior ; Biological Clocks, textbook pp. 153-168. 

(21) Apr. 10: Biological Clocks; Migration and Navigation; textbook pp. 130-140; paper 18; paper 19 

(22)Apr 12:  Migration and Navigation; textbook pp. 130-140

(23)Apr 17:  Migration and Navigation; paper 20; paper 21; Evolution of Social Behavior

(24)Apr 19: Evolution of Social Behavior, paper22; textbook chapter 13

(25)Apr 24:  Evolution of Social Behavior, paper23, paper24

(26)Apr 26:  Evolution of Social Behavior; potentially first presentations

Sample Power Point Presentation

Exam study questions

Presentation schedule

(27) May 1: 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) May 3:  Project presentations

(29) May 8:   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: Tuesday May 15, 5-7 pm; same room

FINAL GRADES

GRADING:

Quizzes - 25%

Midterm - 25%

Final - 25%

Written Project 25%

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 29th) 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 15^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