University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Curriculum Proposal Form #4A
Change in an Existing Course
Type of Action (check all that apply)
Course Revision (include course description & former and new syllabus)
Contact Hour Change and or Credit Change
Diversity Option
General Education Option
area: Select one: *
Grade Basis
Repeatability Change
Other:
* Note:
For the Gen Ed option, the proposal should address how this course relates to specific core courses, meets the goals of General
Education in providing breadth, and incorporates scholarship in the appropriate field relating to women and gender.
Effective Term: 2151 (Spring 2015)
Current Course Number (subject area and 3-digit course number): Biology 430
Current Course Title:
Animal Behavior
Sponsor(s):
Ellen Davis
Department(s):
Biological Sciences
College(s):
Letters and Sciences
List all programs that are affected by this change:
Biology majors and minors
If programs are listed above, will this change affect the Catalog and Advising Reports for those
programs? If so, have Form 2's been submitted for each of those programs?
(Form 2 is necessary to provide updates to the Catalog and Advising Reports)
NA
Yes
Proposal Information:
I.
They will be submitted in the future
(Procedures for form #4A)
Detailed explanation of changes (use FROM/TO format)
FROM:
3 units of credit
2 hours of lecture and 2 hours of lab per week = 64 hours per semester
TO:
4 units of credit
3 hours of lecture and 3 hours of lab per week = 96 hours per semester
1
II.
Justification for action
Contact and credit hour changes: We propose the increase in credit and contact hours to better
accomplish the goals/student learning outcomes of the course. Given the integrative nature of the
material, and as a 400 level course, this course is an excellent opportunity to require deep and
original thinking from the students, as well as substantive writing. Although I have strived for
that in the past, it is extremely difficult to do well, given only two lecture hours per week.
Currently, I feel that I must choose between omitting major content areas that students typically
learn about in a typical course in animal behavior or reducing the level of independent, original
and disciplined thinking that befits a 400 level course. An increase to three contact hours per
week would better allow both to occur, and better aligns with the lecture contact hours of courses
within the department and across campus with similar expectations of student learning.
Similarly, few lab courses are just two hours long, and a quality lab experience has been difficult
to develop with such short time blocks. A high quality lab experience will involve the students in
experimental design and in-depth writing and discussion of the results, not simply in the
execution of the experiment. Indeed, I feel that one of the real strengths of this course has been
the emphasis on experimental design, in which students actively participate in the design of
experiments. However, even simple experiments in animal behavior quickly become
complicated as one starts to consider the many factors that can influence behavior – factors such
as side-bias (did the female choose the male on the right or does she just prefer the right-hand
side) to the presence of the observer (is that male cowering because of the other male or because
of the towering student-observer). And of course, there are opportunities for discussion and
consideration for the ethical treatment of animals in research. With just two hours per week
devoted to lab, I currently have to choose between offering already-designed, cookbook type
labs or greatly reducing the number of different labs we can conduct in the semester. Increasing
lab contact hours to the more typical three-hour lab will go a long way towards increasing the
quality of the lab experience in this course.
III.
Syllabus/outline (if course revision, include former syllabus and new syllabus)
These changes do not involve an overhaul of content in this course, although I anticipate being
able to add several new topics such as parental behavior. Rather, I expect to be able to treat
topics with greater depth, incorporate more writing and reintroduce independent projects to the
course. Despite not overhauling the course, I attach my anticipated syllabus in order for people
to better assess whether the course merits the changes proposed.
Biology 430: Animal Behavior
Spring 2015 Syllabus
Instructor: Prof. Ellen Davis
Office: 361 Upham Hall
Office hours (tentative):
Email: davise@uww.edu
Phone/voice: 472-5141
Textbook: Alcock, J., Animal Behavior, 7th Ed., Sinauer (rental)
Other sources: Various primary (original research) and secondary (review) articles will be
available either on D2L or on reserve through the library. See note below on readings.
Lecture/Lab: TBD, but three hours each per week
Last day to drop courses without a W:
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Last day to drop a course with a W:
Final Exam:
Course Description and Objectives
From the catalog: Behavior of animals as individuals and groups, including study of causation,
development, integration, evolution and adaptive value of behavior patterns. Lecture and laboratory.
Prereq: Junior standing and one of the following: BIOLOGY 142 with a grade of "C" or better or
BIOLOGY 120 with a grade of "B" or better or PSYCH 211 with a grade of "C" or better.
From me: Note that although no other specific courses are required, a certain level of academic
sophistication is expected, as this is a 400-level course. Additionally, this course also emphasizes
scientific process, experimental design, logical reasoning and good writing! Most students opt to
take this course because they think it will be interesting, and I certainly hope that it will be. But be
forewarned that this course often winds up being more demanding than some students expect it to
be…
Course Objectives - Successful students will be able to:
1) demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of a variety of topics of study in animal
behavior.
2) differentiate between proximate and ultimate causation, and formulate both proximate and
ultimate hypotheses and predictions underlying observed behavior.
3) demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of evolution, natural selection, sexual selection
and group selection as they pertain to animal behavior.
4) explain the concepts of observation, hypothesis, prediction and inference, and their
interrelationships.
5) develop reasonable hypotheses, predictions and inferences when presented with a novel
scenario.
6) read and evaluate primary research articles including the quality of the experimental design,
hypotheses and assumptions, and suggest possible competing hypotheses.
7) design a reasonable experiment to answer a question, as well as identify assumptions, competing
hypotheses and limitations to the designed experiment.
8) construct and revise a well-written, primary research report based on experiments conducted in
lab, and integrated with the primary literature.
Notes on the Class
The lecture syllabus is a tentative schedule of topics. There are a number of topics and activities I
want to cover or do this semester that are new to the course, and I may need to change how much
time I have allotted to a given topic or activity. Moreover, there are so many more fascinating topics
to cover than we have time to even touch on. So I may, based partly on your interests breaking
news/research, swap out one topic for another. The dates of the midterm and final exam, however,
are highly unlikely to change!
D2L: First, know that I will communicate with the class from time to time via email, using the
classlist in D2L. Therefore, you should check your UWW email account frequently! Also, many
course materials will be available on D2L. Of particular note is the content area that includes this
syllabus, the PP lectures, and other handouts. You may find it helpful to print the lecture files and
bring them to lecture, but please, please conserve paper as much as possible! Course grades will
also be posted through D2L. Also, several journal/review articles will be assigned this semester, and
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there may be online discussions associated with some of these. You will be expected to contribute
substantive comments/replies to at least one of these questions prior to discussion of the paper in
class. The quality of your participation will be graded (see participation points). I may make use of
other D2L functions, and will keep the class informed.
Attendance: Attendance is required, but I do not keep attendance or give credit for it. In many
class meetings, there will be some activity that simply cannot be made up. Most lab activities will
obviously occur on Tuesday, but some activities and discussions will also occur on Thursdays as
well. Even if that activity does not involve actual points in the course, the lessons learned from that
activity will show up on exams and assignments. If you know now of some conflict, talk to me, and
we will see if there is something that can be worked out.
Readings & Journal Club: Unless I specify otherwise, the Alcock text is intended to be used as a
resource for this class. Still, many examples I will give in class will come from the text, and reading
the relevant chapters/pages can be very helpful. I may also assign pages from the text for you to
read even though I may not cover the material in class. I will be explicit about such assignments
when it occurs. On the other hand, I do expect you to do all of the assigned readings from the
primary and secondary literature. These readings will serve as the basis for homework, as well as
online or in-class Journal Club discussions and are required.
Exams and Assignment Deadlines: In this class, we do not differentiate between lecture and
lab material. Anything discussed/presented/assigned during lecture or lab is fair game on an
exam. No make up exams will be given without documentation of serious illness or a comparable
emergency. If you miss an exam or assignment deadline for such a reason you must contact me
within 24 hours and provide convincing documentation as soon as possible. Otherwise, late
assignments will lose ½ grade per day late. If you have a known conflict with the midterm or
final, please let me know ASAP – that means well before the exam! The final exam can be
rescheduled only if you have more than two exams on the day of our final exam. Check your
exam schedule now for all of your classes. You should be able to ask me about moving the final
exam within the first few weeks of class.
If you do not agree with the way that I graded a particular question on your exam, you are
invited to submit a short written statement (on paper or via email) explaining why you think the
question should be re-graded. These should be submitted within one week after the exams are
handed back.
Grading: There are four weighted categories for grades (see below). I know this can confuse
students sometimes, so I’ll try to explain. Although points will be assigned for each assignment
within a category, each category makes up a certain percentage of your grade. For example, I have
shown that the midterm and final will be roughly equal in points (100 versus 125 pts). Together,
they will make up 40% of your final grade. Labs will be worth 30% of the final grade regardless of
how many lab points we wind up with. In other words, points are not comparable one-for-one
across categories. It’s like using different currencies in the different categories, but this allows for
changes and mishaps without greatly changing the grading scheme. For example, if one of the labs
bombs (animals don’t cooperate), I can just drop that lab rather than having you write a ‘what if’ lab
report. The other labs will each increase a bit in their value because fewer labs will now make up
30% of the grade, but the exams won’t increase in value if a lab is dropped because they (the
exams) will still make up 40% of the final grade. No matter what, please know that grades are based
on performance, not effort and not attendance.
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Grading Categories
Percentage of Grade
Exams
40%
 Midterm exam (~100 pts)
 Final exam (~125 pts)
Lab assignments/reports
30%
 (Note that major lab reports will be due for the series of Betta
experiments (with revision) as well as for the independent projects.)
Journal Club guided reading assignments/participation
20%
Miscellaneous quizzes/assignments (5-10 pts each)
10%
Total 100%
Final Grades: Grades will be assigned as shown below. (Note that for borderline cases, I simply
round up or down based on the 10ths place. For example, 91.3% rounds down to 91%, whereas
91.5% rounds up to 92%.)
Grade
A
AB+
B
BC+
Percentage (%)
92
90 – 91
88 – 89
82 – 87
80 – 81
78 - 79
Grade
C
CD+
D
DF
Percentage (%)
72 – 77
70 – 71
68 – 69
62 – 67
60 – 61
 60
Notice that grading is not on a curve, so you are not competing against each other. Remember,
collaboration is encouraged. Cheating is not.
Administrative Statements:
The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is dedicated to a safe, supportive and non-discriminatory learning
environment. It is the responsibility of all undergraduate and graduate students to familiarize themselves with
University policies regarding Special Accommodations, Academic Misconduct, Religious Beliefs Accommodation,
Discrimination and Absence for University Sponsored Events (for details please refer to the Schedule of Classes; the
“Rights and Responsibilities” section of the Undergraduate Catalog; the Academic Requirements and Policies and the
Facilities and Services sections of the Graduate Catalog; and the “Student Academic Disciplinary Procedures (UWS
Chapter 14); and the “Student Nonacademic Disciplinary Procedures" (UWS Chapter 17).
The UW System standard for work required per credit is that students are expected to invest at least 3 hours of
combined in-class and out-of-class work per week for each academic unit (credit) of coursework; thus, a 3-credit
course will typically require a minimum of 9 hours of work per week (144 hrs./semester)
Tentative Lecture & Lab Schedule
Week
of
Readings
Jan 21
Ch 1; pp 84,117-118, 220
Intro to Animal Behavior:
Historical Perspectives & Biases
Jan 28
Ch 1 & pp 327-8
Selection: natural, sexual & group
Asking & answering questions
Feb 4
Tinbergen excerpt &
Ground squirrel paper
Lecture Topics
Journal Club #1 – Tinbergen’s
Four Questions
Intro behavioral Mechanisms
Lab Topics
Observation versus inference
Evaluating behavioral sampling
techniques; Intro Basic Betta
Behavior
Sexing Mealworm larvae;
Operational definitions &
ethograms
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Feb 11
Ch 3 & 4
Feb 18
Ch 2;
pp. 78-80; pp. 172-9
Feb 25
pp 266-276
Mar 4
Mar 11
The Development of Behavior:
genetic and environmental
influences
Hormonal and neural influences;
Pleiotropy
Multi-lab experimental design:
Betta fish
Betta Male Aggression
Aggression
Betta Mate Choice
Ch 8 & 7
Predator/Prey Relationships: To
eat…but not be eaten
Ch 10
Communication: modalities and
meaning
Fish on Prozac;
Foraging fun
Mealworm adult pheromones;
Experimental Design –
independent projects
Review; Animal Behavior
Midterm; data crunching and
statistical thinking
Mar 18
Independent Projects
Spring Break – No class
Mar 25
Sexual Conflict
Journal Club #2 – sexual
conflict
Independent Projects
Ch 11
Reproduction
Independent Projects
Apr 15
Ch 12
Mating Systems
Independent Projects
Apr 22
Ch 13
Parental Care
Apr 29
Ch 14
Social Behavior
Apr 1
Trivers 1972 excerpt &
Bedbug sexual coercion
Apr 8
May 6
May 13
Altruism & Play articles
Social Behavior
Journal Club #3 – Ravens
Share & Play
RWBB territoriality – playback
experiments
RWBB data & wrap up;
Student Presentations
Student Presentations;
Catch Up, Wrap up & review
Final Exam: TBD
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