Biology 278 – Animal Behavior
Syllabus for Summer Session II 2015
Time and Place:
Lecture - Every day, 8:00-9:30, Genome Sciences Rm 1374
Lab – T/W/Th 10:00-1:00, Wilson Rm G20
Professor:
Dr. Eric Bauer
TA:
Yuxiang Liu (liuyy@email.unc.edu)
Office: TBD
Phone: TBD
Email: ebauer@elon.edu
Office Hours: By appointment only
Class Website: A website for Biol 278 is available on Sakai. This syllabus itself, lecture PPTs, grades,
and various other items will be posted throughout the semester for your reading pleasure.
Bookmark it as soon as you are able – you’ll be glad you did.
Text: Nordell and Valone, Animal Behavior, 1st Edition. Readings and course schedule are in a
separate Excel file found on the Sakai site. Readings are required, and you will be tested on facts
that were not presented in lecture but only in the readings (textbook and journal articles).
Special Needs: If you are a student with a documented disability who will require accommodations in
this course, please register with http://learningcenter.unc.edu/ for assistance in developing a plan
to address you academic needs. Then notify me and we will work out a solution for this course.
Lecture vs Lab: You may register for only the lecture, or lab, or both. I recommend doing both
simultaneously. Lecture will be taught without direct reference to lab activities. Lab will assume
you have either already taken lecture or are in the process of taking it.
Course Goals: The course teaches the science of animal behavior. We will focus on what animals do,
how they do it, why they do it, and perhaps most importantly, how WE as scientists can be sure of
our information. That means we will spend time discussing experimental procedures and
alternative hypotheses in addition to the basic facts. You will be challenged to understand the
experiments and conclusions and to think about them analytically.
Attendance Policy: Attendance is not mandatory to lectures. In fact, if you are only going to come
and sleep or text I’d rather you didn’t come. You aren’t learning anything and you are a distraction
to those who wish to learn. HOWEVER, most of the exam questions will come from material
covered in lecture, and not all topics covered in lecture are in the textbook. So, if you wish to have
a chance to pass this course I advise coming to lecture and paying attention.
Attendence is mandatory to the labs, if you are registered for lab. You must attend every single lab.
If you miss two without an adequate (and documented) excuse then you will fail the course. This is
a very short course and the labs are an important part of the course. Moreover, there is no practical
way for you to make up a missed lab. Lastly, your lab partners are counting on your presence and
participation, so missing labs hurts them too. Emergencies and other unexpected events happen
though, so if you find that you can’t make it to a lab, Yuxiang and I will need to hear from you (or
someone speaking for you) via email by 9:30am of the next day.
Make-up Work: For the lectures, there are 5 exams as well as small assignments related to reading
journal articles. Regarding the exams, you must notify me in advance as soon as you know that you
will miss one of these exams because of a legitimate excuse. Failure to do so will result in a “0” for
that exam. If you miss an exam unexpectedly, due to illness for example, you must notify me by
9:30am of the next day about why you missed it and when you will make it up. Email me until you
get a response. If you do not get a response then you cannot assume that I have gotten your
message. Failure to notify me by 9:30am the next day will result in a “0” for that exam. It is my
sole discretion as to what is a legitimate excuse.
You will NOT be able to make up the work for the in-class and online discussions of the journal
articles. The whole point of these is the real-time interaction with the other minds in the course –
therefore you cannot do anything related to these discussions after-the-fact. The online elements
will be available for a broad period of time such that you will be able to fit it into your schedule.
For the labs, there are no make-up labs. If you miss a lab, Yuxiang will give you an alternative
assignment as he sees fit.
Grading: There will be 4 exams during class, each consisting of a mix of T/F, multiple choice, and
short answers. The multiple choice questions usually require a thoughtful analysis and only rarely
rely on pure memorization. The written answers need to be clear, well-organized, complete, and
concise.
The final exam will be cumulative and similar in format to the exams. Approximately half of it will
cover new material since the last exam, and the remainder will cover old material. The final exam
will be given during our assigned final exam time and date.
Lecture Assignments
Article discussions (XXX)
Exam 1
Exam 2
Exam 3
Exam 4
Final Exam
TOTAL
XXpts
40pts
94pts
71pts
72pts
181pts
XXXpts
Lab Assignments will be detailed in lab. Approximate total = 200pts. You will receive a separate
grade for the lab, if you are registered in it.
Additional notes: There will be no extra credit apart from that on exams. To be fair to everyone in
class, no form of curving will be used in grade calculations. The averages will speak for
themselves. This also means that I do not consider “effort” nor do I factor in “improvement” over
the course of the semester. I do not provide extra assignments to help boost your grade. I do not
drop low grades.
A
>93
C-
70-72
A-
90-93
D+
67-69
B+
87-89
D
63-66
B
83-86
D-
60-62
B-
80-82
F
<60
C+
77-79
C
73-76
Honor Code: As in any course at UNC, you are expected to adhere to the tenets of the student
honor code and you will be asked to sign your exam as an indication that you will do so.