UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MISSISSAUGA

BIO 318Y - Animal Behaviour
BIO 328H - Lectures in Animal Behaviour

NOTE: this course uses Blackboard to post lecture notes, assignments and for the Discussion Forum.
This web page describes the course content in general, for details you must be enrolled in the course to access Blackboard.

 INSTRUCTORS

Name	Topic	Office	Phone	Email
Prof. Darryl Gwynne (Course co-ordinator) Office hours: TBA	Ecology and evolution of behaviour	SB 3051	905-828-3892	darryl.gwynne@utoronto.ca
Prof. James Fullard Office hours here	Neural basis of behaviour	SB 4049	(Please use email)	james.fullard@utoronto.ca
Dr. Karen Williams Office hours: TBA	Genetic basis of behaviour	SB 2105G		kd.williams@utoronto.ca

   

 COURSE DESCRIPTION

An introductory overview of the behaviour of animals presented from a zoological perspective. Behaviour is examined as the evolved result of interaction with other animals, such as predators, potential mates and other aspects of the environment. Other topics include behavioural genetics, development, communication, motivation and the control of behaviour by physiological mechanisms. The courses BIO 318 (full credit) and BIO 328 (half credit) study animal behaviour at the proximate (genes and neurons) and ultimate (ecology and evolution) level.  Both courses run over the entire year with BIO 318 combining the lectures with practical labs and a research project.  Both courses take the same lectures and have the same exams and two written assignments (described below).

REQUIRED TEXTBOOK

Text: John Alcock, Animal Behavior, 9th edition. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, Mass.

This book can be bought from the UTM bookstore or from Amazon.ca. During the course, other reading material will be assigned that you can obtain from the reserve room in the UTM library or online if you are connected to a college computer or have a my.access with the university. Although you are only responsible on exams for material covered during lectures (unless otherwise directed by the professor) you should make use of the additional readings. Students who do at least some of the readings will have a fuller understanding of the lecture material and will provide more complete answers to test questions, especially those dealing with broader concepts.

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS

A. Video observation (Bio 318 and 328)

This consists of a written assignment based on your observation of a short animal behaviour video. We will present the video in class three times throughout the year.  On first viewing, you will be asked to describe a behaviour you see in the video. Following the second viewing, you will outline a hypothesis to explain that behaviour. Lastly, after third viewing, you will describe an experiment or set of observations to test your hypothesis.

B. Scientific paper review (Bio 318 and 328)

This assignment consists of a critique of a scientific paper.

The publication of scientific work relies on what is known as the “Peer-Review” process, where the editors of scientific journals ask fellow scientists to critically review articles that have been submitted for publication.  Based on the reviews that s/he receives and the points raised therein, the editor makes a decision on whether to approve the article for publication.  If you decide to make science your career, then you will eventually be asked to review a submitted article by the editor of a journal in your field of research.

Your review should be no more than two type-written, double-spaced pages (please no cover pages, and you may print your review on both sides of the same sheet to save trees).  It should take the form of a letter providing your recommendation on publishing (accept or reject) and the reasoning behind your choice.  Ignore the fact that the assigned article has already been published in a peer-reviewed journal, the peer-review process generally works quite well, but it is not a guarantor of impeccable quality.  Your mark will not be based on whether you recommend accepting or rejecting the article, but on how well you demonstrate that you have comprehended the experiment.

C. Laboratory reports and research project (Bio 318 only)

Week	Before Lab	During Lab
1	-	First Meeting: Discuss general lab outline, our expectations, research projects.
2	Read assigned journal article. Hand in journal club check sheet.	1st Journal Club: Kodric-Brown A, Nicoletto PF. 2001. Age and experience affect female choice in the guppy (Poecilia reticulata). American Naturalist 157:316-323. Campus walk and tree cricket collection. Be prepared to go outside... rain or shine! Wear long pants (poison ivy) and appropriate footwear. Preview of Goose Lab.
(Saturday)	Read Goose Lab outline.	Goose Lab: Observation and description of goose behaviour. Meet Saturday morning at 9:45 at the entrance to the Ferry Docks, 9 Queens Quay W. Toronto. You are responsible for paying your fare to and from Toronto Island. An example of an ethogram is available in this paper: Chen et al. 2002. Fighting fruit flies: a model system for the study of aggression. Proc Nat Acad Sci USA 99:5664-5668.
3	Read Tree Cricket Lab outline.	Tree Cricket Lab: Observation and description of tree cricket mating behaviour.
4	Goose lab report due. Read assigned journal article. Hand in journal club check sheet.	2nd Journal Club: Snow LSE, Andrade, MCB. 2004. Pattern of sperm transfer in redback spiders: implications for sperm competition and male sacrifice. Behavioral Ecology 15:785-792. Discuss bibliography assignment.
5	Tree cricket lab report due.	We will not meet this week.
6	Bibliography assignment due. Read  Optimal Foraging Laboutline.	Optimal Foraging Lab: Foraging in the Trinidadian guppy, Poecilia reticulata.
7	Read Cricket Aggression Lab outline.	Cricket Aggression Lab: Aggressive behaviour in the fall field cricket, Gryllus pennsylvanicus (data collection for statistics workshop).
8	Optimal foraging lab report due.   Read assigned journal article. Hand in journal club check sheet.	3rd Journal Club: Chivers DP, Brown GE, Smith RJF. 1996. The evolution of chemical alarm signals: attracting predators benefits alarm signal senders. American Naturalist 148:649-659.    Statistics Workshop: Introduction to analyses that are useful for animal behaviour.   Discuss proposal presentation.
9	Statistics lab report due. Read  Tenebrio Lab outline.	Tenebrio Lab: Cues used by male mealworm beetles, Tenebrio molitor during mating.
10	-	We will not meet this week.
11	All proposal presentations must be submitted in class this week.	Proposal Presentations
12	Tenebrio lab report due.	Proposal Presentations
13	Read assigned journal article. Hand in journal club check sheet.	4th Journal Club: Crook TC, Flatt T, Smiseth PT. 2008. Hormonal modulation of larval begging and growth in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. Animal Behaviour 75:71-77. Discuss project outline.
14	Project outline due.	The TAs will be present to help with projects and answer questions.
15	-	The TAs will be present to help with projects and answer questions.
16	-	Discuss progress report. Details available here.
17	Read assigned journal article. Hand in journal club check sheet.	5th Journal Club: Brown WM, Cronk L, Grochow K, Jacobson A, Liu CK, Popović Z, Trivers R. 2005. Dance reveals symmetry especially in young men. Nature 438: 1148-1150
18	Progress report and lab notebook due.	Hand in both your progress report and lab notebook to your TA in the lab. We will briefly look over your notebook and give it back to you.
19	-	The TAs will be present to help with projects and answer questions.
20	Read writing assignment article: Gopen GD, Swan JA. 1990. The science of scientific writing. American Scientist 78:550-558.	Discuss special writing assignment.
21	Special writing assignment due.	The TAs will be present to help with projects and answer questions.
22	-	The TAs will be present to help with projects and answer questions.
23	All final presentations must be submitted in class this week.	Final Presentations
24	-	Final Presentations
25	Final report and lab notebook due.

 

Except for the video assignments, all written work (including BIO 318 lab reports) will be submitted as digital files to Turnitin.com

Normally, students will be required to submit their course essays to Turnitin.com for a review of textual similarity and detection of possible plagiarism. In doing so, students will allow their essays to be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database, where they will be used solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. The terms that apply to the University's use of the Turnitin.com service are described on the Turnitin.com web site.

Students are permitted, under the University of Toronto conditions of use, to opt out of using Turnitin.  To ensure a uniform level of rigour in assessing the validity of work these students will be required to submit weekly updates of their progress that will include written summaries of their work to date with references to all scientific papers and text books being used.  After the hand in of their assignments these students will be required to present an oral summary of their work to their TA and/or Professor.  

Any student wishing to opt out of the Turnitin process must notify Professor Gwynne, in person, before October 1.

 

EXAMINATIONS

There are two term tests, one in December the other in the spring.  There will be one make-up for each of these tests for students with medical certificates.

The final exam (2 hours long) is held during the regular exam period in April and addresses all the material covered in the course by all professors.

 

GRADING

BIO 318
Term test 1	7.5%
Term test 2	12.5%
Final Exam	20%
Video Reports (3)	5%
Scientific Paper Critique	5%
Lab	50%
Total	100%
BIO 328
Term test 1	15%
Term test 2	25%
Final Exam	40%
Video Reports (3)	10%
Scientific Paper Critique	10%
Total	100%

Penalty for lateness: 5% per day  

PLAGIARISM
PLEASE READ THIS

There has been an alarming rise in the incidence of students submitting plagiarised assignments. In this course, the following are considered to be examples of plagiarism:

1. Submitting an assignment wholly or in part copied from one done in a previous year. Each year we change the format of the assignments slightly and those that appear to be based on a previous year's format will considered to be plagiarised.
2. Copying sentences from published works in scientific journals and not enclosing them in quotation marks with the proper reference.
3. Copying the analyses of collaborative work done in groups. Raw data (e.g., laboratory work, library reference searching) may be collected in groups but subsequent analyses and interpretations must be done by each student individually.

 

BIO 318 students.
In this course you will collect data with a partner or partners in the laboratory. This collaboration must be acknowledged in the material and methods section of your report.

You are encouraged to discuss your data with other students and your teaching assistant and your instructor. However this is where collaboration must cease. The calculations and wording of your report must be yours.

Because there are strict page limitations in this course your use of direct quotations from sources must be limited. You will not get high grades by quoting others extensively. Therefore the writing and figures for which you will get credit must be yours and not anyone else's.

Put it in your own words!!

According to university policy, TAs must notify the professor of any case of suspected plagiarism who will talk to the student(s) involved and then, if the situation warrants, pass the material on to the dean of sciences. Students found guilty of willful plagiarism face penalties ranging from severe mark deductions to dismissal from the university. These penalties can have permanent effects on a student's post-graduate opportunities. If you have any questions about the validity of your work please ask your TA or your professor.