Thursday, August 22, 2024

Lecture 0 (2024-08-22): Introduction to the Course and Its Policies

This lecture introduces BIO 331 (Animal Behavior) and its policies. Most of the lecture covers administrative and structural aspects of the course, but in the middle there is an examination of the "stotting" behavior that occurs in many ungulates where students propose different hypotheses for the phenomenon. The stotting example is meant to motivate the kinds of things that will go on in the course.

Topic highlights:

  • BIO 331 assignment and grading structure
  • BIO 331 policies
  • "stotting" as an example of a behavior that might be studied in detail in the course
    • Example concepts featured: "handicap principle", honest signaling, behavioral interactions and communication between predator and prey
      • These concepts are not part of the learning outcomes for this unit; they are only meant to provide motivation for this course
      • Later in the course, concepts like these will be properly introduced as part of learning outcomes for those later units


No comments:

Post a Comment

Popular Posts