EEB129 Syllabus Summer 2009 EEB 129 Animal Behavior Summer Session C 2009 Professor Dr Renata Dur es Office location La Kretz Hall 300 F small conference room Office hours Monday 1 3pm rduraes ucla edu Email Teaching Assistants Ben Rossi Discussion Sections Office location Office hours Email 1A 1C Life Sciences 3125 Mon Wed 9 30 10 30am ben12 ucla edu Iris Wong Discussion Sections Office location Office hours Email 1B La Kretz Hall 300 F Fri 1 2pm igwong ucla edu Lecture Mon Wed Fri 11 00 12 20pm Discussion Sections 1A Tues Thur 11 00 12 50 1B Tues Thur 3 00 4 50 1C Mon Wed 3 00 4 50 Text J Alcock Botany 325 Botany 109 Botany 109 Botany 109 Animal Behavior Eight edition Course website http www lsic ucla edu classes summer09 EEB129 Syllabus Summer 2009 Lecture Schedule Week Date Topic 1 August 3 1 Monday INTRODUCTION 1 August 5 2 Wednesday PROXIMATE APPROACHES 1 August 7 3 Friday SOCIALITY I 2 August 10 4 Monday SOCIALITY II 2 August 12 5 Wednesday SOCIALITY III 2 August 14 6 Friday SEX SPERM COMPETITION 3 August 17 7 Monday 3 August 19 8 Wednesday SEXUAL SELECTION MATING SYSTEMS I SEXUAL SELECTION MATING SYSTEMS II Review Session 5 7 pm 3 August 21 9 Friday MID TERM EXAM 4 August 24 10 Monday COGNITION 4 August 26 11 Wednesday SIGNALS COMUNICATION I 4 August 28 12 Friday SIGNALS COMUNICATION II 5 August 31 13 Monday MOVEMENT 5 September 2 14 Wednesday Guest Lecture 5 September 4 15 Friday Guest Lecture 6 September 7 16 Monday 6 September 9 17 Wednesday LABOR DAY NO CLASS BEHAVIOR CONSERVATION Review Session 5 7 pm 6 September 11 18 Friday FINAL EXAM EEB129 Syllabus Summer 2009 Discussion Section Schedule Paper s for Discussion Week Dates Topic 1 Aug 3 4 1 Introduction Overview None 1 Aug 5 6 2 NO MEETING 2 Aug 10 11 3 Quiz 1 Paper Critique 1 Studying Behavior using the Comparative Method None Burns Evolution 1998 Swaddle et al Behav Ecol 2000 2 Aug 12 13 4 3 Aug 17 18 5 Lab Practical 1 Reciprocal Altruism Quiz 2 Paper Critique 2 Costs Benefits of Sociality None Langen Rabenold Behav Ecol 1994 Liker B kony PNAS 2009 3 Aug 19 20 6 Review for Mid term Exam 4 Aug 24 25 7 Quiz 3 Paper Critique 3 Sperm Competition None Snow Andrade Behav Ecol 2004 Cornwallis Birkhead Am Nat 2007 4 Aug 26 27 8 5 Aug 31Sept 1 None Barber Conner PNAS 2007 Corcoran et al Science 2009 9 Lab Practical 2 Social networks Quiz 4 Paper Critique 4 Acoustic Communication 5 Sept 2 3 10 Lab Practical 3 Facial Symmetry None 6 Sept 7 8 11 LABOR DAY None 6 Sept 9 10 12 Review for Final Exam None EEB129 Syllabus Summer 2009 Course Overview Welcome to EEB 129 Animal Behavior This is an advanced course in animal behavior that presumes working knowledge of the concepts covered in EEB 100 An introduction to ecology and behavior In this course we will focus on exploring in more detail selected topics in behavior Your instructor will be Dr Renata Dur es who conducts active research in the field of animal behavior with a particular focus in the mating behavior of rain forest birds in South America Your two teaching assistants are Ben Rossi a graduate student interested in sexual conflict and sexual harassment on solitary bees and Iris Wong a recent UCLA graduate with a major in Biology We have as a goal to get you thinking critically about how the study of animal behavior is currently conducted to help you to understand evolutionary causes and consequences of animal behavior to help develop your written and verbal communication skills understand simple quantitative models and most of all to estimulate your enthusiasm about this fascinating topic In addition to two exams each covering half the course you will be expected to read and critique primary literature for discussion sections to answer short quizzes about assigned papers and to participate in hands on lab practicals in discussion sections More detail on each of these aspects of the class is below Readings We assume that you still own Alcock the text for EEB 100 You should regularly use Alcock for background information for lecture topics In addition we will provide primary literature on the course website that you are expected to read and to understand These readings will be a major part of most week s discussion sections see below and will be referenced on exams Thus the reading and comprehension of the primary literature papers is an important part of this course We will also provide supplemental reading which is for your interest and is not required You are expected to have a BOL account number so that you can access the class website Lectures Lectures will often depart from Alcock so attending lectures and understanding the lecture material is essential if you want to do well in this class PowerPoint slides will be posted in the class website at least 24 hours before the class With exception of the first class where we will hand out PowerPoint slides in class you are expected to print them before hand if you want to have them available for notes during class We strongly urge you to come to class pay attention and take good notes If you miss a lecture you should try to get notes from a classmate so that you understand what was discussed Please don t ask your TAs for copies of their notes Discussion Sections Discussion sections meet twice a week for one hour and fifty minutes During these times teaching assistants will be available to review key topics from lecture and readings During exam weeks one full discussion section will be dedicated to review However we also have two major activities planned for discussion sections critiques of primary literature and lab practicals Below we provide an overview of each of these aspects of discussion sections Primary Literature critiques In the first meeting of the quarter Teaching Assistants will give a primer on how to successfully critique a paper also available from the course website Then between weeks 2 and 5 the first section of the EEB129 Syllabus Summer 2009 week will be devoted to discussion of primary literature that is peer reviewed research papers that have been published in scientific journals You will be expected to read TWO papers for each section Papers will be made available on the course website and should be downloaded from there You should read BOTH papers BEFORE the section begins and be read to discuss them during the section All students are expected to participate in discussions and will be evaluated on that At the beginning of the section before the discussion begins you will be asked to answer a