EEB3412W: Introduction to Animal Behavior, Writing Intensive

EEB 3412W is a lecture/lab writing-intensive course. Why do animals behave the way they do? This question is relevant to conservation, agriculture, human health, veterinary medicine, developing artificial intelligence, and understanding the origins of human behavior. This writing intensive course provides a broad introduction to animal behavior. As one of the most interdisciplinary fields in all of biology, understanding animal behavior requires an understanding of cell biology, physiology, genetics, development, ecology, endocrinology, evolution, learning theory, and even physics and economics! This course will draw on questions and methods from each of these disciplines to answer what on the surface appears to be a very simple question: Why is that animal doing that? The course will review such key topics as feeding behavior, reproductive behavior, perception, learning, animal conflict, social behavior, parental care, and communication. Throughout the course, students will be immersed in the scientific process, reading scientific literature, thinking critically, formulating their own research questions, and answering them in an independent project. This is a writing intensive course that covers scientific process and how to formulate research questions. prereq: BIOL1951 or one of the following: BIOL1001, BIOL1003, BIOL1009, BIOL1012, BIOL1015, BIOL1052, BIOL1055, MATH1241, CHEM1081, CHEM1061, CHEM1071H, PHYS1221, PHYS1301W, PHYS1401V or instructor consent. Credit granted for only one of the following: EEB 3411, EEB 3412W or EEB 5412.

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