Animal Communication – Biology 492
Dr. Christine Portfors - portfors@vancouver.wsu.edu
Mondays & Wednesdays,
Office hours: Monday
Text: There is no required text for this
course.
Description: This
course focuses on general
principles underlying how animals communicate with each other and why they communicate
the way they do. We will look at the sights, sounds and smells of animal
signals. The class will be a combination of lecture and student-led discussions
of primary research papers. I will place my PowerPoint lecture slides on this
website prior to lectures.
Student-led
discussions will focus on
primary literature research papers chosen to complement the lecture
topics. The goals of these discussions
are:
1)
To
expose you to the wide array of scientific research that is ongoing in the
field of animal communication.
2)
To
improve your ability to access and read scientific literature and to think
critically.
Overall Course Outcomes:
By
the end of the course, students will:
1)
Understand
the diversity of animal communication systems and appreciate communication
interactions that are different from your own.
2)
Be
able to better to access primary scientific literature. This includes both
finding relevant papers on a topic and critically reading the papers.
3)
Be
engaged as a scientist. Parts of this include understanding the problem,
developing a testable hypothesis, designing and conducting an experiment,
analyzing data with sophisticated software, and communicating the results.
4)
Be
better able to function in collaborative environments.
The Class Schedule
tells you the topic covered in each class, provides PDF versions of the
PowerPoint lecture material, provides downloadable version of the scientific
papers to be read, and lists the student presenter for the discussions.
Course Requirements:
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Academic Dishonesty: Plagiarism
is a very serious offense. Please become familiar with how to avoid plagiarism.
If I discover you have plagiarized an assignment at a minimum you will
receive a grade of zero for that assignment. Further, the matter will be sent
to Student Services for further disciplinary action. Students may receive a
failing grade for the class if plagiarism is found.
Americans with Disability Act:
Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have documentation of
the disability on file in the Office of Student Services. Accommodations must
be approved through the Associate Director of Student Services, SS203. Please
notify the professor during the first week of the course. Late notification may
cause the requested accommodations to be unavailable.