301+Animal+Behavior

= = =301 Animal Behavior=

=Description= "Animals are not our brethren, not underlings; they are other nations, caught in the net of life and time," Henry Beston, The Outermost House. Apes and humans are cut from the same evolutionary cloth. Almost everything, from the size and function of our brains to the social nature of our existence, is the same. What evolutionary processes impact on how animals look and behave? How can we make connections between man and the "other" animals? Animal Behavior is a biology course that uses the mechanism of evolution to explain the concepts of cause and effect in science. Among the topics covered are the diversity of life, natural selection, the interdependence of life, animal cultures, group behavior concepts, proximate and ultimate cause analysis, the evolution of emotion and altruism, and conditioning and learning. Students gain a solid understanding of the underlying principle to all biology of evolution as well as an appreciation for other animals on their terms rather than human or anthropomorphic terms.

1 trimester course

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Prerequisites:
101 Cells and 201Genetics & Bioengineering or equivalent

Public Demonstration of Knowledge

 * Films will be published in some Internet format and recorded on a DVD for use in other divisions. The children's books (see below) will be published by reading the finished works of the students to the elementary science classes.**

Final Assessment

 * Students will have two projects, one midcourse and the second at trimester's end. The mid-course project will be to research, illustrate, write and edit a children's book that shows evidence of a thorough understanding of one of the topics covered up to that point. The final assessment will be a film completed after our trips to the Zoo, chimp reserve and/or wolf sanctuary.**