SUBJECT: Behavior labs
DATE: 9/95
Biolab folks: I'm in charge of planning, among many others, the "Behavior"
lab(s) for the "Organismal/Diversity/Physiology/Ecology/Behavior"
semester
of our core majors biology sequence, first to be offered next spring,
1996. Does any of you have labs in behavior (usually assumed to be animal
behavior) that seem to work well, that are hands-on, interactive, sorts
of
things? Or published sources of same, too. I'd appreciate any input and
apologize if this has been covered recently; I've not noticed it.
Thanks!
Charles
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| Charles Galt, Professor Tel: 310-985-4808 |
| Department of Biological Sciences Fax: 310-985-8878 |
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Hi, labbers:
Several commercially-published zoology lab manuals have behavioral lab
exercises. I don't have any here at home, but a couple that I know about
include dominance relationships among male crickets (mark crickets with
nail
polish, pair them in an arena, etc.), and taxis in flatworms (set up light,
chemical, etc., gradients in petri dishes; let the flatworms go; look for
"slime trails" to track movement patterns leading up to whatever
distribution you find at the end). Also, try checking with Carolina and
Ward's -- I think both have a variety of printed materials covering the
kinds of labs you can run using their live specimens.
If you have the money and time, I'd also suggest looking into setting up
an
aquarium so students can do long-term observations on fish. I had some
success with this (for independent research -- I haven't tried it for full
lab classes, but think it would be a nice addition) using swordtails.
Good luck! And I'd be interested in hearing what you come up with.
Best,
Kerry Kilburn
Old Dominion University
Charles, et al.,
There's a neat little paperback that has lots of behavioral type lab
exercises described and well-referenced. I highly recommend it.
Brown, L and J.F. Downhower. 1988. Analyses in Behavioral Ecology. A
Manual for Lab and Field. Sinauer Publ, Sunderland, MA
ISBN 0-87893-122-8
It also has some very good sections at the end on data analysis.
I'd like to be in touch with others that deal with behavioral and/or
ecological labs since I always feel that I could be doing so much
more.
Good luck
Sue Opp
Dept. Biological Sciences
California State University, Hayward
Hayward, CA 94542
(510) 885-3475
sopp@csuhayward.edu
One our non-majors biology class has been using is pretty successful. We
run it the first lab for several reasons: it is more exciting than "microscope
work," it gives students a chance to interact with their new classmates
(a
good ice breaker), and it introduces the idea of an experiment.
The lab is taken from Laboratory Manual to Accompany The Nature of Life
(2nd
edition by Postlethwait and Hopson.
It is a very open lab. You provide the students with Planaria, various foods
(egg, cheese, liver, lettuce) some dilute chemicals (sucrose, glucose, NaCl,
NaOH, Acetic acid), ice, light, foil for making things dark, etc. You also
provide a tray (the lab manual says to "go to your university glass
shop and
have them made" ... uh huh, okay... I was able to make them using baking
dishes and microscope slides and silicone glue. The tray (or "chambers")
looks like this
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Food, chemicals, ice, and or light, are put in the ends of the
chambers. Students then design their own experiment to determine what
things planaria like and dislike. Depending on the level of students
you may need to discuss hypothesis testing, the need for
controls, repetition, how many organisms are needed, writing methods
than can be repeated, etc.
We do the minimal amount of explaining so that students can trip through
it.
We then give them the opportunity to redo the experiment once they've
gained some experience
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Lewin, Lab Associate 1400 Townsend Drive
jclewin@mtu.edu Department of Biological Sciences
(906) 487-3435 Michigan Technological University
Fax (906) 487-3167 Houghton, MI 49931 |