Animal Behavior Teaching ResourcesThis is the final assignment given in my Evolution & Behavior class that requires students to use what the have learned about evolution and behavior throughout the semester and apply it to hominins.
This assignment requires students to go to the AMNH and hunt for the answers to the provided questions.
Course content area – Human Evolution & Behavior
Course – Evolution & Behavior (100 level)
Campus – Hunter College
https://reactingconsortium.org/games/kansas1999
Henderson, D. E. and Daughtrey, T. (n.d.). Evolution in Kansas, 1999: Evolution or Creationism. Reacting Consortium. https://reactingconsortium.org/games/kansas1999
Class Size: 12-30+ students, has been played in classes of up to 60
Class Time: 2 to 3 setup sessions and 5 to 6 game sessions are recommended.
Game is under development so instructor must join Reacting Consortium and request to access content.
Synopsis: “Christian Conservatives on the Kansas Board of Education have deleted macroevolution and Big Bang cosmology from the state science curriculum. The game centers on the election of a new Board of Education which must, for legal reasons, revisit the decision. Students will campaigns for office through press conferences, sponsored debates, and are encouraged to involve the larger campus community in the issues. Following the election, the Board meets to resolve the science curriculum issue.
This game raises many questions about the role of religion in American society, the power of religious fundamentalism in the modern world, and the nature of science. Faculty can tailor the course to focus more on issues of civil religion or on modern Cosmology and evolutionary theory.”
https://reactingconsortium.org/games/darwin1861
Marsha Driscoll, M., Dunn, E. E., Siems, D., and Swanson, B. K. (n.d.). Charles Darwin, the Copley Medal, and the Rise of Naturalism,
1861-1864. Reacting Consortium. https://reactingconsortium.org/games/darwin1861
Instructor must join Reacting Consortium to access content.
Class Size: 10-23 students recommended. there are 23 named roles and the game also includes generic “A-Man and X-Man roles.”
Class Time: 2 setup sessions, 8 game sessions, and 1 debrief session are recommended. For an abridged version, sessions 3-5 can be cut out. However, cutting these sessions will impact the presentation opportunities for some characters.
Synopsis: “This game thrusts students into the intellectual ferment of Victorian England just after publication of On The Origin of Species. Since its appearance in 1859, Darwin’s long-awaited treatise in “genetic biology” had received reviews both favorable and damning. Thomas Huxley and Samuel Wilberforce’s arguments for and against the theory sparked a vigorous, complex debate that touched on a host of issues and set the stage for the Royal Society’s consideration of whether or not they ought to award Darwin the Copley Medal, their most prestigious prize. While the action takes place in meetings of the Royal Society, Great Britain’s most important scientific body, a parallel and influential public argument smoldered over the nature of science and its relationship to modern life in an industrial society. A significant component of the Darwin game is the tension between natural and teleological views of the world. But the scientific debate also percolated through a host of related issues: the meaning and purposes of inductive and hypothetical-speculation in science; the professionalization of science; the implications of Darwinism for social reform, racial theories, and women’s rights; and the evolving concept of causation in sciences and its implications for public policy. The Revised Edition updates this venerable game to incorporate current Reacting best practices while preserving the core intellectual drama.”
Video Game: https://www.embodied-games.com/games/natural-selection-catch-a-mimic/play-catch-a-mimic/
Teaching Materials: https://www.embodied-games.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/teacher-lecture-Catch-A-Mimic-uploaded_Final_2019.pdf
Embodied-Games.com. (2019). Natural Selection: Catch a Mimic. Embodied Games. https://www.embodied-games.com/games/natural-selection-catch-a-mimic/play-catch-a-mimic/
House, B. & Johnson-Glenberg, M. (2019). Lesson Plan For “Catch a Mimic: Natural Selection.” Embodied Games. https://www.embodied-games.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/teacher-lecture-Catch-A-Mimic-uploaded_Final_2019.pdf
A video game simulation which can help students actively engage in learning how certain species evolve over many generations via natural selection and appear to “mimic” or copy the appearance of other animals. The game emphasizes that this evolutionary process takes many generations (a long time) in order for this mimicry to occur through natural selection to help address the common misunderstanding that the organism intends to change their traits. The teaching materials provide a guide for content to highlight before and after students use this video game and potential lesson structures.
Course content area – Mimicry & Evolution by Natural Selection – Variability in traits, phenotype, fitness, mimicry, addressing misconceptions about evolution and intention, timeline for evolution (generations)
Course – Ethology: Animal Behavior (200 level)
Campus – Hunter College
https://academic.oup.com/icb/article/61/5/1762/6302378#supplementary-data
Davis-Berg, E. C. & Rafacz, M. L. (2021). Incorporating Research into an Undergraduate Animal Behavior Course using Zoos and Webcams. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 6(5), pp. 1762-1768. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icab137
Article describes a semester-long research project assignment that utilizes project-based learning (PBL) for students who are both majors and non-majors taking an animal behavior class. This assignment was developed to provide Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) which aims to introduce, assesses, and apply a research methods typically included as fundamental ethology/animal behavior course concepts. This student-led project involves the application of the scientific method in which students conduct background research, formulate a hypothesis, engage in non-invasive animal behavior observations for collecting data using different behavioral sampling methods, develop ethograms, analyze data, and finally write and present their research findings. Supplemental materials are included with sample assignments and rubrics.
Class type and size – works for both in-person and online. Original class sizes unknown but has worked with class of 150 through modification.
https://teachpsych.org/resources/Documents/otrp/syllabi/bk05evolutionf.pdf
Kuhle, B. X. (2005). Evolutionary Psychology. Society for the Teaching of Psychology. https://teachpsych.org/resources/Documents/otrp/syllabi/bk05evolutionf.pdf
Author: Barry X. Kuhle
Affiliation: Lebanon Valley College
Shared to Society for the Teaching of Psychology – Division 2 of the American Psychological Association (https://teachpsych.org/otrp/syllabi/index.php).
Syllabus from Spring 2023 at Hunter College
I use this worksheet after discussing the different factors that can affect the mating system of populations.
This assignment helps reinforce previously taught material from sexual selection (sexual dimorphism, operational sex ratio), as it requires the students to apply that knowledge to mating systems.
The goal of this assignment is for students to gain knowledge about the many characteristics of populations and individuals that can affect mating systems and get a sense that mating systems are not fixed.
Accompanying slides are available in the Animal Behavior Shared Class Resources Folder (for verified CUNY instructors).
Course content area – Mating Systems
Course – Evolution & Behavior (100 level)
Campus – Hunter College
This is a series of discussion board prompts that I use throughout the semester to encourage in-class discussion of the upcoming class material. These are low-stakes assignments that are graded as complete/incomplete.
Course – Evolution & Behavior (100 level)
Campus – Hunter College
Syllabus for Psych160 Evolution and Behavior from Fall 2023
