Hutto, Richard L.

English

University of Montana

University of MontanaScholarWorks at University of MontanaSyllabi Course Syllabi1-2010BIOL 304.01: OrnithologyRichard L. HuttoUniversity of Montana - Missoula, hutto@mso.umt.eduLet us know how access to this document benefits you.Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/syllabiThis Syllabus is brought to you for free and open access by the Course Syllabi at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted forinclusion in Syllabi by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contactscholarworks@mso.umt.edu.Recommended CitationHutto, Richard L., "BIOL 304.01: Ornithology" (2010). Syllabi. 1740.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/syllabi/1740Biology 304, OrnithologyTentative Course Syllabus, Spring 2010 MWF 10-11, HS 207Prof/TAs E-mail Office Office hoursProf: Richard Hutto huttofa), m so. umt. edu HS 211 MW 11-12TAs: Tom Rogers thomasalanrosersffl),email.com HS 203 W 11-12Kristen Crandell kri sten. crandell (a), email. com HS 208 Tu 11-12Required texts:1. Gill, F. 2007. Ornithology. W. H. Freeman and Co., New York.2. Any field guide that covers birds of the western United States.Date Lecture Reading* Lab/field QuizzesJan 25 Course overview, policies Topography; Bird ID part 1Jan 27 The essence of birds 3-24Jan 29 Origin of birds 25-49Feb 1 Speciation, zoogeography 572-601 Taxonomy; Bird ID part 2Lab Quiz 1Feb 3 Mechanics of flight 115-140Feb 5 Process of scienceFeb 8 Origin of flight 40-41 Feathers;Bird ID part 3Lab Quiz 2Feb 10 More on flightFeb 12 LECTURE EXAM 1Feb 15 No class—Holiday Osteology; Bird ID part 4Lab Quiz 3Feb 17 Molt patterns 108-113Feb 19 Plumage coloration I 105-108Feb 22 Plumage coloration II Int Anatomy I; Bird ID part 5Lab Quiz 4Feb 24 Plumage coloration IIIFeb 26 Special senses I 183-200Mar 1 Brains and behavior 200-214 Int Anatomy II; Bird ID part 6Lab Quiz 5Mar 3 Migration-ultimate I 273-295Mar 5 LECTURE EXAM 2Mar 8 Migration-ultimate II reviewBird ID part 7 TH eve EXAMLab Quiz 6Mar 10 Migration-ultimate-IIIMar 12 Migration-proximate I 245-271Mar 15 Orientation and navigation 295-306 Discuss project Bird ID part 8Lab Quiz 7Mar 17 Winter ecologyMar 19 Vocal communication I 215-242Mar 22 Vocal communication II Field Trip I -- regular lab timeMar 24 Vocal communication IIIMar 26 LECTURE EXAM 3Mar 29- Apr 2Spring Break Spring Break1Date Lecture Reading* Lab/field QuizzesApr 5 Territoriality/col oniality 307-332 Field trip IIApr 7 Mating systems I 335-377Apr 9 Mating systems IIApr 12 Clutch size 427-30; 520-30 Bird ID part 9 Lab Quiz 8Apr 14 Brood parasitism 377-385Apr 16 Communal breeding 385-398Apr 19 Census; Population biology 533-569 Field trip IIIApr 21 LECTURE EXAM 4Apr 23 Niche theory IApr 26 Niche theory II Bird ID review Lab Quiz 9Apr 28 Habitat selection 603-634Apr 30 Fire ecology TH eve EXAMMay 3 Community ecology Field trip IV Lab Quiz 10 (inMay 5 Island biogeography 635-684 the field)May 7 Human populationMay 10 Final exam, Mon 10- 12am* page numbers from your textbook (Gi 1 2007)Course policies, and expectations o f studentsLectures— In most cases, I will use a traditional lecture format, but I allow students to listen attentively by making my notes available through electronic reserve at the library (http://eres.lib.umt.edu/). Your password for access to Biology 304 materials is “birdlO.”Reading— The reading in Gill (2007) is meant to complement lecture material. There will be no testing on book topics that are not also covered in lecture, unless otherwise stated. If you really want to get a sense of what’s happening these days in ornithology, read the current journals and popular magazines listed in the “Selected Ornithological References” handout.Laboratory— These sections meet for 2 hours per week unless there is a field trip that involves driving, in which case you go into the field for 4 hours from 7-11 am on Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday (as set up in class). The lab exercises are meant to complement lectures, to enable you to see bird features up close, and to help you learn bird ID characteristics and life history facts. You should bring any ERES handouts and your field guide to lab. Use of museum specimens is a privilege that should not be abused. Handle specimens carefully, always placing them gently on their backs so that all parts of the bird’s body touch the table simultaneously.Field— The vehicles for trips will leave at 7am, not 10 minutes after the hour. Attend the field session that you signed on to in class, and bring no visitors on the field trips. Do bring binoculars. Stay with the group so you can share your observations. Keep talking to a minimum and listen to what the instructors have to say; that’s the most rapid avenue to becoming a competent birder.2Learning Expectations— In lecture, I expect students to be able to understand material more deeply than that required to successfully “regurgitate” facts. I lean heavily toward trying to find out whether students truly understand concepts, the reasoning behind arguments, and how researchers use the scientific method to make progress in building our understanding of the natural world. Some students mistakenly believe that they understand concepts because they have memorized every word in their notes, but the regurgitation of memorized words will not ensure a good grade on a lecture exam. The best way to find out how well you understand a topic is to explain the topic to somebody without the use o f  notes. In short, doing well will take daily review outside of class time! I provide extra help by posing questions on ERES.Sometimes I present ideas that may have been subsequently debunked through ingenious research. Why don’t I simply tell you what the current thinking is, and skip the junk that’s fallen by the wayside? I don’t because I want you to see the flow of discovery and the process of science, which involves the development of a logical framework of hypotheses and predictions, and subsequent disproof of ideas through the discovery of facts that are inconsistent with predictions. The emergence of a fact that serves to disprove an idea or the emergence of a new hypothesis that was previously overlooked but perfectly consistent with existing information is a thing of beauty...you need to develop a feeling for the development of understanding, not current understanding in a vacuum.In lab, I expect students to glean facts related to bird morphology, anatomy, taxonomy, and natural history. In contrast with lecture, this is entirely a memorization task.Exam style— As noted above, lab exams involve pure memorization, so if you spend a reasonable amount of time learning the material, you will get a good grade. In contrast, questions on lecture exams will require three things: (1) pure memorization—Did the student learn the material presented? (2) logic—Did the student understand the significance or relevance of each bit of information? (3) transposition— Can the student take what is known and understand the implications, or can the student represent known information graphically or symbolically?For all three categories of questions, grammar is of utmost importance. If you write something that does not accurately (grammatically speaking) reflect what you meant to write, then the answer is technically incorrect. It is not that you need to write your answer using certain words, or in a certain way; it’s that you need to write what you mean. Developing a clear, concise, and unambiguous form of written and verbal communication is a critically important part of your education.Exam policy— I do not give make-up lecture exams, so take note of the dates scheduled on the syllabus. If you see conflicts (beyond your control), tell me now. The lowest 2 scores for lab quizzes (not counting the last field quiz) will be dropped, eliminating the need for makeup quizzes as well. The two major lab exams will be held on Thursday evenings; you will sign up for a time slot in lecture.3Exam grading policy—If there is an adding error on an exam, see me immediately and I ’ll change the score. Otherwise, the overall quality of your test answers relative to the answers of others in the class is probably accurately reflected in the test score you receive. I always give partial credit if  the possible number of points for a question is greater than one, but I also use the full range of possible points to reflect differences in the quality of answers that I read.Important aspects of an answer include not only whether the concept was understood, but also how well you express your understanding of a concept. I am especially interested in legibility, organization, grammar, spelling, sentence completeness, coherence, conciseness, clarity, freedom from extraneous information, and, in some cases, the ability to express your understanding using symbolic logic (graphs and figures). Much of this is subjective, and you have to trust that I can recognize and rank the quality of answers; you are paying me for my subjective opinion about your understanding of ornithology relative to other ornithology students in the nation, and I believe I can do so fairly and accurately.Invariably, some questions will be graded a bit too harshly and others a bit too leniently. Nonetheless, if you believe that your test was graded too harshly overall, and that you should have received a greater point total, you may return the test for re-evaluation. Be warned, however...if I only re-evaluate those individual questions that you believe were graded too harshly, it would lead to an inaccurate total relative to others who choose not to contest points, and who, therefore, still retain a loss of some points due to questions that they may have had graded overly harshly. Therefore, to be fair to those who may not wish to approach the instructors about points, and to discourage rewarding aggressive behavior for its own sake, I should review and re-grade your entire test. I will be happy to do so, if  you wish. Simply note the question(s) of particular concern, and note why you feel the scoring may have been incorrect. I will review every question, with an eye toward finding errors due to both overly lenient and overly harsh grading. Point gains and/or point losses will be noted, and the new point total recorded. I will then return the re-graded test in a day or two.Writing requirement—Over the course of the semester, I will assign a few recent papers from the current literature for you to read. The idea is for you to take an important lecture topic and develop a written description of the question, significance, and results, how the results serve to clarify or make more complete our understanding of a topic. Your analysis should be suitable for insertion into a lecture on that topic and should include (1) an introduction to the big issue (What’s the main lecture topic, what specific related question does the research address, and why an answer to the question is deemed by the author to be significant), (2) the nature of the experiment or observations associated with the research, including the conceptual design (with alternative outcomes and associated predictions), (3) the main results (and any relevant figures) that emerge from the new research findings, and (4) your overall conclusion about the quality of work and whether the work really results in a new synthetic understanding related to the topic.Your synthesis should be presented as one coherent essay on the topic or issue of interest. This should be typed (double-spaced) in a Word document and emailed to me (hutto@mso.umt.edu) as an electronic copy within a week after the paper is assigned. We will use “track changes” to provide a review so that you can re-write the essay taking into account4any editorial suggestions. You can then re-submit the edited version for re-grading; your point total will be the average of the two scores. There is no page limit, but any essay will probably take no more than a couple pages of text. Grades will be based on how well you address the points outlined above (20 points) and how well the essay is written (organization and grammar— 10 points). Late papers will be docked 3 points per day. You will have one more brief writing assignment associated with a field project, and that will be spelled out later.Review sessions— -Instructor-run review sessions generally defeat the purpose of trying to get you to view studying as an ongoing process. Students need to develop the habit of regularly reviewing lecture material, and not waiting until the night before an exam to try to decipher material from the previous several weeks. My experience with study sessions is that students will tend to use them as their only time to really begin to think about lecture material, and that is a poor way to encourage good study habits. Instead, I invite you to use the discussion forum with other students on ERES. The TAs and I are also available for mini-review sessions via office hours, during which you may wish to discuss or clarify lecture material. Collectively, there will be some 100 + hours available through such means. Thus, if  you need help understanding the lecture material, there are plenty of “review sessions” available through ERES and instructor office hours.Course grading schemeAssignment Total points Percent of gradeExam I 80 11Exam II 80 11Exam III 80 11Exam IV 80 11Final 80 11Lab Exam I 70 10Lab Exam II 70 10Lab Quizzes 70 10Project essays 120 16Dropping, adding, changing grade option—University policies on drops, adds, changes of grade option, or change to audit status will be strictly enforced in this course. These policies are described in the “Academic Policies and Procedures” section of the 2009-2010 catalog (http://www.umt.edu/catalog/acad/acadpolicy/default.html). Students should note that after the 30th instructional day of the semester, such changes are NOT automatically approved. They may be requested by petition, but the petition MUST be accompanied by documentation of extenuating circumstances. Requests to drop a course or change the grade basis to benefit a student’s grade point average will not be approved.Disabilities— The University of Montana assures equal access to instruction through collaboration between students with disabilities, instructors, and Disability Services for Students (DSS). If you think you may have a disability adversely affecting your academic performance, and you have not already registered with DSS, please contact DSS in Lommasson 154. I will work with you and DSS to provide an appropriate accommodation.5

BIOL 304.01: Ornithology

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BIOL 304.01: Ornithology

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