Need help with creating a presentation for my Animal Behavior class in which we discuss different species and its behavior and how it helps them in their living habitat. The project is basically creat

Need help with creating a presentation for my Animal Behavior class in which we discuss different species and its behavior and how it helps them in their living habitat. The project is basically creat
1 | P a g e Student independent project presentation Student name : ________ _______________________ Grading ( 100 points total ): • Content: 75 points • Delivery : 20 points • Peer -review : 5 points Content (75 points): • Describe the species with enough information to understand the behaviour? (e.g. species, habitat, food source. size) as it pertains to the behaviour? – /10 • Is the behaviour framed as at least one of the Tinbergen ’s four questions ( Specify proximal or ultimate cause) ? /5 • If the behavio ur well explained in terms of adaptive value, cost and benefit ? /10 • Explain how their chosen behaviour is related to the animal behaviour topics that we have studied in this class ? /5 • Describe why this behaviour in important/relevant interesting to science (from their chosen perspective – examples are ecology, policy, conservation) . /10 • Used specific background information to establish the importance of the behaviour ? /1 5 • Used three peer -reviewed arti cles? /10 • Cred ited / reference d sources appropriat ely ? /5 • Visual / Aural aids /5 o Use d appropriate visual or auditory aids to clarify content and assist the audience in underst anding the important results of the peer -reviewed articles. o Pres ent ed appropriate data (i.e., cite figures and/or tables)? o Were any used table and/or figure (captions) concise, yet self -explanatory? 2 | P a g e Delivery (20 points ) • Good grammar : subject/verb agreement , use of tense , parallel construction , spelling • Paragraph and sentence structure organization (written and oral) • Clarity of message: Organization – does the student give information in logical order • How wel l does the student appear to know the subject? • How well does the presenter engage the audience ? Peer -review ( 5 points) Did the student make constructive comments on seven student presentations ?
Need help with creating a presentation for my Animal Behavior class in which we discuss different species and its behavior and how it helps them in their living habitat. The project is basically creat
1 | P a g e BIOL 2451 – Introduction to Animal Behaviour Independent project presentation (20% of your course grade ) Overview The scientific study of animal behaviour requires a range of technical and intellectual skills using the scientific process of inquiry. An independent research project will be assigned at the beginning of the term. During the project, a topic will be chosen and justified, followed by a literature search. You, the student, will present on a focal behaviour following the framework o f this course, and present the material to your peers using a communication style of your choosing, such as audio -visual film, audio “podcast”, visual infographic, or another form of communication as should be discussed with your instructor . Steps -in-brief : 1) Choose a topic: Justify your choice and a pprove it through your instructor . 2) Literature search : You will need to source a minimum of three peer -reviewed articles. 3) Presentation : Choose your presentation style . 4) Peer review : You will need to look at and comment on five of your peer’s presentations. Choose a topic and do a literature search This project will start at the beginning of the term (see due dates below). The first thing you will need to do is pick a topic (species and behaviour). Please be spe cific, otherwise you will find that explaining a behaviour will become too complex! For example, consider pick ing a particular genus or particular species (e.g. Dung beetle) AND a particular behaviour (e.g. movement of dung balls ) that you wish to target f or your student project. In order to evaluate the feasibility of your project, you will need to do a brief literature search to see what has been done and how. For your final presentation you will need to: 1) describe your proposed species and behavioural topic , 2) explain why you find it interesting/ relevant, and 3) summar ise the information that you gather ed on your topic, with information from a minimum of three peer -review journal articles . Please keep in mid that you credit/cite the information source s appropriately. Presentation guidelines This presentation is NOT meant to be an academic report , technical or lab report, or conference poster presentation. Rather, I want you to demonstrate to me that you have chosen an animal behaviour that you find interesting/relevant, done some research from peer -reviewed and reputable sources to understand the behaviour, and then communicate this to your classmate peers, in an effective manner. For example, think about people’s fondness for Sir David Attenborough’s documentaries. 2 | P a g e If you are doing an audio, or audio -visual presentation style, please limit it to 10 minutes . As people tend to speak at 120 words a minute, this means that for a 10 minute presentation, the equivalent is ~ 1200 words, and a bit less if you use combine written media with visual or audio -visual materials. Basically, aim for between 900 -1200 words. The re is a maximum of 1 minute (60 seconds) for use of video or audio from other sources (which you need to credit properly and avoid copyright infringement). Example of such sources may be including a short video clip (e.g. BBC Earth) of a behaviour or an au dio clip of acoustic communication. Please use such sources as little as possible. There will be a discussion thread for free methods of recording and creating your own audio and spectrogram files, as well as creation of audiovisual materials. Handing your presentation in You wi ll be handing in a minimum of two files : 1) your presentation (which can 1+ files depending on your presentation style) , and 2) an accompanying 1-2 page ‘metadata ’ document with the following information : a) a brief methods explanation (~ 1 paragraph) of how you created your product (e.g. “ I created an info graph in Powerpoint using a mix of publicly available art clips, and my own written text ), b) your peer review references (any scientif ic citation format is fine, but please be consistent. For example you can us e the ‘Animal behavior ’ journal format). c) and credits (for photos , films, or other used materials) . Please have a title to your presentation (e.g. Tapping to the beat of their own song). Your presentation will need to be submitted on Nexus. This will be under the Assessments – Assignment tab . The format of the fi les you su bmit will vary depending on your presentation style. Here is a guid eline: • Audio/podcast format: Audio file in a standard format such as .mp3 or . wav • Documentary (Audiovisual): Video file in standard file format such as .mp4 or .avi • Visual format (e.g. infograph): High resolution .jpeg , .pdf or PowerPoint (. pptx) file. • Visual and Written fo rmat: High resolution .jpeg , .pdf or PowerPoint (. pptx) file , or word file (.docx) Please talk to me if there are other formats that you think you ’d need/like to use. 3 | P a g e Peer -review : Peer review is very important in strengthening and assuring the quality of science. In the final week of classes, after this project is due, you will examine your classmates work and make constructive comments on their content and presentation style. Gra ding of completed presentation and peer -review : As the presentation style will vary amongst students, you will be graded on inclusion of the following content , as well as a small portion of your grade dependant on the quality of your chosen delivery method (which means you decide on which mode of communication works best for you). Content: 75 points Delivery: 20 points Peer -review: 5 points Please include the following content in your presentation (75 points) : • Describe your species – general information (e.g. species, habitat, food source. size) as it pertains to your question • Describe the behaviour you propose to examine considering: o Is the behaviour framed as at least one of the Tinbergen’s four questions (Specify proximal or ultimate cause) ? o If the behaviour well explained in terms of adaptive value, cost and benefit? o How is the behaviour related to the animal behaviour topics that we have studied in this class ? • Describe why this behaviour in important/relevant interesting to science (from y our chosen perspective – examples are ecology, policy, conservation) . • Use and describe specific background information to establish the importance of the behaviour so that the audience can understand your project • Make sure you credit/ reference your sources appropriately (reminder: information from three peer -reviewed articles) • Use appropriate visual or auditory aids to clarify your content • Assist the audience in un derstanding the important results of your peer -reviewed articles. • Present appropriate data (i.e., cite figures and/or tables) , and make sure that any used table and/or figure are captio ned appropriately (i.e. concise, yet self -explanatory ). Delivery ( 20 points) : • Clarity of message: Organization – gives information in logical order • Subject knowledge • Audience connection – how well does the presenter engage the audience 4 | P a g e Peer -review (5 points): You will peer -review other student’s presentations. Please note that during the final exam, I will be asking you for examples of particular behaviours , which can be answered from student presentations. Please, be constructive with your criticism, give praise where it is due…and be aware wheth er your comments are based on fact or opinion. Why have peer -reviews? • Different perspectives to be considered • Identifies major flaws • Creates confidence in what we read • Collective minds • Creates stronger science • Helps clarify the message to readers For eac h presentation, please make several constructive comment s considering : 1) Whether you understood why this behaviour is interesting/ important 2) Whether you see the how this behaviour is related to the topics covered in this class 3) Any alternate hypotheses about the behaviour or further research questions to address the behaviour 4) What presentation strategies you found to be effective, and why . 5 | P a g e Student project peer review ( 5 points ) For eac h presentation, please make a constructive comment considering : 1) Whether you understood why this behaviour is interesting/ important . 2) Whether you see the how this behaviour is related to the topics covered in this class . 3) Any alternate hypotheses about the behaviour or further research questions to address the behaviour . Presentation 1: Name of presenter (s tudent) : _______________________ ____________ __________ Title of presentation : ___________ ______________ _____________ ______________ Feedback: ______________________________________________________________ Presentation 2: Name of presenter (s tudent) : _______________________ ____________ __________ Title of presentation: ___________ ______________ _____________ ______________ Feedback: ______________________________________________________________ Presentation 3: Name of presenter (s tudent) : _______________________ ____________ __________ Title of presentation: ___________ ______________ _____________ ______________ Feedback: ______________________________________________________________ Presentation 4: Name of presenter (s tudent) : _______________________ ____________ __________ Title of presentation: ___________ ______________ _____________ ______________ Feedback: ______________________________________________________________ 6 | P a g e Presentation 5: Name of presenter (s tudent) : _______________________ ____________ __________ Title of presentation: ___________ ______________ _____________ ______________ Feedback: ______________________________________________________________
Need help with creating a presentation for my Animal Behavior class in which we discuss different species and its behavior and how it helps them in their living habitat. The project is basically creat
60 – BIOSPHERE BIOSPHERE – 61 hy only sing, when you could dance, too? Humankind has long since enjoyed the splendour of bird mating rituals; the elaborate plumage, songs and dance of male birds from species like the birds of paradise. Over the past decade, scientists have illuminated the beauty and complexity of ‘multimodal displays’, showing that birds use both visual and acoustic components to display to females. Take the Australian satin bowerbird, which uses both complex song and dance display, within a decorated bower of sticks. The bowerbird’s forest is lled with the strange yet mesmerising whirrs and clacks of male song, in small clearings the lucky observer can witness a fully displaying male. The male raises his wings, and icks them rapidly upward, and they are back down before you can really make sense yourself of what is going on. He whirrs on, the female watches, ick, ick goes the wing. Again, he repeats the sequence, again, more clacks, whirrs and then he picks up a blue button and shows it to the female standing inside his bower. Before long she is off to inspect other males, and the display is over. Song and dance has a way of captivating the hearts and imaginations of people young and old, and birds are excellent at both of these displays. Take the renowned dance of the Japanese crane, an elegant duet that has long since immortalised itself in Japanese culture as a symbol of longevity in marriage. The crane has been featured in many documentaries, books and is a common motif in Asian design. Vocal duets are also prominently portrayed in popular media, the scienti c literature and human cultures – namely species like duetting penguins, other seabirds such as albatrosses and traditional songbirds like wrens. Researchers have been tapping in to the hidden dances of the cordon bleu birds, who, as it turns out, tap their feet at such high speeds a special camera was needed to see them. Miya Warrington explores their multi-modal displays. Tapping their own Tappin song to the beat of BEHAVIOUR W © Nao Ota 62 – BIOSPHERE BIOSPHERE – 63 resolution of [human] visual/auditory senses, it was hard to tell which bird was the best ‘tap-dancer’ with our naked eyes and ears,” research team leader, Masayo Soma, told Biosphere Magazine. Viewing the recordings in slow motion, the team discovered that each head bob was accompanied by multiple very rapid (~ 10 milliseconds) foot-steps, and that singing was interspersed in between the headbob-footsteps. This tap dancing, referred to as step-dancing by the researchers, has never been seen in songbirds before, although it has been observed in non-passerine (non-song) birds such as bustards and rails. So, why dance, in addition to singing? What is the inherent bene t to these birds? Consider the common celebrity-gossip-topic, discussing artists that dance and lip sync at the same time, to the disappointment of fans that expect a fully original multimodal concert. As these artists (or rather their publicists) point out, the physical demands of dancing and singing are great, and this is no exception for these multi-talented cordon-bleus. The elaborate physically demanding dance performance of the cordon-blue may be, in fact, a signal that plays an important role in intersexual communication. To answer this question, the authors set about further analysing the high speed recordings of the dance displays, taking care to Traditionally it was thought that these elaborate male signals evolved as a result of sexual selection, in which a male displays his quality as a mate by the complexity, synchrony, or quality of his display. The use of more than one modality, like combining dance and song, aids in enhancing the potency of their intended signal. The male brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) is one such bird with an elaborate courtship display consisting of both song and dance. A previous study showed that females were more enticed by playbacks that included both visual and acoustic signals of males rather than playbacks of just acoustic signals alone. On the other hand, when it comes to the observation of complex multimodal displays in both males and females of a species, the display from both sexes might suggest that multimodal courtship signals may have evolved as a result of a bene t to intersexual communication, rather than as a result of sexual selection. To date, the evolution of dance duets in birds has received far less attention than vocal duets. This may be in part due to the challenges of objectively quantifying dance steps, rather than lack of interest, as people in general seem to be fascinated and amused by dance, as both the popularity in reality dance shows and the social media memes of cats, dogs and other wild animals ‘dancing’ to music has shown. However, new technologies are allowing researchers to explore nature’s dancers. As if male birds displaying seemingly elaborate dances to their own personally produced soundtrack were not enough, scientists have found that both the male and the females of one species, the blue-capped cordon-bleu (Uraeginthus cyanocephalus) engage in song and dance whilst next to each other on the same perch. But here is the catch; these birds are so fast that it takes a high-speed camera to witness their dancing! Upon rst glance, the dance of the socially monogamous blue-capped cordon-bleu seemed to consist of bobbing up and down, while singing with a piece of nest material in their beak. However, a rhythmic beat accompanying the bobbing alerted a team of researchers that something out of the ordinary may be going on. Using, high-speed video- camera recordings the scientists revealed that there were far more foot taps going on than met the human eye. However, further analysis was needed to fully appreciate this avian dance, “Probably due to the poor time BEHAVIOUR Keeping the birds in an aviary allowed the researchers to set up cameras so they could monitor the birds’ rituals in detail. © Nao Ota. 64 – BIOSPHERE BIOSPHERE – 65 examine the variations within a single individual, as well as examining the differences between different individuals. They expected to see differences between male and females in line with the exaggerated plumage and song observed in males. They also expected to observe variation within a single individual as a bird adjusts their dance performance depending on their partner’s position and response. THE DANCE UNVEILEDHowever, contrary to predictions, no differences between males and females were observed in either the probability of dance occurring, the rate of bobbing, or the number of steps taken during a bob. In the world of birds, this is surprising seeing that females are thought to be the choosier sex. Even more surprising, is that female cordon-bleus seem to be choosy when it comes to their mates, but they do not seem to be selecting mates based off their dance performance. Yet, individual birds seemed to have their own style, with individuals varying how often he or she danced and the number of steps taken per bob; some birds are ‘break dancers’ whilst some are ‘slow dancers’. Additionally, contrary to the human adage of ‘dance like no one is watching’, both male and female birds danced more intensely, bobbing more quickly and taking more steps per bob, when their partner was present. These results highly suggest that this dance display may function as intersexual communication, with the bobbing and steps conveying some sort of information beyond male quality. The authors suggest that the bobbing movements may bring attention to the plumage of their heads, which differs between males and females, and/or the nesting materials that they hold. Furthermore, while singing, birds bobbed faster, but took fewer steps. This may be an adaptation to minimise interference between the sounds produced by singing versus the sounds and vibrations produced by the tapping feet. On the other hand, this may have also been a result of the constraints of dancing, singing and tapping at the same time – a physically demanding activity. THE SHOW MUST GO ONNaturalists and scientists have observed for decades that male birds have these fantastic, mind-blowing displays (just see the BBC Earth productions for amazing footage of dancing birds), and despite all these years of photographing and video-recording these splendid performances we have barely scratched the surface of just how they evolved, just how complex they are (such as individual, sex and group signatures) and how they are developed (tutors, mimicry, developmental time frame). Now, this study demonstrates that females, too, are performing complex multimodal courtship displays, which suggests that these signals may have evolved to serve in intersexual communication and social bonding. Previous studies have already hypothesised that duets may serve to signal commitment to the pair bond, and previous studies have shown links between acoustic signals and social bonding. As such, the cordon-bleu multimodal duet may lead the way towards further understanding the evolution of multimodal signals in courtship. Furthermore, non-vocal acoustic communication, What is the inherent What is the inherent What is the inherent What is the inherent bene t to these bene t to these bene t to these birds? BEHAVIOUR known scienti cally as sonation, remains a largely untapped area of research. In most species, a non- vocal acoustic signal occurs instead of, rather than in addition to, an acoustic signal. For example, during courtship ights, the Anna’s hummingbird ‘chirps’ with its tail, by means of modi ed tail feathers. Crested pigeons, Ocyphaps lophotes, have vocal courtship and territorial calls, but alarm calls are produced with modi ed wing feathers. So, it is most exciting and intriguing that the cordon-bleu appears to produce two acoustic signals at the same time. The production of two acoustic components then begs the question whether these birds are somehow coordinating the signals, not necessarily in a harmony versus melody sort of way, but as a way to enhance the clarity or ef cacy of the signal. “If the coordination between singing and dancing matters for females, that would be very interesting,” says Masayo, For example, when playing a goblet style drum, the drummer nominally uses one hand to play a ‘simpler’ base rhythm (also referred to as a skeleton rhythm) and the other hand to embellish the base rhythm. The base rhythm allows for a strong sense of timing to be achieved while the other hand allows elaboration, character and style to be added to the music. You can think of this second hand as the individual are, or in the case of bioacoustics studies, the individual ‘signature’, or other signatures such as group, sex or status signatures. Both male and female blue-capped cordon-bleus sing and dance at a whole new level by incorporating two acoustic components, rhythmic feet and vocal song, to their head-bob visual display. By doing so, these birds challenge what scientists know about the evolution of multi-modal communication. Studying these birds and other species that engage in male and female multimodal may one day further elucidate the complexity and evolution of these elaborate, mesmerising displays that continue to captivate mankind’s attention and imagination. Miya is an Assistant Professor at St.George’s University, Grenada, West Indies. She researches animal communication and social networks and how this relates to an individuals survival and tness. Ota, N., Gahr, M., & Soma, M. (2015). Tap dancing birds: the multimodal mutual courtship display of males and females in a socially monogamous songbird. Scienti c Reports, 5, 16614. © Nao Ota
Need help with creating a presentation for my Animal Behavior class in which we discuss different species and its behavior and how it helps them in their living habitat. The project is basically creat
Student presentat ion ideas • Here are a few ideas to help inspire you for your student presentations. • Remember , I am not looking for an academic power -point slide talk or written lab report, but more of a popular science communication style. Audio -visual Documentary ( Audiovisual ): see BBC Earth David Attenborough episodes, or National Geographic . Video with voice -over (but not lecture style) : Voice re cording + images https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O -noXG_X8KI&feature=emb_logo Mostly Wri tte n Po pular science online article for general adult audience : ‘The Conversation ’ uses a combination of written , audio and film clips to communicate . Here is one that I wrote ’ please feel free to have a look at other examples on this website. https://theconversation.com/industrial -noise -compels -savannah -sparrows -to-change -their -tune – 90151?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=facebookbutton Info graphs : You will probably need to do a bigger one (than the one below ), or multi -panel one to cover enough material for your presentation . https://twitter.com/Koper_Lab/status/1326215172621553664/photo/1 https://twitter.com/osanderfoot/status/1340025094798626817/photo/1 https://pineapplesandwhales.wordpress.com/2018/03/05/singin -in-the -prairie/ Audio See science podcast such as “quirks and quarks ” “science …sortof ”, etc …. https://sciencesortof.com/ https://insituscience.com/