Animal Sociality I & II

About

The aim of this seminar is to introduce students to cutting edge original research on animal societies and to train them to discuss current results and hypotheses. 

This year the seminar will run completly digital and asynchronous, i.e. there are no fixed times for meetings or working on the course content. Students enjoy freedom to choose according to their interest from a broad range of topics and the learning process will be guided by the general structure of the course.

The course is organized around scientific talks, which will be available online (streamed and/or recorded) and cover different topics in the field of animal behavior. Students are expected to prepare for 2 talks (for 1ECTS; 4 talks for 2 ECTS) using available literature: 2 published papers by the presenting scientist, one review paper on the topic, and one textbook chapter for the theoretical background. In the week preceding the talk, students discuss their prepared material with the other students and the seminar organizer to consolidate their knowledge of the topic and its main concepts and develop questions. After each talk, students have to deliver a report in which they reflect on the topic, their new insights and questions.

The talks we are using for the course are organized by Matthew Zipple (Duke University) and are publicly available (streamed and recordings), he posts all the information on Twitter under @LTARseminars.