Ornithology, Bio 423 Spring 2007

Instructor: Jim Taulman, 605-745-3959, jimtaulman@yahoo.com

Syllabus

Course Description – This course will cover classification and characteristics of the avian orders, as well as avian ecology, evolution, natural history, and behavior. Birds of southwestern South Dakota will be emphasized.

Required Text – Ornithology by Franklin Gill, available in OLC bookstore.

Attendance – A student may be dropped after 3 consecutive absences. Partial attendance will accumulate to class absences. If you miss half of the 3 hour class you will not get credit for attending that class.

Your reasons for missing class will be assumed to be valid. The point is that your absence from 5 classes will not allow you to be exposed to enough of the class discussion to get credit for taking the course. If you miss 5 classes you will have to take the class over to get credit for it.

Homework – Work assignments will consist of reading and being familiar with chapters in the textbook for each class period. Students will learn bird songs through regular listening to the tapes.

Grading and Assessment–

Lecture - Three lecture tests will be given and will total 80% of your grade in the course.

Report – You will select one particular South Dakota bird species and do a research paper presenting all the information on it that you can find. Your search for background information may include internet sources, but you will need to include at least 3 published sources from a library such as books or journal articles.

In addition, a portion of your report will describe the significance, if any, of the species you are writing about to the Lakota people. This will require you to investigate Lakota writings or interview historians about your mammal species. You may do field observations and include those in your report, if you wish.

Your report should be written in scientific style with references to information sources cited in the text and should contain a literature cited section at the end that gives all publication data necessary for someone to find your source papers.

Introduction

Methods These headings may be combined if your paper is just a

Materials literature review

Results

Discussion

Literature Cited

The report will comprise 20% of your grade in the course. You should submit a draft of progress so far on your project by mid term. This will comprise 20% of your report grade. Late work will not be accepted. If you only submit the report at the end of the semester it will be graded on a scale whereby the maximum possible is 80% of your total report portion of the class grade.

Oral reports will be presented to the class on the last class day before the final exam. The written reports will be handed in at that time. You can present your report using any visual aids that you want, Powerpoint, posters, etc. Discuss your needs with me beforehand

A = 90 - 100

B = 80 - 89

C = 70 - 79

D = 60 – 69

F = 59 and below

Pre- and Post-semester Assessment – In an effort to provide a measure of familiarity with the course material gained over the semester, an evaluation will be completed by the students on the first day. The same evaluation will be repeated on the last day of class. This evaluation will not be graded, nor will it affect the student’s grade in any way.

Field Trips – We will take several field trips during the semester

Food – You can bring a drink into class but we won’t be eating in class.

January 23 Introduction

Jan. 30 Evolution and Systematics

Feb. 6 Anatomy and Physiology

Feb. 13 Test #1, More A&P

Feb. 20 Behavior

Feb. 27 Distributions and Ecology

Mar. 6 Threats and conservation

Mar. 13 Test #2, Survey of South Dakota birds

Mar. 20 Survey of South Dakota birds

Mar. 27 Spring Break

April 3 Field trip - grassland

April 10 Field trip – aquatic, riparian

April 17 Field trip – Ponderosa pine forest

April 24 Field trip – Spruce forest, Harney peak

May 1 Reports

May 8 Final exam