Course
Goals

A seminar is a place for active learning and discussion, where participants learn for and from one another. Learning takes work, and while I think I can promise that this course will be a lot of work, I hope that I can also promise that you will learn from it, and that the work therefore will be fun!

The purpose of this seminar is to introduce you to the field of primatology--the study of the biology,natural history, evolution and behavior of our closest living mammalian relatives. To accomplish this purpose, I've chosen the format of a seminar. A seminar class is a discussion class, with discussion based on the reading assignments. Thus, one of the goals of the course is to teach you all to become competant speakers in a public forum--able to lead discussions, to listen carefully to the words of others, and to respond to them thoughtfully and eloquently. Another goal is to teach you to become critical readers of and thinkers about primary literature. Note that to be critical of an idea or a piece of writing does not mean only to run down, degrade, or poke holes in it. When I ask you to be critical in this class, I am asking you to evaluate ideas carefully, to consider the merits as well as the demerits of the idea, and to judge it accordingly.

Ordinarily in a seminar, the instructor does very little speaking. In this particular seminar, however, I will probably do a little more talking than usual at times, as we all learn some common aspects of primatology before we start to "specialize" in particular primate groups.

Course Management

For this course, you MUST subscribe to the class listserv. The listserv will be used to post announcements, study guides,news, and other information relevant to this course. All information posted to the list is considered valid class material for use in quizzes. You can also use the list to have discussions about topics we cover in class, to ask questions of your classmates or instructor, or to form study groups.

You can subscribe to the class listserv now by clicking on this link. Leave the subject heading of the message blank. In the body of the message, type:

SUBSCRIBE primatebeh

Then send the message. You should get a confirmation message back from the listserv (a listserv is a computer, by the way--not a person!), to which you must reply in order to be subscribed to the list. Follow the instructions provided by the listserver in order to be subscribed to the list. Once subscribed, you need to check your email at least once a day, to look for announcements, study guides, or other course information. REMEMBER: Material posted to the list is fair game for testing.