Assignment description

Short answer questions (ungraded)

This is a self-assessed exercise.  Following the lectures in week 2 students will be given 2 short answer questions of the style you can expect in your final exam.  You should prepare answers to these, and model answers and a marking guide will be posted on iLearn in week 3.  The intention is to give students early feedback on their comprehension of the lecture material.  This is a self-assessed exercise.  Students do not need to submit this assignment through turnitin.  Students are encouraged to discuss their answers or any problems with the unit convenor.  This assessment does not count to your final grade. 

Topic for Essay and Essay Outline:

Discuss the role of dopamine in reward seeking in vertebrates

Recommended paper to begin your reading: Berridge, K. C., Robinson, T. E., and Aldridge, J. W. (2009). Dissecting components of reward: ‘liking’, ‘wanting’, and learning. Curr. Opin. Pharmcol. 9, 65–73.

Essay outline (5 % of final mark).  For this topic produce a brief outline of your essay detailing main headings, essay structure, principle conclusions and key source materials.  Maximum one page of A4 paper.  I don’t want to see big blocks of text or a half-written assay.  I want to be able to give feedback on your structure, intended content, and the nature of the argument you will develop in your essay. The intention of this assessment task is to give early feedback to students on their essay.

Essay (20 % of final mark).  For the assigned topic develop the essay outline into a fully referenced essay of maximum 2000 words.  There is no lower word limit.  The essay must be fully referenced according to the style of the journal Animal Behaviour.  The reference list does not count towards the word limit. 

Guide to assessment levels.  To pass this assignment you must produce a competent, coherent scientific argument that fully references primary literature. To achieve a distinction in this assignment you should show evidence of critical thinking, a capacity to structure an argument, comprehensive review of relevant literature, initiative in identifying relevant and current source material and a novel synthesis of information from multiple sources.  Refer to marking rubric at the end of the unit guide.

Project report (30 %)  During weeks 8 – 11 during the practical sessions you will participate in a study of the variation in lateralisation in humans. Working individually student will write up the project in the form of a research article to be submitted to the Journal of Experimental Biology.  For the style guidelines for research articles look here:

http://jeb.biologists.org/

under ‘author info’

You will also find it helpful to read some articles from Journal of Experimental Biology to help you model your writing. Maximum 3000 words, there is no lower word limit. Figure legends, abstract and references do not count towards to the word limit.  The project report must be fully referenced according to the journal style

Guide to assessment levels: To pass this assignment you must produce a report that appropriately present, analyse your findings, and discuss these with reference to existing literature.  Performance at distinction level in this assignment will involve contributing strongly and creatively to the practical work and producing a report that demonstrates a complete understanding of the rational for your topic, the state of the current relevant literature, competent and appropriate analyses, and demonstration of independent thought in analysis and interpretation of the data. Refer to marking rubric at the end of the unit guide.

Final exam (45%).  Held in the end-of-year exam period. Students will be tested on their knowledge of course content. The exam may include material from all lectures and practical classes up to and including week 13. No written material, programmable calculators or mobile phones may be brought into the exam room. Non-programmable calculators may be used.

Guide to unit assessment levels:

As a guide to approximate grade boundaries, in all assessment tasks a pass is 50-64 %, a credit is 65-74 %, distinction is 75-84 % and an HD is > 85 %. 

Academic senate has a set of guidelines on the distribution of grades across the range from fail to high distinction.  Your final result will include a grade plus a standardised numerical grade (SNG) that involves a process of scaling and normalising grades to ensure fare and standard grading across the university.  Because of this normalising process it is possible that your raw mark for this unit calculated from your assessments will not be identical to your SNG.  

Extensions and penalties

10% of the mark allocated for the assignment will be deducted for every 24 h period (or part thereof) that any work is submitted past the nominated deadline.

The deadlines for assignments are not negotiable. Only a medical certificate or a letter with appropriate supporting documents outlining other serious, extenuating circumstances can be used to submit an assignment after the due date without penalty. Applications for special consideration or extension must be lodged through Tracker. All applications for special consideration or extension must be sought before the due date, unless this is absolutely impossible. Details on special consideration are provided here:

http://www.student.mq.edu.au/ses/Special%20Consideration.html

Returning assessment tasks

Assessment tasks and feedback will be returned via iLearn. 

Website

The course homepage containing lecture handouts, course materials and lecture recordings is available on iLearn

http://mq.edu.au/iLearn/

You must use iLearn for:

• Regularly checking subject announcements.
• Downloading lecture materials.
• Downloading laboratory materials.
• Downloading reference materials.
• Checking your grades.

If you are having trouble accessing the online unit due to a disability or health condition, please go to the Student Services Website at http://sss.mq.edu.au/equity/about for information on how to get assistance. If you are having problems logging on you should contact Student IT Help, Phone: (02) 9850 4357 (in Sydney) or 1 800 063 191 (outside Sydney).

How BBE306 works

Lectures will be held in C4A 315 on Tuesday’s 10 am – 12 pm, except weeks 9 and 10.  The material in weeks 9 and 10 will be pre-recorded and available in iLearn by the Monday beginning each week. 

Lecture notes for each week will be uploaded to iLearn by the Sunday preceding the lecture at the latest.

Practicals will be held in F7B 102 on Fridays at either 9 am  - 12 pm or 1 pm to 4 pm.  Practicals are not held every week.  Consult the practical handbook for full details of each week’s activities.

Tutorials I will be available between 2 pm and 4 pm Tuesdays in W19F 143 (with the exception of Weeks 7, 9 and 10) to answer questions on the material covered in the unit.  If you cannot attend in person call me on 9850 1310 during these hours.

Assignments details and deadlines are given below.  All assignments must be submitted via Turnitin using the links set up in iLearn (look under the assignments tab).  It is up to you to upload and submit by deadline.  Feedback will also be given via Turnitin and iLearn.  Submit all assignments as word documents so that I can annotate them to give feedback. Do not submit as PDF.   Annotations and corrections will be made using the track-changes function of Word. To reduce paper wastage do not submit hard copy to the science center. 

Unit completion requirements

To pass this subject you must achieve all of the following.

• Receive a final overall SNG of > 50%.
• Submit an essay outline
• Submit an essay
• Submit a project report
• Take the final examination

Required unit materials

The work carried out during practical classes is an important and integral part of the course. You must have a lab coat for the first on-campus practical session on the 10^th and 11^th August.  Enclosed shoes are needed for every practical class in accordance with standard safety procedures.  Enclosed shoes are defined as flat shoes that cover at least the front half of the foot.  Without these you will not be allowed entry to the laboratory.

You will require a note book for the practical classes for your own notes and reference. 

Recommended readings

This scope of the unit is such that there is no single book that covers all the course content. The course also presents and discusses the latest scientific findings, which have not percolated into the text books yet.  For these reasons there is no nominated textbook for this course, rather each lecture provides a list of references and source materials.  For a higher-level unit such as this it is expected that you are accessing and exploring the primary scientific literature.  However, a number of books do have excellent sections that are relevant the topics covered in this unit.  These are listed below.  These selected readings do not encapsulate the lecture material, they are not complete readings for a given topic, and are definitely not a substitute for the lectures or for broader reading.  They are, however, the best introductory text for each topic, and will help you understand and revise the lecture material, and launch your exploration of the primary literature. 

Other recommended books

7-Day loan

Animal behavior : an evolutionary approach / John Alcock. QL751 .A58/2001

Cognitive ecology : the evolutionary ecology of information processing and decision making / edited by Reuven Dukas QL785 .C5/1998

Nerve cells and animal behaviour / Peter J. Simmons and David Young QP356 .Y68/1999

The naked ape / Desmond Morris QH368 .M88

Fundamental neuroscience / edited by Larry Squire ... [et al.] QP355.2 .F862 2008

Nature via nurture : genes, experience, and what makes us human / Matt Ridley QH438.5 .R535 2003

The selfish gene / Richard Dawkins QH437 .D38

Hormones and social behavior / D. Pfaff ... [et al.] (eds.). QP356.45 .H432 2008

Biology, evolution and human nature / Timothy H. Goldsmith and William F. Zimmerman QH308.2 .G665 2001

Reserve

An introduction to nervous systems / Ralph J. Greenspan QP361 .G67 2007

Neuroethology : nerve cells and the natural behavior of animals / Jeffrey M. Camhi QP360 .C33/1984

Biology : the dynamic science / Peter J. Russell ... [et al.]. QH308.2 .B562 2008

Behavioral neurobiology : the cellular organization of natural behavior / Thomas J. Carew. QP360 .C347 2000  

Main Collection.

Motivation a Biobehavioural approach / Roderick Wong BF503 .W665 2000

Learning and Memory from Brain to Behaviour / Mark A. Gluck, Eduardo Mercado & Catherine E. Myers QP408 .G58 2008

The Naked Man a Study of the Male Body / Desmond Morris HQ1090. M669 2009

Foundations of Neurobiology / Fred Delcomyn QP355.2 .D45 1997

Hardwired Behaviour what Neuroscience Reveals about Morality / Lawrence Tancredi BJ45.5 .T36 2005

An introduction to Behaviour Genetics / Terence J. Bazzett QH457 B37 2008

An introduction to Brain and Behaviour / Bryan Kolb & Ian Q Whishaw QP376 .K635 2006

Biological Psychology / James W. Kalat QP360 K33 2007

References to supplemental readings relevant to each lecture and practical topic will be provided for each lecture.  Some of these will be posted via Blackboard as PDF files.  

Lecture topics.  All lectures are 2 h

Practical sessions

ASSESSMENT IN THIS UNIT

Assessment at a glance –