1. Day 1 Field Experience

2. What is Science? What is it? What is it not?
Science is a vast field of knowledge, all with a common goal: Not to prove, but to EXPLAIN the natural world: develop knowledge
Does not deal with:
morals: doesn’t make moral judgments
Aesthetics: doesn’t make aesthetics judgments
It doesn’t tell you how to use scientific knowledge
Doesn’t draw conclusions about the supernatural world: Questions that deal with supernatural explanations are, by definition, beyond the realm of nature — and hence, also beyond the realm of what can be studied by science. For many, such questions are matters of personal faith and spirituality.
It’s both a body of knowledge AND a process (a way we learn about the world reliably); Very dynamic
Science: a way of understanding the natural world (NOT the only way: philosophy, religion; but the only OBJECTIVE way)
Science: based on observations that are verifiable
repeatable measurements
Make hypotheses, test them, synthesize into a body of science

3. But really, the scientific method looks more like this in my every day life
Exploration and Discovery
- reading literature
- making observations
- asking questions
- sharing data/ideas
(things like curiosity, personal motivation, weird observation, new technology, practical problems come into play)
Testing ideas:
- Gathering data: hypo, run experiments, get results
- Interpreting data: conclude (support, oppose hypothesis, revise hypothesis, inspire for new hypothesis)
Community Analysis and Feedback - peer-review, publication
- replicate
- discussion with colleagues
- coming up with new ideas/questions
Benefits and Outcomes
- Develop technology
- Address societal issues
- Inform policy
- Build knowledge
- Satisfy curiosity
- Solve everyday problems
(applied vs. basic science)

4. Scientific questions can be answered using different approaches
Observational tests
Experimental tests (incl. natural experiments)
Comparative tests
Models
Experiments
More rigorous examination of cause
Sometimes difficult to be sure relevant to the natural situation
Observational
More natural situation
Correlations may arise for other reasons
Natural variation can be too limited for a valid test
Comparative
Tests on evolutionary time scale
Requires knowing phylogeny

5. Observational studies

6. Biological concepts and skills covered today
Identification skills
Note taking in the field
Data collection in the field
Developing predictions from theory
Finding resources regarding the natural history of organisms
Compiling a dataset as a group
Ecological patterns of dispersion
Link between behavior and morphology
Escape behaviors

7. Population Ecology: characterizing populations of organisms
Population size
Population density
Distribution
Dispersion: spatial arrangement of individuals within a population

8. Patterns of dispersion

9. Link between morphology and behavior
Chamaeleon
Integration of Behaviour with Morphology, and Physiology
Antipredator adaptations often involve particular morphological traits such as body surface shape and coloration.
Sometimes they involve physiological traits such as production of venoms or noxious smells or tastes.
These morphological and physiological traits often also involve behaviour.
For example, blending into the background may require motionlessness [example chameleon] and effective use of noxious smells may involve decisions of when to release them [example skunk].
Vice versa, behavioral adaptations require morphological and physiological adaptations
For example, fleeing may rely on muscle and bone structures that permit rapid acceleration or sustained flight [example deer].
skunk

10. Escape behavior and morphology
Not just a gradient along one trait, but among several traits (the key ones) = combinations
Tradeoff between color pattern and evasive “reversing” behavior (figure caption from Whitlock 1995 review below):
“Brodie (1992) measured the survivorship through the first year of young garter snakes (Thamnophis ordinoides), a highly polymorphic species.
Snakes with longitudinal stripes survive better if they run straight away from predators, but snakes with blotched patterns are better able to avoid predators by reversing the direction of flight and attempting to hide cryptically.
This is the presumed reason for the saddle in the fitness function of striping and the tendency to reverse direction.”