Zoology 2013. Making Up a Missed Practical

Dear third-year students! If for some reason (presumably one of irresistible force) you missed the second-year practical at Haidary, I can only sympathize: you have been deprived of what may well be the most vivid and interesting part of your education. Unfortunately, it is impossible to fully compensate for this loss. The most we — my colleagues and I — can do for you is to allow you to take the missed practical externally. If for some reason you miss a lecture course, no one will deliver alternative lectures for you. At best, you will be allowed to sit the exam. And if taking the exam is harder for you than for those who attended the lectures, you can compensate for this by working harder to master the material. In the case of the practical, you will likewise need to master the material independently and then pass the assessment. The practical assessment your classmates took in Haidary consisted of an SIRS (student independent research project), a test in ichthyology and herpetology (examined by myself, D.Sh.) and a test in ornithology and theriology (examined by T.A.). You will need to pass the same, with the exception that instead of the SIRS you will prepare an essay meeting the requirements described on this page. The practical program is defined by the course manual, which is available to you in electronic form. T.A. additionally recorded a disc with ornithology presentations for students who came to the orientation session. It is a pity that the overwhelming majority of you ignored that session; you will need to find out which of your classmates has the disc with T.A.'s materials and copy it. Some of the materials I used in my sessions are available on this website. The assessment will take place on September 30th, a Monday, from 3:15 pm at the Department of Zoology and Animal Ecology. Before that date you must send your essay to the email address d.a.shabanov@gmail.com. If you cannot use email, bring it to me in electronic form on September 30th; if you cannot prepare it in electronic form, you may bring it printed out or even handwritten, but in that case I strongly advise you to consider how to urgently remedy your lag behind modern methods of working with information. The essay is a full-fledged description of one vertebrate species from the fauna of Kharkiv Oblast and, in particular, the Haidary area (a species included in the practical course manual). For students from Turkmenistan, this may be a species from the Turkmen fauna; for a student from China, from the Chinese fauna. As far as I know, some students in your year missed the practical because they were engaged in work related to bats (unrelated to their studies at the biology faculty). Lest their horizons be limited to bats alone, I am excluding bats from the list of species for which essays can be prepared (bats are included in the assessment program on general terms). Two students may not describe the same species. If two students write essays on the same species, the work will be credited to whoever submits it earlier or indicates in the comments to this page earlier which species they have chosen. The essay includes a description of: - the taxonomy of the chosen species; - a description of its characteristic features and distinguishing traits from closely related species; - a description of its range and the characteristics of its preferred habitats; - a detailed description of the biology of the species (feeding and defense strategies, life cycle, seasonal cycle, reproductive characteristics, etc.); - photographic, audio, and video materials (depending on the specifics of the chosen species); - a description of problems in its study and conservation; - a list of printed and electronic sources used. The essay should create a complete and vivid impression of the species being described. Essays not completed independently will not be assessed. Please do not test your luck by submitting a Wikipedia page — it will be of no use. A list of references (including URLs, internet links to sources of information, photo, video, and audio) is mandatory! The essay may take the form of a Word file with inserted illustrations and links to video and audio, or an HTML page with embedded materials. When working on the material, I recommend using the resources recommended for the vertebrate zoology course, especially Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. The search for study problems for the chosen species can be conducted using Google Scholar (search by Latin name, with analysis of the publication references found). If the essay is done well and its author agrees, it may be posted on Batrachos.com as supplementary material for future practicals (with the author's name and an expression of gratitude). However, the assessment of the essay (and of the practical) will depend solely on its quality, not on whether it is posted on the website. Clarifying questions can be asked in the comments to this page; the selection of species for essays can also be made there.