Having read the book and taken notes, now it is time to put your thoughts together. This assignment gives you a chance to demonstrate that you have found some interesting ideas and questions and that the assignment stimulated you to think more deeply about comparative animal physiology.
1. For each of these five sets of chapters (Chapter 1-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20, 21-25) write about something you found of interest or some question a particular chapter, or set of chapters, raised for you.
You might begin each of your 5 comments with one of the following writing prompts.
I was surprised to learn in Chapter X…..,
I do not understand why…..
Chapter Y gives an interesting summary about…..,
Chapter Z is about ??? and it made me wonder …..
Writing 3 to 5 sentences for each of the ideas you pick of the five chapter sections is sufficient. Note you do not need to write about each chapter. You not need to write about an entire chapter.You do need to write about one idea from each of the sections.
2. The book has several broad themes about animal adaptations for dealing with winters in New England.Write a 300 to 500 word essay of a theme expressed in three different chapters. Make sure to mention the specific chapters and how you are tying them together. Possible topics are mechanisms, behavioral/physiological solutions, regulation, homeostasis, dynamic homeostasis, temperature, metabolism, rhythms, energetic, feeding, etc.
3. Explore in more depth one of the topics or organisms you liked in the book by writing a 300 to 500 word essay about it. Relate your essay to two scientific papers you find in the literature. Cite the papers in your essay and upload them with the assignment. (It is alright to use one paper from those listed in Heinrich’s book) The essay should address a general theme in comparative animal physiology such as structure-function relationships,energy balance,and behavior/physiological solutions to environmental challenges, etc. Also use one or more of the four perspectives developed by Tinbergen: ontogeny (development),mechanism (function), phylogeny (historical development) and adaptive significance (evolutionary advantage).