Courses at the University of Konstanz
With our tertiary education partner the University of Konstanz, the MPI-AB is an active partner in teaching and supervising students from undergraduate to graduate levels. Our departmental directors, Iain Couzin, Meg Crofoot, and Martin Wikelski, all hold full-time or honorary professorships with the University of Konstanz, and so are embedded in teaching services. Together with our group leaders, they deliver the hands-on and theoretical programs that train students in quantitative animal behavior. MPI-AB courses include a lecture at the Bachelor level as well as advanced Master’s courses. Seminars and journal clubs offer informal ways for students to be involved in our institute’s scientific exchange.
Bachelor of Sciences
- BIO-14250;
- Summer semester; 3 ECTS;
- Location: University of Konstanz
- Lecturers: Iain D. Couzin & Alex Jordan
The ability to move can provide distinct advantages for organisms if they can find the most suitable environment to live in. However, to do so, individuals must have the ability for locomotion and the ability to make decisions about where to move. How animals do this is the key focus of research in Animal Behaviour. The study of animal behaviour is therefore highly integrative and has a strong focus on the evolutionary basis of how animals respond to selective pressure arising from their environment. The lectures will first introduce behaviour and explain the mechanisms that generate behaviour. They will then cover a range of topics to provide a broad understanding of how and why animals behave, including: social and collective animal behaviour, predator-prey and co-evolutionary dynamics, group living and social learning, natural and sexual selection, signaling and communication, innovation and problem-solving.
Master of Sciences
- BIO-14300: Lecture
- BIO-14310: Practical
- Winter semester; 5 ECTS: Lecture
- 10 ECTS: Practical
- Location: University of Konstanz
- Lecturers: Iain D. Couzin & Alex Jordan
This course will focus on the quantitative analysis of collective animal behavior in the laboratory and the field. Introductory lectures will cover key concepts and techniques, including automated tracking of animal movements and postures in 2D and 3D space, how social interactions scale to collective dynamics, how information flows through social networks and the resulting transmission of socially learned knowledge and the relation to cumulative culture in animal populations and societies. Theoretical concepts will be expounded through the development of simulations of collective dynamics using video game engines and immersive virtual reality. Subsequently students, and the faculty, will work together to design analyses of models or existing data, resulting in novel research projects.
- BIO-xxxxx: Lecture
- BIO-yyyyy: Practical
- Summer semester; 5 ECTS: Lecture
- 10 ECTS: Practical
- Location: MPI of Animal Behavior, Bücklestraße 5, Konstanz
- Lecturers: Meg Crofoot, Dina Dechmann, Urs Kalbitzer & Martin Wikelski
Observational and experimental studies on animal behavior in the field (i.e, in situ) are essential to understand animal behavior in the context of life history, ecology and evolution. Yet, such studies present unique challenges in study design, data collection, data analysis, and data interpretation. Our goal for this course is to equip you with the skills required to conduct behavioral ecology research by providing you with hands-on experience in designing and executing your own field study. During theoretical and practical sessions you will learn how to formulate research questions, how to collect data in the field, how to analyze these data, and how to report your results to a scientific audience. As part of this process, you will spend 2-3 weeks in the field during which time you will conduct your own, independent field research projects. Therefore, this VTK and the course “Going Wild: Behavior and Ecology of Animals“ must be taken together. To learn how to design a study, we will review and discuss some basic concepts of behavioral ecological research, the kind of questions that are asked in behavioral ecology, and how data are collected and analyzed to address these questions. As such, this part will be closely linked to a series of hands-on modules during which you will learn the analysis of quantitative behavioral and ecological data, including a general introduction to scientific programming (in R or Python), data wrangling, and visualization. We will build up from the basics, therefore no prior knowledge of programming is expected. Students should, however, bring enthusiasm for picking up new skills and a positive attitude towards diving into computational challenges. Throughout the course, you will also have a lot of time to go outside to address your independently-formulated research questions and to conduct a field project by collecting data from free-ranging animals. Then, you will analyze the collected data by implementing effective analytical techniques, and interpret the results of your analyses. In addition to technical skills, you will learn problem-solving skills, lateral thinking and resilience in data collection and analysis, which is essential for fieldwork where things inevitably don’t go completely as planned, and when working with exciting, but sometimes ‘messy’ data. Finally, you will present your findings in a talk to an audience of researchers from the University of Konstanz and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and write them up in a scientific report, with the potential for subsequent publication. We will support you during this process by offering sessions on scientific writing throughout the course, to help you develop your communication skills.
- BIO-xxxxx;
- Summer semester; x ECTS;
- Lecturers: Alex Jordan, Kamran Safi & Ariana Strandburg-Peshkin
Observational and experimental studies on animal behavior in the field (i.e, in situ) are essential to understand animal behavior in the context of life history, ecology and evolution. Yet, such studies present unique challenges in study design, data collection, data analysis, and data interpretation. Our goal for this course is to equip you with the skills required to conduct behavioral ecology research by providing you with hands-on experience in designing and executing your own field study. During theoretical and practical sessions you will learn how to formulate research questions, how to collect data in the field, how to analyze these data, and how to report your results to a scientific audience. As part of this process, you will spend 2-3 weeks in the field during which time you will conduct your own, independent field research projects. Therefore, this VTK and the course “Going Wild: Behavior and Ecology of Animals“ must be taken together. To learn how to design a study, we will review and discuss some basic concepts of behavioral ecological research, the kind of questions that are asked in behavioral ecology, and how data are collected and analyzed to address these questions. As such, this part will be closely linked to a series of hands-on modules during which you will learn the analysis of quantitative behavioral and ecological data, including a general introduction to scientific programming (in R or Python), data wrangling, and visualization. We will build up from the basics, therefore no prior knowledge of programming is expected. Students should, however, bring enthusiasm for picking up new skills and a positive attitude towards diving into computational challenges. Throughout the course, you will also have a lot of time to go outside to address your independently-formulated research questions and to conduct a field project by collecting data from free-ranging animals. Then, you will analyze the collected data by implementing effective analytical techniques, and interpret the results of your analyses. In addition to technical skills, you will learn problem-solving skills, lateral thinking and resilience in data collection and analysis, which is essential for fieldwork where things inevitably don’t go completely as planned, and when working with exciting, but sometimes ‘messy’ data. Finally, you will present your findings in a talk to an audience of researchers from the University of Konstanz and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and write them up in a scientific report, with the potential for subsequent publication. We will support you during this process by offering sessions on scientific writing throughout the course, to help you develop your communication skills.
- BIO-12210;
- Winter semester 2 ECTS;
- Location: MPI of Animal Behavior, Bücklestraße 5, Konstanz
- Lecturer: Kamran Safi
This course will allow for one week of intense introduction in R a powerful opensource programming environment widely used in scientific research. We will begin with understanding how we can wrok with R to make our lifes as biologists from a wider range of subdisciplines easier. Consequently, we will want to undestand how data can be mined, rearranged and basic visualisations made. This is not a statistics course, it is intended to give a general all purpose introduction in R, from where further exploration can be achieved without the usually steep initial learning curve.
- BIO-15300;
- Winter semester 4 ECTS;
- Location: MPI of Animal Behavior, Bücklestraße 5, Konstanz
- Lecturer: Brendan Barrett & Urs Kalbitzer
We will use the book “Statistical Rethinking” (McElreath 2020, 2nd edition) to learn and discuss the application of Bayesian data analysis. We will cover the basics of probability theory, statistical models and predictions, information criteria and model comparisons, sampling (Markov Chain Monte Carlo), causal inference and DAGs, generalized linear models, mixture models, and hierarchical models.
- BIO-16060;
- Summer semester 2 ECTS;
- Location: MPI of Animal Behavior, Bücklestraße 5, Konstanz
- Lecturer: Brendan Barrett
We will cover Chapters 12-16 in the book “Statistical Rethinking” (McElreath 2020, 2nd edition) to learn and discuss the application of Bayesian data analysis. We will cover intermediate probability theory, causal inference and DAGs, generalized linear models, mixture models, and hierarchical models. Students will gain familiarity in coding models in the STAN language.
- BIO-15210;
- Winter & summer semester; Tuesday 10:30am; 1 ECTS;
- Location: University of Konstanz, MPI of Animal Behavior at Bücklestraße and in Möggingen as well as online
- Organizer: Urs Kalbitzer
Every week, we have a presentation by an invited scientist presenting their latest research in Animal Behavior.
- BIO-15440;
- Winter & summer semester; Friday 10:30am; 1 ECTS;
- Location: MPI of Animal Behavior in Möggingen as well as online
- Organizer: Dina Dechmann & Andrea Flack
Every week, we have a presentation by a member of the Migration Department presenting their latest research in Animal Movement.
- BIO-15200;
- Winter & summer semester; Wednesday 2pm; 2 ECTS;
- Location: MPI of Animal Behavior, Bücklestraße 5, Konstanz
- Organizer: Urs Kalbitzer & Meg Crofoot
Every week, we have a presentation by a member of the Ecology of Animal Societies Department presenting their latest research.
- BIO-15500;
- Winter & summer semester; Tuesday 3pm; 1 ECTS;
- Location: MPI of Animal Behavior in Möggingen and online
- Lecturer: Dina Dechmann
Every week, we discuss our current projects and have presentations by group members or external colleagues.
- BIO-15420;
- Winter & summer semester; Friday 3pm; 1 ECTS;
- Location: University of Konstanz, ZT building and online
- Lecturer: Iain D. Couzin
Every week, we have a presentation by a member of the Collective Behavior Department presenting their latest research.
- BIO-14150;
- Winter & summer semester; Thursday 3:30pm; 2 ECTS;
- Location: MPI of Animal Behavior, Bücklestraße 5, Konstanz
- Lecturer: Alex Jordan
Every week, we discuss our current projects and have presentations by group members or external colleagues.