ABS 2018 Preliminary Program
The ABS 2018 program is now available! Click the link below for details on Symposia and Plenary talks as well as poster sessions and special events.
http://www.animalbehaviorsociety.org/2018/program-full.php
Please contact Jonathan Pruitt ([email protected]) for any questions about the program schedule.
2018 Public Day
Giving Pets The Good Life: The Science of Animal Behavior Shows Us How!
Saturday, August 4
2:00 PM- 6:00PM
UWM Campus- Kenwood IRC Room 1150
Free and open to the public. No registration required.
Organized by the ABS Applied Animal Behavior Committee and Certified Applied Animal Behaviorists
We all want what's best for our animals. But "what's best" has changed dramatically as the science of animal behavior and allied fields have revealed more about their behavioral, emotional and cognitive lives. Pets and other animals are far more behaviorally complex, sensitive and cognitively sophisticated that ever imagined. Join us for a stimulating afternoon of lectures by four internationally renowned applied animal behaviorists covering the newest research and how we can use it to provide today's version of The Good Life for our animals.
Intro: Giving Pets the Good Life, Dan Estep, PhD, CAABThe Science Behind Happy, Healthy, and Well-Adjusted Dogs, Emma Grigg, PhD, CAAB
Happy Horse, Safe Steed, Robin Foster, PhD, CAAB, CHBC and Tammy Donaldson, PHD, CAAB
Lost In Translation? Your Dog Is Talking To You!, Patricia McConnell, PhD, CAAB
CEU's offered. For more information about the speakers and talks please visit the Public Day webpage here: http://www.animalbehaviorsociety.org/2018/program-public.php
ABS 2018: Events and Workshops
ABS Outreach Fair: Adventures in Animal Behavior
Thursday, August 2nd
12:00PM - 4:00PM
Urban Ecology Center
Organized by the ABS Education Committee
It is hard to imagine a field better suited to science outreach than animal behavior. People have innumerable questions about the behavior of their pets or squirrels in their backyard, techniques and experiments are easy to demonstrate, and applications range from agriculture and conservation to understanding our own behavior. Each year ABS members come together by the hundreds at the annual meeting, offering a great opportunity to reach out to the local community to excite them about behavior research and science more generally. For the last several years, over 30 labs (about 15/year) have participated in the ABS Outreach Fair, which is generally hosted by local museums and natural history centers. Students, postdocs, and PIs have been working to translate their research into engaging and informative activities for the public, from taking fake birds out of mistnets and tracking stuffed mice with radio collars, to watching butterflies get marked and released. Letting kids participate in such methodological demonstrations is often a great hook for telling them about what we can learn from animal behavior. Fair participants have also designed creative ways to communicate concepts from their work, such as the ease with which some animals can distinguish olfactory cues, whereas we are much more visually oriented or the importance of learning in behavior. Thanks to the generous efforts of local museums and the ABS participants, each of these fairs has attracted a diverse audience, generally 300-600 members of the public, from toddlers to teens to seniors. The kids are invariably excited to explore each and every display and have been overheard remarking “Look Mom, a girl scientist!” While the outreach fair has proven a valuable event for the local community, it has emerged as equally exciting for the ABS participants. When else does one have an opportunity to see the famed “Patricelli Robogrouse” in action? And what better way to learn about possible systems for dissertation research than to see fish, spiders, termites, caterpillars and bees gathered together in one room with people that know how to work with them? Students have also remarked that having to explain their research to such a wide audience forced them to think about the broader importance of their work. And each year, the participants learn a lot about what activities work well for communicating their research (kids love prizes!) and which ones fall a little flat (people would rather do something than read something). Is your lab interested in participating in this year’s outreach fair? Please contact Sue Margulis ([email protected])
Education Committee Workshop: Animal Behavior Teaching Collection
Thursday, August 2nd
8:00AM - 12:00PM
Organizers: Heather Zimbler-DeLorenzo, Andrea Bierema, Deborah Boege-Tobin and Eduardo Bessa
After creating an Animal Behavior teaching activity or module, publish it using the Animal Behavior Teaching Collection on EcoEd. This free half day workshop will show you how to use the site, other useful teaching resources sites, and focus on the publishing aspect of teaching resources. This workshop will also continue to build off of past Education workshops and introduce new ideas for teaching methodologies.This is a free workshop.
Genomics for Animal Behaviorists
Thursday, August 2nd
12:30PM - 4:30PM
Organizer: Peter Dunn
This workshop will introduce genomics to animal behaviorists and help them get started using these techniques in their research. We will discuss study design, choice of methods, including practical issues of sequencing facilities, cost and computing resources, and then proceed to some brief hands-on data analyses based on the interests of the participants. The only background assumed is a basic knowledge of statistics and genetics, familiarity with your computer and interest in learning current genomic methods. This is a free half day workshop on Thursday, 2 Aug (12:30-4:30). Interested persons should send an email to [email protected] with their name, affiliation, and a few sentences about what they hope to learn or do with what they learn in the workshop.
Conservation Committee Workshop
Friday, August 3
3:00 PM - 6:00PM
Organizers: ABS Conservation Committee
The ABS Conservation Committee (ABS-CC) organizes workshops every other year at the ABS conference where we invite conservation practitioners from the field to present on issues they are facing protecting species. The one-day workshops are then aimed at applying behavioral theory and research to solving these real-world conservation problems. At ABS 2018, conservation behaviorists will be giving 10-minute talks to set the stage for the next workshop, which will be held at ABS 2019 in Chicago. The pre-workshop talks at ABS 2018 will also be filmed and made available online (see below for speakers and topics). The presentations will start at approximately 3:30PM and after the talks there will be a discussion and ABS-CC meeting. Anyone interested in conservation behavior is welcomed to join, regardless of whether you plan to attend the 2019 workshop, and this is a free event.
Barbara Clucas - Introduction to ABS-CC workshops
Rich Buchholz – What is conservation behavior?
Bruce Schulte – How do you do conservation behavior?
Misty McPhee – Connecting with conservation practitioners
Alison Greggor – Systematic reviews and conservation behavior
Public Affairs Committee: Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition
Sunday, August 5th
2:30pm-3:30pm
Organizers: Public Affairs Committee
How sharp are your science communication skills? Put them to the test in the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition! 3MT was originally developed by the University of Queensland for cultivate PhD students’ academic, presentation, and research communication skills. PhD students must effectively present their research in under three minutes, with minimal visual aids, in a manner accessible to a non-specialist audience. The only prop allowed is a single PowerPoint slide, with no animation, sound, or video. Competitors must have achieved candidacy in a doctoral program but not have received their PhD as of June 11, 2018. They will be judged on their content, clarity, accessibility, and presentation skills. Participation will be limited to 12 students. First come, first serve. The top 3 winners will receive prizes! For more information about 3MT, including examples from past competitions, check out their website at http://threeminutethesis.org/. To apply please email [email protected] with the Subject line: 3M Thesis Application.
ABS 2018 Silent Auction Reminder:
Bring Items to Milwaukee to Donate!!
Bring items from home, pick up items in your travels or from your field sites, or obtain donations from supportive colleagues and organizations. The more items we have, the more likely the auction will be as successful as it was last year!
What kind of items or services seem to be desirable?
- Books on Animal Behavior, Biology, Ecology, Conservation, Applied Animal Behavior, etc
- Autographed books from ABS authors
- Items with animal themes (t-shirts, jewelry, calendars, decor, greeting cards, posters, etc.)
- Software useful for members (statistics, data collection, etc.)
- Videotapes for teaching or entertainment with behavior themes
- Donations from zoo gift shops
- Memorabilia from past ABS meetings and members (vintage artifacts)
- Animal Photography
- Animal Artwork
- Statistical consulting, behind-the-scenes tour of the zoo, etc.
- Items from past meetings
- Time in privately owned vacation homes
- Anything legal that appeals to ABS Members!!
- Items that you donate for the auction will be placed at the meeting on tables next to bidding forms, or described if the item is not present.
During the meeting, members will visit the tables and bid on items by entering their bid on the bidding form. The auction will continue for several days while members bid against one another. The member with the highest bid at the deadline wins the item and takes it home with them.
Drop your items at the Registration Desk! Or if you can't make it to the meeting and you would still like to participate, you can mail it ahead to the campus. Just let us know what you will donate and we can provide the mailing address.
Funds raised will support Graduate Student Research and Latin American Affairs!
Contact the ABS Central Office About Your Donations: [email protected]