Read the Fine Print

Animal Behavior Experiments Using Arthropods

Abstract:: This exercise is designed to familiarize the student with ethology, the study of animal behavior, by observing the behavior of several different arthropods.

Exercising Advocacy: Some Personal Ideas and Experiences

Abstract:: This talk was delivered to UCT alumni in London at South Africa House in 2007. It describes how the University influenced my early career and led me to study two of the important intellectual challenges of my life - exercise associated hyponatraemia and the central governor model of exercise. It then discusses the role of science in assisting the rise of South African cricket under the coaching of Bob Woolmer and of South African ascent to winning the 2007 Rugby World Cup under Jake White. It ends with the story of UCT graduate Lewis Gordon Pugh's swims in the Antarctic and Arctic, including his epic 18 minutes 1km swim at the North Pole in June 2007, how science insured his success, and the role that his self belief and that of his scientific support team played in that success.

Abstract:: This video lecture can be used by self learners or as a supplement to sports science course material. This talk was delivered to UCT alumni in London at South Africa House on 10 October 2007 and recorded a few weeks later in Cape Town. It describes how the University influenced my early career and led me to study two of the important intellectual challenges of my life -- exercise-associated hyponatraemia and the central governor model of exercise. It then discusses the role of science in assisting the rise of South African cricket under the coaching of Bob Woolmer and of South African ascent to winning the 2007 Rugby World Cup under Jake White. It ends with the story of UCT graduate Lewis Gordon Pugh's swims in the Antarctic and Arctic including his epic 18 minutes (1km) swim at the North Pole in June 2007; how science insured his success and the role that his self belief, and that of his scientific support team, played in that success.

Read the Fine Print

Abstract:: The instructor's section of this chapter considers some of the general challenges associated with converting a descriptive laboratory exercise to an inquiry exercise. It also contains the detailed methods of our current version of this animal behavior investigation. The second major section of this chapter contains the current student's version of this exercise. In this section students are led through initial observations of crickets and through the process of hypothesis formation about relationships between dominance hierarchies and mating behaviors. They then design and conduct an experiment using crickets to evaluate their hypothesis.

Read the Fine Print

Abstract:: Students apply Koch's Postulates in an attempt to discover the causative agent of "Pink Plague" a disease that has struck a group of commercially raised crickets. During the course of this exercise the students will isolate the suspected pathogen from one of a group of infected crickets. They will then characterize the isolated organism and use it to infect a new group of crickets to see if they can reproduce the same symptoms in the newly infected group. Reisolation of the suspected pathogen from this second group of organisms will confirm this organism as the etiologic agent of "Pink Plague."