Draft a report on Japanese pufferish mating

Step 1: Choose a concept and associated question to investigate

Use the UNSW library online resources to investigate the research behind the behaviour and concept you identified in Part 1. You can switch at this point to some other behaviour and concept you identified in the documentary, perhaps because your preliminary search didn't turn up what you hoped for, or simply because you've changed your mind!

There is no need to wait for your mark and feedback from Part 1 to start Part 2. Use your time wisely! It will take a couple of weeks researching your topic before you're ready to start thinking about how to structure your final review.

There are a number of ways you can begin your investigation...

The most basic is to search a topic online to find associated academic research articles, and then access those research papers by searching the journal name in the eJournal option on the UNSW library webpage.

A better approach is to go directly to the UNSW library webpage and look up 'Web of Science' in the database search option. Once you've logged on using your z-pass, you can research your topic and find the peer- reviewed research articles that have been published on it. In most cases you'll be able to download the pdf copies of those papers directly through Web of Science. But, again, the eJournal resource on the UNSW library webpage will also be useful.

When completing your report, be sure to cite the appropriate references and provide a complete list of those in a reference list at the end of your report. Format your report, including providing the full bibliographic details for all references cited in your reference list, as if it were to appear in the 'Invited Review' section of the academic journal Behavioral Ecology (http://academic.oup.com/beheco). Note, not every issue has an invited review at its start, so you might need to look through several different issues to find examples.

Download a few recent examples appearing in this section of the journal to use as a guide for how to structure and present your report. You will have free access to all of the content published in this journal, but you will need to navigate to it through the UNSW library webpage. Log-in to myLibrary, click on eJournals near the top of the page, and then type "Behavioral Ecology" in the Journal Search field. It will likely come up as "Behavioral Ecology: Official Journal of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology". Click on Check online access and select the 'full text available' option. This will take you to the journal webpage itself.

Before writing your report, reflect on the manner in which these Invited Reviews are structured. They typically begin with a general overview of the topic-in your case, this topic will be the behaviour and associated research on the animals shown in the documentary (see Step 2 below)-which is then followed by several subheadings that expand on the issue in more detailed sections of discussion-e.g., how this behaviour has been studied in other animals not shown in the documentary, what the challenges might be in studying or interpreting this behaviour, the relevance of this behaviour for our broader understanding of speciation, reproduction, conservation, etc (see Step 3 below). Usually, the article ends with a conclusion of some kind about what the take home message(s) might be and where future research should be directed. That said, you'll also notice that the structure and presentation of these Invited Reviews are quite varied, so think carefully about the best way to write your report given the behaviour and research you are hoping to present.

The key to success is to start early and read widely on the research associated with the behaviour shown in the documentary and other behaviours that might be related in some way. In the report itself, be sure to frequently reference that published research but please avoid presenting a shopping list of examples. This is easy to do and might seem like a great way to show how much literature you've read, but it fails to demonstrate how you have reflected on those examples and how you consider those examples fitting together into a coherent overview. The best reports are those that provide a general narrative structure that leads the reader intuitively from one point/theme to another, using examples (cited research) where necessary.

Please note: newspaper and popular science artides are not appropriate sources for your report. The objective of this assignment is to get you reading and thinking about research written by the scientists who have actually done the research, and to reflect on how that science relates to the way in which behaviour is often depicted in documentaries: sometimes accurately, other times superficially, and the worst times are not at all.

Step 2: Investigate the research on the behaviour of the animal(s) presented in the documentary

Begin your report with a review of the research that has been done on the species or animal group shown in the documentary. Guide: 400-600 words.

For example, perhaps you observed an interesting little fish using a reef to crack open the hard shell of a dam. This is an example of the concept 'tool use'. Begin by presenting the research that has been published on this behaviour for this or similar fish.

Step 3: Expand your investigation to other animal groups beyond those shown in the documentary

Now broaden your review to reveal the studies that have been done on your concept beyond the species or species group shown in the documentary. Guide: 1000-1500 words.

For example, in the case of tool use in our little fish, investigate what other animal groups have been discovered to use tools. You might also need to specifically define your concept in formal terms; e.g., what exactly is "tool use" anyway? What does this concept reveal about our general understanding of animal behaviour, for example in relation to animal cognition, or learning, or cultural transmission of novel behaviour, or the evolution of behaviour?

Step 4: Re-evaluation the presentation of the behaviour in the documentary 

In this final exercise, provide an appendix to your review that translates your newly acquired knowledge into some form of lay description-something that can be easily understood by the general public-that presents the behaviour observed in the documentary with a solid foundation in the science of what the behaviour is about and what it reveals about the animal shown and other species that also exhibit similar behaviour.

This is your opportunity to be creative. Guide: 400-600 words.

Here are some ideas:

• You could rewrite the narrative of the segment in the documentary to be more representative of what the animal is actually doing and why it is doing it, and what it might teach us about the natural world or even ourselves.
• You could write a pitch to a production team that describes the behaviour, including what animals you might see performing the behaviour, why it's interesting and how it reveals something important about animal behaviour (or ourselves).
• You could write a short children's story on the 'day-in-the-life' of an animal that performs the behaviour, and why, and what it reveals to us about the inner world of animals. Award winning children's stories not only educate children, but parents and carers reading along with them.

The format of this appendix is up to you and will depend on how you complete this aspect of your assignment.