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Students interact with a variety of species at the ISU teaching farms, including the swine farm (above), the horse barn (above middle), the beef farm (below) and other ISU Research farms. |
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Dr. Johnson has a 25% teaching appointment: Dr. Johnson provides informed Animal Behavior instruction to the students of Iowa State University. An S 336 is a course taught in the fall of each year. Throughout the spring semester, the Behavior Lab is available for behavior-related inquiries and student help. For further help, please review the Encyclopedia of Farm Animal Behavior (USDA-ARS, Lubbock, TX). Students in search of animal behavior, career or academic aid may also visit the following sites for further assistance:
Undergraduate
An S 336. Domestic Animal Behavior and Well-Being. Syllabus (2-2) Cr. 3. F. Prereq: One course in physiology. Concern about the well-being of domesticated animals has increased dramatically in the United States and across many other industrialized countries. The issues involved are complex, and there is widespread disagreement both as to the extent of human responsibilities toward animals and how those responsibilities should be carried out. Although human ethical attitudes are an important part of the dialogue about animals in this course we will not deal directly with human values, but will instead attempt to look at the problem from the perspective of the animal. Who are animals? What can they experience? How can management practices and environments be modified to improve the well-being of animals? We will attempt to gain some basic skills and perspective in this course that can enable us to begin addressing these questions systematically.
Graduate
An S 537. Topics in Farm Animal Environmental Physiology, Behavior, Stress and Welfare. Cr. 2 S.F. To familiarize students with current and classical scientific literature in areas of: Immunology, brain and endocrine mechanisms of stress, stress-immune system interactions and mechanisms, behavior, performance and health measures and animal rights. The course is co-taught across three institutions: Iowa State University (Dr. Johnson), University of Illinois (Dr. Salak-Johnson) and Texas Tech University (Dr. Sutherland). This course provides the opportunity for senior undergraduates and graduate students to interact with students at different universities with similar interests. The course covers:
- Animal rights and philosophies
- Brain mechanism of stress
- Measuring behavior and welfare
- Environmental stressors
- Stress and the immunity
- Behavioral measures of farm animal welfare
For further information regarding Dr. Johnson's classes and behavioral instruction at other universities, please click on the following links.
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