Members of the Amundsen Lab are involved in courses at all levels. Below I list the courses that Trond is either running or have major contributions to. Typically, PhD students of the lab are involved as project supervisors, or give lectures, on the various courses. In all courses, Trond strives for student-teacher interaction to help learning and academic reflection.

BI 1003 Ecology, Ethology & Evolution (15 ECTS Credits)

1st year biology course, annually (autumn term)

Taught in Norwegian/Scandinavian. Full-term course, written exam (6h).

This course addresses the fundamentals of ecology, behaviour and evolutionary biology. Trond teaches the behaviour part every second year, alternating with Gunilla Rosenqvist (Trond in odd number years, Gunilla in even number years). The course provides an introduction to all aspects of behaviour, including the nature/nurture debate, competition, foraging, sociality, reproduction, etc. The text book for the course is John Alcock’s excellent «Animal Behavior» (now 9th ed.), but lectures are topical and don’t follow the book tightly. Lectures include video clips from Attenborough’s «Trials of Life», and other series. The course manager is professor Lars Söderström.

BI 2045 Communication & Reproductive Behaviour

(7.5 ECTS Credits)

Advanced undergraduate course, annually (spring term)

Taught in English if international students attend, else in Norwegian. Written project always in English. Full-term course, written exam (4h) plus project report settle the mark.

This course gives in-depth insights into animal communication and reproductive behaviour, with an emphasis on topics central to research an the NTNU (and in the Amundsen lab). Topics include the basics of sexual selection, principles of communication, animal sex roles, sexual selection on females, speciation and sexual selection, and signaling in plants. The course includes a team project to write a review on a current controversy in the field, based on evidence of theory found in the primary scientific literature. In doing so, the course has a strong focus on training students in how to tests scientific theories, which obviously has wide training relevance. The literature for the course is relevant primary scientific literature: book chapters and journal articles.

BI 3041 Sexual Selection (7.5 ECTS Credits)

MSc course, bi-annially (spring term, even number years: 2012, 2014...)

Taught in English unless otherwise agreed. Intensive (typically 2-3 weeks) course, oral exam.

This is a seminar-based course that gives in-depth knowledge of the field of sexual selection. Rather than being a small, specialist topic, sexual selection is actually one of the strongest selective forces to shape the morphology, behaviour and reproductive anatomy of animals. Topics include sexual competition, mate choice and how the two interact, the importance of social and sexual relations to sexual selection, post-copulatory sexual selection on males and females, and more. Teaching is discussion-based, with Trond acting as discussion mediator and ‘provocateur’, and with students responsible for brief introductions at each seminar. The literature for the course is scientific articles that reflect current knowledge and controversies, mostly from leading scientific journals.

BI 8092 Theory of Science in Biology (7.5 ECTS Credits)

PhD course, bi-annially (spring term, odd number years: 2013, 2015, ....)

Taught in English unless otherwise agreed. Intensive (typically 2-3 weeks) course, oral exam.

This course aims to take the theory & methods of science ‘down to earth’ and relate them directly to the everyday scientific practice of PhD students (and other scientists). The fundamental idea behind the course is that it actually helps scientific practice to reflect upon what science really is, what makes science different from everyday reasoning, what rules we have to go by to produce solid science, and where science reaches its limits. Half the course is about science in general - the other half about issues relating to biology in particular. The general part is basically a discussion of what constitutes good science, what are the rules and pitfalls, and what distinguishes science from common sense. The second part includes topics where biological science meets society (creationism vs evolution, the sociobiology de

bate, ethics), and the issue of scientific misconduct. The course is seminar based, with topics introduced by participating students and Trond acting as mediator. The course material is one book in general theory of (natural) science (currently Kosso’s «Reading the Book of Nature»), chapters from Sober’s «Philosophy of Biology», other selected book chapters, and more.

This course is currently considered for becoming an obligatory part of the Biology PhD Program, in which case it will likely have to run each year (from 2013 onwards in that case). If this is decided, it may lead to changes for other courses, too.