SA 2218 - Animal Training and Enrichment (Fortier)

Your enrichment proposal is the largest single component of your laboratory grade.  Attached below is a very general outline of what should take place during your 20-30 minute presentation. It is similar to what you’ve seen and heard presented earlier in the course.

Research articles are also often known as scientific or peer-reviewed articles. If the article is NOT written by the person or group who did the research, it is NOT a peer-reviewed or scientific article. Research articles are important for knowing what new discoveries have been made. This is why it is important to use recent articles, since they will be the first things published on a new scientific development. 

Here's a quick overview of how to identify these journal articles:

• written by the scientist(s) who actually did the research
• follows a specific format 
  • abstract
  • introduction
  • materials & methods
  • results
  • conclusions
  • references 
• assumes reader already knows background information about the topic has been evaluated by experts
• Tip:  Look for a statement about when the article was accepted for publication. Most peer-reviewed articles will include one.

Each team member must choose one scientific original research article that includes data collection.  Avoid review articles.  Remember that you are focusing on changing a behavior as a result of enrichment. 

Try browsing through the journals below to find enrichment techniques which have been tested. 

​Before we can create meaningful forms of enrichment we need to familiarize ourselves with the work of others that have gone before us.

The first part of your project requires you to find and evaluate articles on enrichment. You should have at least one peer-reviewed article for each member of your group.

Our goal is to learn how to meaningfully evaluate published work. Since the emphasis is on the process, more than the content, your articles do not need to be on the species you will ultimately use in your enrichment proposal.

You will have one additional article that may also be peer-reviewed or it can come from an alternate publication such as “The Shape of Enrichment”, “The Wellspring”, or “Animal Keepers Forum”. (Do NOT use other web publications without prior approval from your instructor.) For each article, use the Chicago style of citation.

It works best if each group remember selects a database to search in. Begin with Summon, Google Scholar, and Science Direct. Move onto JSTOR when you have a good idea of your topic because there can be a lot of irrelevant content. 

If a book or article you want is not available, use Interlibrary Loan (ILL). The Library can order books and articles from other libraries. This process takes few days but is completely free for DelVal students, faculty, and staff.

Before you submit an ILL, check Google Scholar or Summon to see if we have immediate access or if it is freely available online.

Each group will also need one non-scientific article. Use Shape of Enrichment & Animal Keepers' Forum to locate non-scientific articles for Part 1 of this assignment.

RefWorks is a new way to collect, manage, and organize research.  You can read, annotate, organize, and cite your research as well as collaborate by sharing collections.

From simple bibliographies to papers formatted with in-text citations or footnotes, RefWorks handles it all. ​To learn more about RefWorks, use our RefWorks research guide.