Love of cats draws students to this course that uses cat research to teach science – The 74

Uncommon Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation US highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.

Course title:

“The science of cats”

What gave you the idea for this course?

I am an evolutionary biologist who has devoted my career to studying the evolution of small lizards in the Caribbean. I am also a lifelong cat lover, but it never occurred to me to do anything scientific with domestic cats. They are difficult to study – have you ever tried to follow your cat to see what they do? And unlike the extensively studied lions, tigers and other wild cats, I had the impression that no interesting research was being done on the domestic representative of the cat clan, Felis catus.

Twelve years ago I learned that I was completely wrong. Thanks to John Bradshaw’s book “Cat Sense” and the BBC’s “The Secret Life of the Cat,” I discovered that ailurologists were using the same sophisticated methods—GPS tracking, genome sequencing, isotopic analysis—to study domestic cats that I use to study lizards and that other researchers use on all sorts of other creatures.

That’s how my class on the science of cats came about. I lured students in with their love of felines, and when they weren’t looking, I taught them how scientists study biodiversity – ecology, evolution, genetics, and behavior.

What does the course cover?

At its core, the course is about the past, present, and future of cats: where they come from, why they do what they do, what the future holds. And, crucially, how we know what we know—that is, how scientists approach these kinds of questions.

The course culminates in students writing an original paper or creating a mini-documentary. These projects cover a wide range of topics in biology and beyond, including the impact of cats on bird populations, sexism and the crazy cat-lady trope, the health implications for and against of living with felines, the role of hybridization as a creative or constraining force in evolution, the top-down role of larger predators such as coyotes and dingoes in controlling cat numbers, and the prospects for new genetic technologies to create allergen-free cats or to contain free-ranging cat populations.

Unexpectedly, the students weren’t the only ones writing about cats: the lessons and the themes inspired me to write my own book, “The Cat’s Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa.”

Why is this course relevant now?

Society needs more biodiversity scientists to understand our rapidly changing world. Cats raise scientific questions of broad interest and can serve as a gateway to the world of biological research.

What is an important lesson from the course?

Important research into the natural world does not require traveling to remote corners of the globe. Research into animals common in local environments—even domestic animals—can make important advances in basic and applied knowledge.

What materials are available during the course?

In addition to reading research papers, we went on field trips that were both enlightening and fun. We went out early in the morning to join a homeless cat advocate who was feeding homeless cats in a neglected part of the city. We also learned about cats in ancient times from an Egyptologist, traveled to a cat show to marvel at the diversity of cat breeds, observed wild cats at the Saint Louis Zoo, and studied cats in art at university museums.

What does the course prepare students for?

Cat research is the vehicle for students to see the applicability of scientific ideas to animals they know and care about. The course not only requires students to synthesize knowledge from many different fields, but also makes them think about contemporary real-world debates, such as what to do about outdoor cats and the ethics of breeding.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.