The purpose of this assignment is for students to demonstrate that they are fully able to describe, differentiate between, and apply the appropriate techniques, terminology, and concepts that they’ve learned over the last 5 weeks when taking the following variables into consideration: Habitat Maintenance, Week 1; Sanitation, Week 2; Husbandry and Training, Week 3; Training, Week 4; and Handling, Week 5.
Being able to do so will translate into real-time situations in their chosen fields. It will require students to know which is species-appropriate or -specific, how human-animal interactions can be accomplished safely and successfully, and demonstrate their ability to recognize responsibilities (ex, to government agencies, clients, other employees) and liabilities.
The assignment, overall, should not only demonstrate an understanding of course material and objectives, but it should also allow students to project themselves into roles that they may have someday – possibly in the very near future. This knowledge is potentially quite valuable to future employers and could very well be part of existing handbooks where students may wish to work.
Sections Your Handbook Must Cover
Section A: Safety Precautions & Solutions
How will staff serve to minimize the potential for harm to animals, employees, and even clients? Do government agencies or professional organizations come into play?
Section B: Be On the Lookout: Behavioral Awareness
Discuss behaviors commonly displayed by animals in your facility. What behavioral changes may indicate an animal is sick or especially stressed? How will staff track and respond to animal behavior in your facility?
Must discuss between 2 and 5 behaviors relevant to the animals in your facility.
Section C: Habitat Maintenance
What are staff required to do to maintain animal habitats? Are there special considerations when cleaning (e.g., choice of cleaning agents and frequency of cleaning, daily vs. spot cleaning)? Consider habitat variables: size, material, potential weak points, etc. What enrichment will you provide to the animals? How will your habitat promote proper animal welfare?
Section D: Animal Training Protocols
Provide training protocols for between 2 and 5 animals housed in your facility.
Include relevant training details such as, are all staff permitted to train, what training tools will be utilized, what are the steps to training the target behaviors?
Discuss how animals in the facility may learn from both classical and operant conditioning.
Section E: Animal Handling
Who can handle which animals? Are there any limitations on this? Will you draw from any other sections when discussing animal handling? What are requirements staff might need to handle animals? How can handling be accomplished safely and without causing undue stress or harm to the animal?
Must compare and contrast methods between 2 and 5 animals. Support
Keep in mind the overall theme: Design, implement, share, and evaluate care plans for species. (This is what the manual should reflect in its entirety!)
Students must be clear as to what kind of facility they are writing about. In other words, the facility has to be in line with others already in existence – not a fanciful, idealistic one.
Project can be modeled after employee handbooks students have encountered that outline best practices as well as rules and regulations.
Students are to refer to the rubric to ensure all elements are included in their projects and contact their instructor with any questions pertaining to point values.
Recall employee manuals you have encountered in the workforce. The writing style should be informative and succinct – not flowery or conversational – but not sterile.
Beware of “unintentional” plagiarism. Be sure to put things in your own words. When paraphrasing make sure to cite appropriately. OWL resources on APA citation are available via the Writing Center, library, and/or at your instructor’s discretion.
Because a project of this nature could be part of a job description, write as though a potential boss is part of your audience. Peers, who may be looking for similar jobs, could be reading as fellow employees or your staff members. What you write about will hypothetically affect the general public, although they’re not typically privy to these kinds of manuals outside of the institution, but write keeping them in mind.
Project must be constructed using Microsoft Word, numbered pages, and APA style formatting, a minimum of 5 references, and in-text citations. Appropriate fonts include Times New Roman and Arial. Font should be 12 point and line spacing single, 1.5, or “at least” – spacing between sections intended to provide aesthetics is permitted. A cover page, table of contents, and facility mission statement must be included. Information concerning animals expected to be/reside in the facility and how to provide excellent care should fold into Sections A-E seamlessly without needless jumping around. The length of the entire project must be no less than 2,500 words and no more than 3,500 words (including cover page and references).
