Research Activity Report
Supported by “Leading Graduate Program in Primatology and Wildlife Science”
2015. 03. 02
Affiliation/Position

Primate Research Center/ D2/L4 Student

NameSofi Bernstein

1. Country/location of visit
Central Washington University Ellensburg, Washington, U.S.A.
2. Research project
Develop Museum Exhibit on Tibetan macaques
3. Date (departing from/returning to Japan)
2015.01.30-2015.03.01 (180 days)
4. Main host researcher and affiliation
Dr. Lori Sheeran Professor of Anthropology Central Washington University, Director of Primate Behavior andEcology program
5. Progress and results of your research/activity (You can attach extra pages if needed)
Please insert one or more pictures (to be publicly released). Below each picture, please provide a brief description.

This trip to Central Washington University mainly comprised of my collaborative work with the Museum Studies
Department on developing an exhibit focused on Tibetan macaques at the Valley of the Wild Monkeys in Mt.
Huangshan, China. As this site is my field site, I was included as a content expert on the creation of this exhibit. My
main objective is to develop a lesson plan for middle school students (ages 10-12) that will be a teaching aid for theexhibit. My lesson plan will teach students about the scientific method and applying those skills in a short mockup ofa study on vocalizations in Tibetan macaques. Basically, students will be introduced to the topic of the evolution ofcommunication and pretend as though they want to investigate the vocalizations of the Tibetan macaques. Students
will accomplish this by coming up with their own hypotheses, listening to recordings, watching videos, and having tomatch the recordings to the videos that has the same vocalization and appropriate behavioral context. Each student will
listen to recordings that have an accompanying short story on the behavioral context and information on who is calling.
Then the students will have to watch videos and match the recordings based off of not only matching the vocalizations
but also the behavioral contexts in the stories and in the videos. Then students will get the chance to “name” the calls
before they learn what the calls are actually named. This project will develop over the course of this year, and theexhibit will open next year.
I also spent my time developing a paper about the infant mortality at the site in 2014. I added my video recordings tothe CWU data set, and helped students identify adults and juveniles they were not familiar with. In addition to that, I
helped mentor the students of the China field school on their respective research projects. The Anthropology
department also set up a workshop for me to teach students about applying to Masters and PhD programs. Students
from many different departments outside of Anthropology showed up for the workshop.
In addition to my workshop, I also lectured in an introductory course for Anthropology (Anthropology 101). I was partof an invited lecture series called Testimonials from the Field. I introduced myself and my growth as a student in thefield of primatology, covering my research experience in China. Also, I gave a talk open to the public about my research
entitled Investigating the Vocalizations of Tibetan Macaques in the Valley of the Wild Monkeys and Collaborative
Work with Anhui and Central Washington University.

6. Others

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version2014.05.27

Research Activity Report
Supported by “Leading Graduate Program in Primatology and Wildlife Science”

About to begin my workshop on applying to Masters/PhD programs.

A students approaches me after the workshop to ask a few more questions.

Submit to：report@wildlife-science.org
version2014.05.27

Research Activity Report
Supported by “Leading Graduate Program in Primatology and Wildlife Science”

Introducing my work with Tibetan macaques at my seminar.

Another picture from the same seminar as above.

Submit to：report@wildlife-science.org
version2014.05.27