Like I stated in the previous page (1.2), our Biology course curriculum is designed so that we have the chance to take courses from all disciplines in biology. While the next pillar, Ecology and Evolution, is not exactly my passion, I did take away a lot of important concepts. I began this pillar with an Introduction to Ecology and Evolution course, following with my Sophomore Seminar course, which was heavily weighted towards ecology topics, and ending with Evolution.
In Introduction to Ecology and Evolution, I conducted study which identified the changing demographics from three different time periods (pre-1091, 1901-1950, and post-1950) in the Farmville, Virginia area. In order to analyze these changes, I collected data from the local Westview Cemetery on birth year, death year, and sex from headstones. This data was organized and statically analyzed using the R statistical software. Based on the results, I concluded that the overall average lifespan for males and females significantly increased over the three time-periods likely due to medical advancements. This project allowed me to visually see how simple data collection could be used to develop complex conclusions as well as demonstrate the use of a survivorship curve during analysis. Below is my research report for this project which I wrote in the Fall of 2017.
The Human Demography of the Westview Cemetery in three different time-periods
The Sophomore Seminar course was mainly introduced for Biology majors to begin developing their scientific literature reading skills where we would discussion topics and relevant papers each week. Since the majority of my classmates, including my professor, were more geared towards the Ecology side of biology a lot of the papers we discussed were also on that topic. During this course we developed and wrote our own literature review on a topic of our choice and even though Ecology was not my favorite topic I decided to focus my project on the destruction of coral reefs. I found this project to be challenging but overall and important topic to investigate because of the current climate situation. I concluded that overfishing and climate change where two of the main anthropogenic-driven stressors leading to the bleaching of coral reefs and ocean acidification. Using the concepts from the Introduction course, I implied that if coral reefs completely die it will lead to a catastrophic domino effect down the food chain/web leading to more species potentially going extinct as a result. Below is my PowerPoint presentation of my literature review which I presented for my class in the Spring of 2018.
The Decline of Coral Reefs: How Humans are Contributing
In Evolution, we discussed many broad topics relating to “What is life?” and “How did life first begin and how do we know?” to other topics such as species evolution and extinction. For one of our semester projects, we wrote a literature review on an evolution topic relevant to a recent discovery. I wrote my review on human bipedalism based on the recent discovery of fossilized footprints found in Greece. This was an interesting topic to research because most literature before this discovery were confident that bipedalism began around 4 million years ago in Africa however these new footprints break that theory not only being found in Greece but also dating back to 5.7 million years ago. Based on my research I suggested that this evidence may indicate that bipedalism began earlier than previously thought and opened the discussion that hominins did not first start to evolve only in Africa but independently across the globe. This project allowed me to use my scientific literature analysis skills originally developed in Sophomore Seminar to develop a project based on the evolutionary concept of human bipedalism. Below is my literature review which I wrote in the Fall of 2018.
When did we first start walking upright?
As a Biology major, I understand the importance of becoming a well-rounded scientist in having at least some basic knowledge and understanding from all subdisciplines within the biology sector.