Goal 1.1 states that “students will be able to identify and describe the major principles of biology.”
Through all of my biology classes at Longwood I have learned about all of the major principles of biology including evolution, cell theory, inheritance, and homeostasis. Starting in biology 120 (integrative biology), we learned a little bit about each topic. As I moved forward into biology 250/251 and the upper level electives, I was able to dive deeper into each topic and spend time learning the details about them. I quickly learned that genetics and cell biology were my favorite topics, and I developed a love-hate relationship with ecology and evolution.
In biology 250, I was able to work on a semester long project to identify bacteria. I learned many new lab skills such as running a PCR and gel electrophoresis. This class immediately sparked my interest and helped my find a passion in learning about genetics. The next year I took biology 326 because I wanted to get a deeper level of understanding of how organisms work at the cellular level. I loved this class and was halfway through a great lab project before the pandemic pushed everything to be virtual. The next semester I took microbiology. Even though this class focused more specifically on bacteria instead of human cells, I still really enjoyed it. In this class I learned a lot about the different types of bacteria cells and how important they really are in our everyday lives. I am currently taking immunology and I think that is the perfect class to end my time learning about cell biology. So far, this class has been an interesting combination of genetics, cell biology, and evolution. I am excited to finish the semester and see what else I learn.
In biology 251, I learned a lot about the basics of evolution and genetic drift. Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed this class quite a lot. At first I was completely dreading it, but once we stated the labs, I looked forward to going to each class. My group and I were able to study the behavior of ants in different environments inside of ant farms. This was unlike any project that I had done before, and it showed me that the ecology and evolution side of biology can also be interesting. After this class, I took biology 341 and dove deeper in to many of the same topics of ecology and evolution. This class was more focused on the environment instead of organisms, so I did not enjoy it as much. I did learn a lot about the bigger systems of our ecosystem and how important every organism is, even if their role seems unnecessary.
Now that I am in my final semester, I can really see the importance of having a wide range of understanding of biological principles. I like that Longwood’s curriculum is set up to give students a wide range of classes in each topic of biology because it allows us to each find our niche while learning about biology from so many different perspectives.
BIOL 250 Final Paper https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YCXx3k0_97NoYeB8Mpv1TfdatxEW6V8eO5wn82uaexk/edit?usp=sharing
BIOL 251 Final Presentation https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/183kxUDYkJDXWdJLQxeYOPp7ARyTBz0YORzAfOs2ZUm0/edit?usp=sharing
BIOL 341 Literature Review
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cL-IAnfu0R48tQ4rfI0TwdfDErDlUMN4JKIHXAdSaoo/edit?usp=sharing