Goal 1.3 states that “students will be able to analyze critically and apply the major principles of ecology and evolution.”
Ecology and evolution has always been my least favorite thing to learn about in biology classes. I have never found a specific reason why I don’t enjoy it, but I have always found it to be a boring topic. Throughout the different classes at Longwood, I began to enjoy it a little bit more, and I have learned a lot about my own impact on the world.
Starting in BIOL 251 at the beginning of my sophomore year, I learned a lot about different ecosystems, watersheds, and nutrient cycles. The professor and students in this class made it very enjoyable, and I ended up looking forward to the lecture and lab every week. In the lab, my group and I studied ants and their interactions with each other in different environments. I like this project because it was applicable to the real world and showed us the impact that moving species out of their natural habitat can have. For the presentation, we did an oral presentation at the research showcase. This was my first oral presentation, so I was extremely nervous but we did very well and I was able to use that experience for all of my future presentations.
BIOL 341 focused a lot on the same topics from BIOL 251, but there was a lot more detail. We learned a lot about the different models of population genetics and how predator/prey relationships shape the ecosystem. In this class, we wrote another literature review about an ecological topic of our choosing. I chose to write about water quality and the effects that it has on the species that live in it. This was a very interesting topic to research, and I learned a lot about how my own actions can make a big impact on fish and other animals living in bodies of water near me.
In biogeography, we dove deep into learning about things like climate drivers, conservation, and the history of how the earth became what it is today. There was not a lab project this semester, but we wrote a literature review about a topic of our choosing related to biogeography. This paper was very easy for me to write because I was able to use the research and writing skills from BIOL 120-BIOL 251 to write effectively and quickly. This semester in BIOL 455, we are writing another ecology based literature review, and the papers from BIOL 341 and BIOL 342 have made the process go much smoother.
BIOL 251 presentation https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/183kxUDYkJDXWdJLQxeYOPp7ARyTBz0YORzAfOs2ZUm0/edit?usp=sharing
BIOL 341 literature review https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u0T4qoijZw34nzCr6ANSQlZ3uJ_xCpoaABXmV2ImlFM/edit?usp=sharing
BIOL 342 literature review https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BkAB6_MatRljaj82JzioURPGCUqHBcuGAQqWUlQqenQ/edit?usp=sharing