This class was taken in Fall 2019 with Professor Mary Lehman. During this course, we learned about different aspects of biology, including genetics, ecology, and taxonomy. Because this course is biology for the teaching profession, we also learned about life science SOL requirements that related to the material we went over, and how to form lesson plans around them. We also had a lab period for this class, which I found very interesting. The activities we did in lab mirrored what we were learning about during our lectures, and ranged from reading about different organisms in the six kingdoms, to observing protozoans under a microscope.

Overall, I really enjoyed this course. Prof. Lehman was very passionate about what she was teaching, which translated to her students and inspired us to become more engaged. I am thankful I took this course my first semester because it taught me how I should study difficult materials, which will benefit me during future classes.

The artifact below is the poster that my group and I made for research day. We decided to experiment with different caffeine levels and study their effects on cucumber plant germination and growth. This project was very beneficial to me because while Prof. Lehman helped guide us when it came to specifics, my group and I had to create this experiment ourselves. This independence has taught me how to really focus on projects and assignments. We could not procrastinate because everything relied on us to get it done; our professor was there as a resource if needed, but did not hold our hands.