Students will be able to apply knowledge of biology to one or more contemporary issues in society.

Applying biology to the variety issues that exist in society has been a key aspect in almost all my classes I have taken at Longwood. One specific class that strikes me as the first time that I applied biology to issues in society was in a toxicology course (BIOL 364) I took my junior year. In this class I learned about various toxins, how they affect the body and the environment, and how they have been seen or used throughout history. One specific assignment that I completed in the class that is applicable to society is the tox risk assessment. For this assignment students were asked to find a site that was contaminated by a toxin or in some cases multiple toxins. For me this was an interesting project to do research on because the students were able to apply what was learned in class and actually see how toxins cause damage to the areas that we inhabit. For me personally I was able to apply what I learned over the entire semester to devise a plan to clean up the site and to remove the toxins from the community that I chose.