Photo: Eye of crocodile fish by Matt Segal taken in Solomon Islands.
One of the problems with teaching Introductory Biology, is that is is often difficult for us to convince you that what we are teaching you is relevant. Because Introductory Biology is the first step along your university biology education and in order to give you a firm foundation there is a relatively large amount of material that you need to be introduced to, it is often difficult for us to show you the context of how the things that we are teaching you might be applied in real life. For example, I can tell you that learning how to draw and interpret graphs is a critical skill (and its fun!), but perhaps it would be better if I could actually show you. Thus, this semester I am going to try to find new ways of illustrating how the material that we are learning might be interesting, useful, and applicable.
Natural Selection and The Diversity of Life
One of the goals of this course is to introduce you to the diversity of life on earth. When I was studying biology at UCSB, we were able to go on field trips to the intertidal zone simply by walking across the street and we could visit deserts and mountains in relatively short drives. Obviously, because we live in one of the most human modified regions in the country, it is more difficutl for us to take you out and show you some of the diversity of life. As I mentioned in class, taking my first scuba dive and seeing first hand the creatures that live on a coral reef was a life changing experience for me. While I am diving I am constantly asking myself "how could natural selection ever have created something like that?"
Here are links to a powerpoint presentation and some videos from places that I have been diving. As you watch them try to (1) look at the diversity of critters that are found living under the water, and (2) to try to figure out how natural selection might have helped produce such creatures.
1. In 2009 I travelled to the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. I prepared this powerpoint presentation to show people in my dive club. I took almost none of these photos (they are borrowed from the internet) but I saw all of the things that are shown in this presentation. I was especially fascinated by all of the fishes that walked rather than swam.
http://www.slideshare.net/secret/l5XPJ7vMrEM5mI
2. In 2008 I visitied the Galapagos Islands which for a biologist was like returning to the motherland. Here is a video shot on that trip by my friend Josh Jensen. Josh is a talented videographer who lives in Australia. The best part of this trip was seeing the 35 foot long whale shark; it was great to watch a bunch of grown ups act get excited like little kids after we saw that.
http://www.underseaproductions.com/demo_reels/galapagos_video_footage.html
Malaysian Bat Education Adventure
While I am distracted thinking about cool places that I have visited and crazy things that I have seen I will add the link to the website that we have developed about Malaysian bats for 4th grade students. Take a look at some of the bat videos if you want to see some really odd critters.
http://www.ttu-mbea.org/
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