Urban Foraging and Ecology (BIOL - 444)
Urban foraging and ecology – from winter nuts to spring greens and flowers
We will meet weekly throughout the semester to span the winter/spring foraging season. We’ll begin by harvesting nuts and roots in January, collecting violets and redbud flowers in May, and enjoying a range of edible leaves, stems, flowers, fruits, and seeds in between. In this one-credit course, we will learn to recognize a range of edible, useful, and poisonous plants in the DC area, and along the way will delve into relevant topics in botany and plant ecology.
Urban foraging and ecology – from winter nuts to spring greens and flowers
We will meet weekly throughout the semester to span the winter/spring foraging season. We’ll begin by harvesting nuts and roots in January, collecting violets and redbud flowers in May, and enjoying a range of edible leaves, stems, flowers, fruits, and seeds in between. In this one-credit course, we will learn to recognize a range of edible, useful, and poisonous plants in the DC area, and along the way will delve into relevant topics in botany and plant ecology.
Plants and Society (BIOL - 253)
Many people suffer from ‘plant blindness’: we barely notice plants, don’t understand how they work, are not aware of the botanical origins of many products we rely on in our daily lives, and, perhaps most importantly, don’t recognize the essential role of plants as one of the primary producers of almost all of the food and oxygen on the planet. Plants, however, are not as different from animals as they may seem; both groups of organisms have the same basic biological needs -- to eat, drink, breathe, grow, locate mates and reproduce, escape from enemies, and sense and respond to their environments. Plants’ fascinating solutions to these problems reflect both a shared common ancestry with animals, as well as about 1.5 billion years of independent evolutionary history.
In this course, we aim to remediate ‘plant blindness’. Through lectures, discussions, critical reading of the literature, group projects, oral presentations, and field trips, students will gain an understanding of basic concepts of plant morphology, physiology, diversity, and ecology. We will also examine human uses of plants (as foods, medicines, spices, dyes, oils, fibers, building materials, etc.), as well as the role that plants have played in human history, from the origin of civilization through the age of discovery, and on into the future.
Communicating Science (BIOL - 409)
Communicating Science is the Capstone seminar for the Environmental Biology major. Because we are emancipated from having to cover specific content (beyond anything that we find interesting in the context of Environmental Biology, broadly defined), we are free to focus explicitly on the PROCESS of communication -- to different audiences and in different forms -- and to take the time to make our communication effective, engaging and appropriate. In addition to writing, reviewing, and revising LOTS of short pieces, we will also work on improving our oral presentations (with and without visual aids), crafting scientific writing for different audiences, presenting quantitative data accurately and effectively, analyzing the effectiveness of scientific seminars, and evaluating museum exhibits and other popular presentations of science.
Foundations in Biology II (BIOL - 104/114)
The second semester of Foundations in Biology, enrolls between 150-200 students. In lecture and lab students become acquainted with a range of topics, beginning with a detailed look at evolution, the central unifying theme of biology. We next survey the extraordinary diversity of organisms that evolution has produced. In the third section of the course, we examine the science of ecology, as we look at how these organisms interact with one another and with their environment. We end with a look at the increasingly disruptive human impacts on the biosphere, and some ways that we may be able to limit or mitigate them. Three 65-minute lectures, one recitation, one three-hour lab/week. Lectures and labs both involve inquiry-based activities. (You won't want to miss our Biological Poetry competition for National Poetry Month in April!)
Many people suffer from ‘plant blindness’: we barely notice plants, don’t understand how they work, are not aware of the botanical origins of many products we rely on in our daily lives, and, perhaps most importantly, don’t recognize the essential role of plants as one of the primary producers of almost all of the food and oxygen on the planet. Plants, however, are not as different from animals as they may seem; both groups of organisms have the same basic biological needs -- to eat, drink, breathe, grow, locate mates and reproduce, escape from enemies, and sense and respond to their environments. Plants’ fascinating solutions to these problems reflect both a shared common ancestry with animals, as well as about 1.5 billion years of independent evolutionary history.
In this course, we aim to remediate ‘plant blindness’. Through lectures, discussions, critical reading of the literature, group projects, oral presentations, and field trips, students will gain an understanding of basic concepts of plant morphology, physiology, diversity, and ecology. We will also examine human uses of plants (as foods, medicines, spices, dyes, oils, fibers, building materials, etc.), as well as the role that plants have played in human history, from the origin of civilization through the age of discovery, and on into the future.
Communicating Science (BIOL - 409)
Communicating Science is the Capstone seminar for the Environmental Biology major. Because we are emancipated from having to cover specific content (beyond anything that we find interesting in the context of Environmental Biology, broadly defined), we are free to focus explicitly on the PROCESS of communication -- to different audiences and in different forms -- and to take the time to make our communication effective, engaging and appropriate. In addition to writing, reviewing, and revising LOTS of short pieces, we will also work on improving our oral presentations (with and without visual aids), crafting scientific writing for different audiences, presenting quantitative data accurately and effectively, analyzing the effectiveness of scientific seminars, and evaluating museum exhibits and other popular presentations of science.
Foundations in Biology II (BIOL - 104/114)
The second semester of Foundations in Biology, enrolls between 150-200 students. In lecture and lab students become acquainted with a range of topics, beginning with a detailed look at evolution, the central unifying theme of biology. We next survey the extraordinary diversity of organisms that evolution has produced. In the third section of the course, we examine the science of ecology, as we look at how these organisms interact with one another and with their environment. We end with a look at the increasingly disruptive human impacts on the biosphere, and some ways that we may be able to limit or mitigate them. Three 65-minute lectures, one recitation, one three-hour lab/week. Lectures and labs both involve inquiry-based activities. (You won't want to miss our Biological Poetry competition for National Poetry Month in April!)
