new semester

Happy First Full Week of the New Semester! I'm becoming increasingly excited about what this spring will hold for my students. In Evolution (BL 4800), we are embarking on a Service Learning project that ties grid-computing (using networks of PCs/Macs to search for disease cures and to predict global climate change) to serving the global community (see links to projects below). There is a website describing such grid-computing projects, and anyone with access to a computer or even a PS3 can sign up to help. We also just finished watching and discussing a great documentary entitled Flock of Dodos, which presents the Evolution/Intelligent Design "controversy." It's worth seeing if you haven't already.

In my Human Anatomy & Physiology course (BL 2930) we are now using i>clickers, which are interactive tools that allow students to "buzz in" with answers to quiz questions presented during class. The questions are then followed by discussions and any follow-up questions students might generate.

We are only a few days into the semester but it has already been a lot of fun for me, and hopefully for my students as well!

Classes

Happy 2008!!! As I prepare for spring courses I thought it might be of interest for me to indicate which classes I teach here at Rockhurst. During the fall semesters I am primarily preoccupied with Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy lab (this is an awesome course and involves extensive disseciton) but also teach an issues based non-majors class (Biology of the Contemporary Scene) and my Independent Study Research course; and, starting next fall, I will team teach our capstone course, Advanced Principles, with Dr. Mary Haskins. In spring I will be teaching Evolution, Human Anatomy & Physiology I, Cell Basis for Human A&P, and Biology Field Trip (team taught with Dr. Chad Scholes). And, of course, my research students and I will be continuing our rattlesnake project once the snakes emerge from their den in April/May.