Travel classes study biology – Campus Current

Biology students and their professors will travel to the Galapagos Islands, off the coast of Ecuador, in January.

The trip is part of Biology 122: Fundamentals of Ecology Travel Study. Last semester, students traveled to Costa Rica for 14 days.

“[Students] learn about basic concepts of ecology at the beginning of the course, and then the second half of the course, in the lecture, they learn specifically about the ecosystems we’re going to visit,” biology professor Benjamin Weibell said. “I love teaching the travel study, because when people are put into a new environment, their minds just open up.”

Weibell started teaching the course in fall 2019, but paused it during the pandemic. The course resumed in fall 2023.

Biology professor Seth Miller, who will accompany the students to Ecuador, said the South American country has “really cool ecosystems” and unique species that he looks forward to showing students. “I can’t wait to see marine iguanas,” Miller said. “There are seals and sea lions there that are super tame because humans have never really bothered them. There are giant land tortoises.”

Students will be in good hands during the trip, Miller said.

“It’s an awesome way to travel out of the country, because you are going with a group of other students,” Miller said. “And … you basically have three, like, Ph.D.-educated ecologists, two of whom speak a good amount of Spanish.”

Second-year welding and business student Jonah Mule went to Costa Rica last January as a part of the travel study course. He described the pre-trip part of the class as a “sneak peek” for what the students would see in Costa Rica.

“I definitely, like, came out of it with a whole new world [view] of … we should do things to protect this land, because it’s the most diverse species land, I think, in the world,” Mule said.

Students, who pay their own travel expenses and must have a passport, can sign up for future trips by registering for BIO 122. Students may choose to take the class for credit or as a non-credit course.