This course promotes active and regular attendance at science and mathematics seminars. Students attend a minimum of 12 full-length science or mathematics seminars each semester and write up a summary of each presentation attended. Students are free to meet the minimum seminar requirement according to their interests and class schedule, but are strongly encouraged to attend the Thompson Hall Science and Mathematics Seminar Series to at least partially fulfill the 12 seminar requirement.

This course is designed to provide a general overview of natural history museum uses and practices. Natural history museums were the primary locus for biological research in the 18th and 19th centuries. They represent invaluable archives of Earth’s biodiversity; their vast collections of specimens provide a temporal and geographic record of life unmatched by written or illustrated accounts. They document variation -- the foundation of evolution -- in time and space and allow biologists to make comparisons that are difficult or impossible to observe in the field.

The main audience for this course are students interested in a) preparing a research proposal that they want to submit for funding to the University of Puget Sound Summer Research Program, and b) doing full-time research over the summer following the course with a Puget Sound faculty member in the sciences. During the course students will match up with a research advisor, learn techniques on how to write an effective proposal, and become familiar with general research procedures, and aspects of research ethics. Open to second and third year students.

This course provides a laboratory/field research experience for juniors under the direction of a faculty mentor. Students may initiate a project or join a research project in the mentor’s lab. Student and mentor fill out a departmental contract. A written research paper, a reflective summary of the research experience, and an oral or poster presentation must be submitted for a final grade. Students are strongly encouraged to take BIOL 201 before choosing a research project.

How are different organisms connected? What characteristics do we use to classify and explain these connections across time and space? What cultural values have been used to construct current ecological theory? In this course we will experiment with what theories of ecology and evolution we can build by considering different philosophical starting points. Readings will include biology primary literature, articles from other fields, and from narrative, cultural knowledge, and political thought --primarily from people Indigenous to the land currently known as North America.

This course examines the origin, speciation, diversity, ecology, behavior, and conservation of birds. The laboratory component will include field trips as well as draw from the Puget Sound Museum of Natural History’s extensive bird collection for studies of avian taxonomy, identification, anatomy and physiology.

A survey of the major groups of vertebrates with emphasis on evolution, adaptation, morphology, ecology, and behavior. Vertebrates of the varied habitats of the Pacific Northwest are studied in the lab and in the field. Laboratories may involve dissection of vertebrate animals.

This course is designed to introduce you to identifying plants, help you become familiar with the local plants, understand their systematic relationships, and understand their natural history as part of communities. As such, it is intended to be a hybrid between a plant systematics course, a plant identification course, and a plant natural history/ecology course. The lecture will cover concepts and theory; the lab will be devoted to hands-on identification and species recognition.

This course is designed for juniors and seniors interested in learning more about the diversity, depth, and breadth of associations between organisms. Such associations and their study range from mutualism to parasitism, from viruses to cetaceans, from biochemical to ecological approaches. The first part of the course explores the history and paradigms in the study of symbioses, using specific case studies and journal articles.

This course introduces students to the principles and practical applications of bioinformatics in the analysis of genomic data. Students learn how to use bioinformatics software to evaluate and analyze genomic data to answer questions in molecular and evolutionary genetics.