Friday, January 31st

The first week, we spent the time introducing what we'll be doing for the rest of the semester (until May). We defined ecology, talked about research at Davidson, and discussed what our class will be doing to learn more about ecology and contribute to research at the college.

As scientists, and specifically ecologists, we try to understand how organisms relate to each other and the environment. One reason this is important is that humans are affected by and have an effect on the environment, and we would like to figure out how we are impacting our world. Most of you have probably heard of problems like global warming or acid rain. The study of ecology helps scientists understand what causes those problems and how we can go about trying to fix them. Hopefully we will get more of an opportunity to discuss these issues or any other ones you may be curious about over the next few months.

While ecologists all work toward the big goal of understanding how all organisms relate to each other and their surroundings, most scientists pick specific areas on which they focus their research. At Davidson, two labs we will be working with are the herpetology and ornithology labs. We talked about what we are doing in the Dr. Dorcas' herp (short for herpetology) lab with turtles and snakes as well as some of Dr. Stanback's research. You can look up more about their research on through the links on the links page.

We also talked about what we will be doing at Woodlawn this semester. This week or next, we will be setting out the coverboards (those pieces of plywood that have been sitting outside) so we can look for herps and other animals in the woods behind your school. When it gets a bit warmer, we might set up some stream traps for salamanders, too. We will also be checking Dr. Stanback's bird boxes that he has put in the field outside the main house at Woodlawn. These are houses for Eastern Bluebirds (the ones you drew pictures of in your notes - you can click here for a picture of an Eastern Bluebird). We will get to see the birds laying eggs, the eggs hatching, and the baby birds growing up. We will also try to organize at least one field trip to Davidson so we can go snake tracking, turtle trapping, and maybe see some of Dr. Stanback's other bird boxes.

I hope you all are excited about working on these projects, because I am excited to be working with you. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions or let me know if you want to talk about anything in class that I haven't mentioned or talk more about something we didn't talk about very much. See you Friday!