Whale Course Among UChicago-MBL Programs to be Held in Woods Hole
The first undergraduate course cultivated from the UChicago-partnership is set for the Fall of 2015. Twelve UChicago undergraduates will spend the 10 weeks at the MBL for “The Whale: Biology, Culture and Evolution on Nantucket Sound,” a four course program that targets undergraduate, non-science majors interested in the maritime culture and entwined histories of whales and America.
Students will be exposed to New England maritime history and culture, and provided a comprehensive overview of biology that includes evolution, environmental science, biodiversity, physiology, and cell and developmental biology.
The lead instructors will be Karl Matlin, University of Chicago Professor of Surgery, teaching “Experimental Biology by the Sea,” Michael Rossi, University of Chicago Assistant Professor of the History of Medicine teaching, “Whales, Whaling, and American History,” and Robert Richards, University of Chicago Distinguished Professor in History of Science and Medicine teaching, “Darwin’s The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man.”
Guest lecturers include Mitch Sogin, MBL Distinguished Scientist and Professor in Molecular Biology, Cell and Biochemistry at Brown University, and Nathaniel Philbrick, noted author of In the Heart of the Sea and other works on whaling and the maritime history of New England.
The program will run from September 25 to November 25, 2015.
A “Quantitative Biology Boot Camp” targeted for all incoming graduate students from all programs in UChicago’s Biological Sciences Division is also scheduled for September 2015 at the MBL.
Co-directed by Stefano Allesina, an Assistant Professor, UChicago Department of Ecology & Evolution and Stephanie Palmer, an Assistant Professor, UChicago Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, the course will provide students with a working knowledge of computational and statistical approaches through their application to analysis of real world data sets. Organizers also hope to foster future MBL-UChicago collaborations by exposing students to the full range of MBL’s research opportunities and resources .
The program will run from September 5 to 11, 2015.
In late August, 12 students from the University of Chicago Lab Schools will spend a week at the MBL engaged in intense biology experiences that both enhance and relate to the current High School curriculum. Experiences will include a trip on the MBL’s R/V Gemma to collect samples and gather data on the local marine intertidal ecosystem, visits to the salt marshes to study restoration ecology, learning about and utilizing cutting-edge microscopes made exclusively available to the MBL community as well as a community service project.
The program will run from August 23– August 30.