I Love Science...

Today is Tuesday, which makes it the best day of the week class-wise because it is the day when I have Environmental Conservation. I love this class so much and I feel the topics discussed in class draw upon my previously learned knowledge and introduces me to new concepts, then finally pulls both schools of thought together – I love making connections between what I know and new information.

Today we talked about species extinction (a topic that makes me so sad). I learned a lot during my past biology classes about this topic but we really delved into different facets of extinction. What is extinction? Why is this called the potential sixth mass extinction? We looked at certain case studies about extinct or will soon be extinct species. We wrapped up the second half of class by talking about different types of conservation methods and some examples.

What makes this class so interesting is that my professor actually has done conservation work for some of the leading institutions in this field. She is a wealth of knowledge and she still contributes to research of the Amur leopard – a highly endangered species that is almost extinct. It is incredible to be learning from her.

Our lectures also have little video clips embedded into them – they are usually of a demonstration of a conservation technique or an interview with a leading expert scientist in the area we are learning about. Today, we watched clips from a very famous television series that aired on the science network a few years ago. I am a very big fan of this series and all shows about the planet and the species that inhabit it – it is a bonus when there is a conservation spin on these shows. We saw clips on the Amur leopard and how their Species Survival Plan involves harvesting and freezing some of their cells to be stored. When the time is right, the cells can be thawed and cloned – yes, I did just say cloned. We then had a debate whether it is a good idea to save cells of endangered species, just in case we can clone them later. What if their habitat does not exist? This class is the best combination of science, history, and ethics and it really does provoke thought amongst all of us, including our professor.

I love science and this class is the highlight of my class schedule… I can’t wait to see what we are learning about next week!

Ciao!