This introductory level class for biological and related majors covers a broad spectrum of organisms, how they interact with other organisms at the population and community levels, and an introduction to the various biomes of the world, as well as the driving forces of natural selection, evolution, and speciation.  For this project, the students were asked to find a topic of interest to them in the course, and write a research paper that tied in their interests to what we have learned in class.  Some students took an organismal approach, and described a species or taxonomic group in detail, others took a habitat approach and described the biodiversity found in various habitats around the globe, and still other students took a process approach and delved deeper into a process that we see at work in the evolution of organisms around us today.  These presentations represent summaries of the students findings, and an introduction to their interests, while at the same time letting them comment individually on their classmates’ work, and help each other to address points that they might not have considered previously and to learn from what other students were doing.  The topics covered by students for their presentations include:

Climate Change: Ruining Ecosystems

Diversity of Sharks in Coral Reefs

Tropical Rain Forest

Fungal Complications to Human Health

Selective Breeding for the Chinchilla Phenotype

The Truth About Sea Turtles

Captive Creatures

Genetic Diversity in Pigs

The Different Breeds of Dolphins

Cardiovascular Diversity: Mammals, Reptiles and Amphibians, and Fish

Frog World!

Natural Selection

Description for Pantera tigris tigris

Tropical Rainforest Presentation

Ocean Diversity

Orcinus orca

Batesian Mimicry

Tundra Biome

Grassland Biome

Horses

Diversity of Dogs

HIV and Evolution

Rabbits

Diversity in Different Cattle Breeds

Endangering the Endangered

Odocoileus Virginianus White-Tailed Deer

Orcas in Captivity: Born to be Free

Diversity of Foxes