Paleobiology

Paleobiology is a Science course in the CTY program with no prerequisites. Its course code is PBIO, and it is offered at Lancaster and Los Angeles.

Course Description

Paleobiology involves extensive overviews of geology and biology, which cover most of the course. The course includes various dissections, such as starfish, crayfish, and squid. The students also get the chance to see fossils up close and to collect any that they find, and the course usually includes two or so field trips. The remainder of the course involves discussion of various topics in evolutionary biology and ecology, as well as a unit on the evolution of the genus Homo.

Class History

In LAN.06.1, Paleobiology was taught by Mr. Freeman, a knowledgeable biology and archaeology teacher who happened to share the last name, first initial, and middle initial of the course's textbook's author. The TA was Darrell, well beloved by the students and notable for his Chuck Norris-based humor. The class was taught in a classroom in the center of the ground floor of the Hackman physical sciences building. In the absence of windows, rows upon rows of shelving units full of fossils, and casts of an amphibian skull, a plesiosaur forelimb, and other relics of the past adorned the walls.

The course began with a unit on geology lasting for almost a full week. This was followed by another rather long unit on biology, overviewing much of that subject in slightly over one week. This included three dissections in two hours: starfish, crayfish, and squid. Later on, the class was divided into six groups of three students for the purposes of producing the major presentation. Each group was given a space of time of about two geological periods to cover, describing animal and plant life, climate, geographical changes, and any mass extinctions during that time. Presentations took the form of trifold posters, which were presented at the beginning of the third week.

Two field trips were taken during this session. The first, which took place on First Friday, was a fossil-hunting expedition to the Suedberg fossil site in Swatara Gap National Park, about one and one half hours from Franklin and Marshall. Dozens upon dozens of specimens were found, and all but a few choice fossils were discarded. A stop was made at a smaller fossil site somewhere in Lancaster County, but no fossils were found there whatsoever.

The second trip was to the Philadephia Zoo, ostensibly for the purpose of observing primate behavior and movement patterns. The class split into four groups, each headed by either the teacher, TA, or one of two RAs who tagged along. Since the required observation period for the gorillas and orangutans was only fifteen minutes each, much time was spent touring the remainder of the zoological park.

According to the teacher and the TA, the staff arrangement was to be different for second session. Mr. Freeman was not able to teach then, so Darrell was to be the instructor, and someone else to be the TA.