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, squid, fish, salamanders, lizards, and mice. 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.

In LAN.08.1, Mr. Freeman was the intructor, with Melanie being the TA. There was also a red-eared slider (a type of turtle), who lived in a tank located at the rear of the classroom. The session one class named the turtle Sewp (pronounced "soup").

(From LAN.08.1) An ongoing innuendo particular to Paleobiology: PELECEPODS! Look at the size of his pelecepod! That pelecepod is rock solid! Alison's touching my pelecepod! Bob's pelecepod is bigger that all our pelecepods combined. That is a gigantic pelecepod; how does he carry that thing around? Etc... The TA, Melanie, did not however approve of this humor, and send multiple kids to the academic dean for "sexual innuendos".

LAN.12.2 was the most glorious session of PBIO ever The teacher was Rich Bykowski and TA was Dan Feldyman Dan was notorious for his large beard which got him dubbed as "Dan the Neaderthal Man'" credit for this goes to LAN.12.1 He was a very quiet man.

The Y chromosome part of the class had taken up a habit and liking of trolling. Two members, Connor and Jason Y would troll whenever they could, which at times vexed the instructors.

In ALN 15.2, PBIO was taught by Rich Bykowsi and TA'd by the lovely, squirrel-loving Lauren. The class grew very close, although the boys sometimes got out of hand. For example, when Ben "the Mom" was locked into a shower stall (consensually, of course) and forced to eat Hot Tamales. In addition, the class was full of memes, including Olivia's Pepesaurus rex. There was of course the Holy Bibile, courtesy of Jason's legendary misspelling, and the "Water you doin', Erin?" puns made by Nina, for the most part.

In LAN 16.2, Rich Bykowski was still teaching, and the TA was Lauren, an extremely kind and squirrel-obsessed (the animal) person. Rich's knowledge of CTY traditions was impressive, although he had an irritating tendency to not care about them much - he pulled one CTYer out of Canon Lunchtime halfway through the last song because we were "late for class" (we weren't). The first field trip was to Beltzville State Park, and the second didn't happen due to rain but would have been to a museum in Lancaster.