Student essays from Spring 07

Several students have asked me about how and what they might contribute to this blog during the course of this semester. So let me repost a list I had compiled at the end of the 2007 Spring semester showcasing all the student contributions at that time:

What happens when you ask a bunch of undergraduate students to contribute short pieces for a class blog on evolutionary topics (with the minor incentive of extra credit)? Turns out to be quite an educational experience, if you follow the links below! About half the students in the Spring '07 Evolution class here at Fresno State contributed a variety of essays on what they've been reading outside class, what they find fascinating and worth sharing in the world of evolutionary biology.

Having been unsure of what to expect, and frankly, being a bit nervous about this experiment, I am really glad I opened up the blog to students - what a way to get a small army to go out and find interesting tidbits from the frontiers of evolutionary biology! And gratifying to think that by the end of a seemingly long semester, one hasn't entirely killed their interest in the subject! (well, I might be flattering myself there - perhaps the interest remains despite my best efforts!) I think you will enjoy these diverse essays as much as I did - so if you know these students, pat them on the back (and you students can pat yourselves!).

So here's a list of all the essays contributed thus far:

1. 28th Annual CCRS - a report
2. Barn Swallows: Bringing sexy back
   
3. Are chimps more evolved than humans?
4. Gene links longevity and diet
   
5. Language, Learning, Logic and the Chimp Genome
   
6. To See Or Not To See: The Mexican Tetra’s Question
   
7. Walking on eggshells... evolutionarily
   
8. Corals more complex than you?
9. From DNA analysis, clues to a single Australian migration
   
10. Hollywood knows what's to come
11. Why do ducks have big d..cks?
12. Promiscuous females cause male zebras to have bigger testes and act all weird
13. How the itch came about: Humans and Gorillas get intimately close
14. Eat like a python = run like a horse? Or how digestive regulation has evolved
15. Positive parasites?
16. Sexual dimorphism and adaptive radiation
17. Fascination of the cetacean cognition

I might have to try this again in future classes...