Biology Club Helps Students Connect To the Life Around Them
By: Kylee McManus
Staff Writer
Green River College’s biology club offers an opportunity for students to enrich themselves in the study of life science through various hands-on activities and off-campus experiences.
The club is advised by Daniel Najera who teaches cell biology, northwest ecology, and environmental science at Green River College. The club president is Chantal Fonticoba, a third-year student at the college. Mark Vernon, another staff member at the college, helps run the club as well.
Biology is commonly described as the “study of life in general” and focuses on the components and structures of life. The club teaches students how everything in the world is interrelated and covers a wide variety of any living species that is able to be studied.
“Biology is important for people to learn because they are biological organisms,” Najera said. “Everything they learn [in the club] is directly relevant.”
The club does something new every meeting and the focus of the meetings is typically about something that one of its members observes and finds interesting.
“We are learning birds with the help of a bird game, we did a honey harvest, we have done placenta tours, [and] gone to the Burke Museum,” Najera said. Fonticoba shared that the group even dissected possums once.
In a recent meeting, the group went on a walk to check on nature through a trail surrounding Green River College. The trail is a long-term research study site flourishing with wildlife. The location of the college is unique because it offers such a diverse ecological system that many other colleges do not have on their respective campuses.
The goal of the nature walk was to look for and identify different mushrooms, as well as listen for bird calls. Students were able to see, touch, and smell wild mushrooms that were found growing on the forest floors and trees. Common fungi that were found included cauliflower fungus, witch’s butter, and clavarioid fungi.
Vernon also used an audio device to pick up on the various bird sounds that were audible in the forest and helped identify the species of birds that were heard, with the most common being the chestnut-backed chickadee.
Anyone is welcome to join biology club, there is no previous knowledge of biology required. Najera said that joining the club “will immerse you in the living system you are a part of” and “make you realize your connections to life that you might not always think of and show you how diverse life is.”
Biology club meetings are held at noon every Friday in room 243 of the Marv Nelson Science Learning Center. The last meeting of the quarter is Dec. 6. Fonticoba said that the club has a flexible schedule and “does stuff outside of that when people can’t make it”.
The club’s meeting time changes very quarter to fit the various schedules of students who are interested in joining.
