Instruction @ Temple:
TO STUDY CORAL REEFS, STUDENTS TRAVEL TO BELIZE’S BARRIER REEF:
Fifteen Temple University students are spending their winter break learning first hand about the organization, framework and biological diversity of coral reefs through a special month-long course, "The Biology of Coral Reefs," that includes a field trip to Belize. Taught by Drs. Richard Miller and Robert Sanders, both Temple professors of biology, the course provides a personalized experience of this natural biological and geological habitat. After a series of intensive lectures at Temple's Main Campus in Philadelphia, the students embarked on a seven-day field trip to the largest, unspoiled coral reef complex in the Western Hemisphere: the Great Barrier Reef of Belize, Jan. 3-9. The 15 undergraduate students--biology majors and education majors specializing in biology or science--are required to keep a field notebook about what they see and experience in Belize. Following the trip, the students have exams and work in teams to develop a 10-page paper on some aspect of reef ecology. http://www.temple.edu/news_media/pm271.html
Research @ Temple:
RESEARCHERS FIND EARLIEST DIRECT EVIDENCE OF CROP CULTIVATION:
Researchers from Temple University and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama have found some of the earliest direct evidence of root crop cultivation in the Americas, it was reported in a recent edition of the journal Nature (Oct. 19). The researchers, part of a joint Temple-Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute project in Panama, found starch grains on stone tools excavated from a rockshelter discovered on a coastal plain of that Central American country. The grains were identified as coming from domesticated root crops such as arrowroot and manioc, as well as from maize, that date back nearly 7,000 years. Dr. Anthony Ranere, chair of Temple’s anthropology department and a co-author of the study, directed the initial excavation of the rockshelter in 1973 and again in 1975 and returned to direct new excavations in 1997 with the assistance of fellow Temple faculty member Dr. Patricia Hansell, one of the study’s co-authors. The study was also co-authored by Dolores Piperno, a Temple alumna, and Irene Holst, both of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. http://www.temple.edu/news_media/pm197.html
Spotlight: