The Allure of Sex

Abstract

During the current semester, I am teaching the ecology section of introductory biology. This class is often populated by biology majors, related majors such as environmental science, and those students needing to fulfill a university science requirement. These classes are rather large, typically filling to 140 or more students. The largest classroom in the biology building only sits 100 students, so, I have a 10–15 minute walk across campus to a larger classroom. In redesigning the course to hopefully maximize student’s learning, I am teaching this large lecture as a small discussion class, which requires the help of my graduate students. They are also involved in running the laboratory section of the course, so their presence in my lectures helps to integrate the two parts of the course.