I) Research Methods
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-Research methods is a course in which each student is required to develop a solid researchable environmental question and develop a complete proposal for a research study. The focus of my proposal was to study the micro-habitats of Bobcats and determine preferences of forest and cover type. I feel the information I gathered on Bobcat habitats in this proposal led me to make better hypotheses about where best to place the motion sensor cameras in my spring 2013 tracking research. The information I learned through this research study proposal is definitely correlated with my successfully documenting bobcat activity. In addition this course taught me how to develop a research study which has both internal and external validity as well as how to conduct a thorough review of the scholarly literature available on a given research topic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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II) Toxicology: Environmental Health & Medicine
 

        -This course spiked my interest in the field of Public Health and Epidemiology. I learned about many different environmental contaminants, their common sources, routes of exposure, and effects on the human body and the environment. Being geared toward policy more than science, I wrote a research paper in this course which looked at the history of Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCB) contamination in a poor community in Alabama. Monsanto was not originally involved in all of the industrial chemical production of PCBs, genetic engineering of seeds, or herbicide production which it is notorious for today. Even when the company did begin producing polychlorinated biphenyls in the mid 1930s in Anniston, Alabama, no one had any inkling that decades of silent poisoning were about to ensue. Human health effects to industrial chemicals at this time were virtually untested and unreported. There was a huge lack of public knowledge about such chemicals which is an important factor in explaining why Monsanto got away with such severe pollution for so long. I found this topic interesting and it related to issues like social justice which I feel passionately about.