{"id":26963,"date":"2019-05-28T09:12:18","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T13:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=26963"},"modified":"2019-05-28T09:25:17","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T13:25:17","slug":"26963","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2019\/05\/26963\/","title":{"rendered":"Students take journey into evolution on Galapagos Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Marine iguanas are a common sight on the Galapagos Islands.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mike Boehm has a new perspective on the world since spending a week in the Galapagos Islands.<\/p>\n

After hours of studying animals that form the basis of Darwin\u2019s theory of evolution, Boehm says he understands \u201chow insignificant we are as humans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne small change in environmental conditions when we were evolving could have drastically changed everything about the way we think about ourselves and how human society works,\u201d said Boehm, a senior in political science.<\/p>\n

The animals and plants on the Galapagos Islands are an integral component of Charles Darwin\u2019s Theory of Evolution. For the course \u201cDarwin and the Science of the Galapagos,\u201d 16 students, all from the Honors College, spent spring break in the island chain, which sits about 560 miles off the coast of Ecuador, intensely studying Darwin, both as a man and as a scientist.<\/p>\n

The students worked in groups and were assigned a specific organism to study, says Assistant Provost Dawn Ford, who taught the class. Before leaving, students studied the islands, their history and geography and Darwin\u2019s scientific methods and conclusions, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we got there, they had time to observe the animals and to take pictures and to take notes, much like Darwin did in the field,\u201d Ford says. \u201cThey will be writing a paper and doing poster presentations about their assignment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boehm and his groups examined the islands\u2019 mockingbirds, which have differences from island to island, he says. Others looked at sea lions and Darwin\u2019s finches and lava lizards; some kept an eye on giant tortoises and marine iguanas, perhaps the most famous of the Galapagos\u2019 animals when it comes to the general public.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to search long\u201d to find the animals, says Ford, who has been to the Galapagos one time before and seems just as excited about the trip the second time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s evidence of evolution and I had read about giant tortoises and never dreamed I would see one in person,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Garrett Allen, a major in pre-professional biology, says the trip \u201cwas just surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go and you see these giant tortoises and finches and we\u2019re all connected at some fundamental level, it just blows your mind,\u201d says Allen, whose group studied the giant tortoises.<\/p>\n

David Pleins, adjunct professor in philosophy and religion, also was on the trip and says he \u201ccame along as the other side of the equation, the humanities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the person who\u2019s knowledgeable about Darwin\u2019s life, his thoughts, his philosophy, his view of ethics. I had all those components.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I hoped students would get would be three things. One would be to see the value of bringing a humanities, historical, philosophic perspective to their study of biology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Secondly, he wanted students \u201cto get a better sense for Darwin\u2019s intellectual journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c Darwin is somebody who had an intense curiosity, whether it was geology, cultural studies or anthropology. His mind was open to exploring and revising. I\u2019d hoped the students would get a better sense of how his thoughts complexified over time and also how he was reacting to the beliefs and values that were common in Victorian England.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe third thing was to be at the place where he made some significant breakthroughs and be able to evaluate what that means, to cross over from one kind of thinking to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

That crossing over happened with Boehm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough all these observations, I was able to really connect to Darwin\u2019s thought processes, which we\u2019d been learning about in class and is something you learn from Day One growing up. But to really see it in such a visceral way was really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Boehm, Allan found himself stepping into Darwin\u2019s shoes and examining the islands from a different point of view.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of hard. You had to be kind of like Darwin and observe it for yourself,\u201d Allen says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Honors <\/a>
Honors College students spent a week in the Galapagos Islands. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Sea <\/a>
Sea lions — and many other Galapagos animals — have little fear of humans. Rules are very strict about interacting with any animal on the islands. <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The Sally Lightfooted Crab, aka, the Red Rock Crab <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"David <\/a>
David Pleins, adjunct professor of religion and philosophy, with the statue of Charles Darwin. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"UTC <\/a>
UTC students on the bus. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Sailboats <\/a>
Sailboats dot the blue waters off the coast of the Galapagos Islands. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Heron\" <\/a>
Heron <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Giant <\/a>
Giant Galapagos Tortoise. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UTC students visit the Galapagos Islands.<\/p>\n

Continue Reading <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_slider":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_featurette":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-26963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"yoast_head":"\nStudents take journey into evolution on Galapagos Islands | UTC News Archive: Jul 2007 - 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