Learning outside the box

The Biology Club has brought new life to the customary practice of education. "You get to go and see and go and do so many activities," said Susan Burgoon, a biology instructor. "We get students out in the field. It's an enlightening experience." The traditional classroom environment is a time-proven method, but many agree that getting out from behind a desk and stepping into new experiences in the world creates an enhanced form of learning. "Experiencing something is a lot better than reading about it in a book," said biology Professor Dr. Dan Porter. "One of the reasons that I got involved with the Biology Club was because I learned that many of our students have not even been out of the Texas Panhandle." Any Amarillo College student is permitted to join the Biology Club with a fee of $5 for the semester. The club provides students with the opportunity to become engaged in what they are learning and have hands-on practice. "Lecture is great to teach you certain ideas and facts, but the truth of the matter is we learn and grow from our personal experiences," said Kayla Hodges, assistant vice president of the Biology Club. "School bogs us down and is frustrating at times, so I believe it's important to connect school with other activities that are fun and enjoyable to stay motivated." Members of the Biology Club have gone on various trips designed to improve their learning experiences and better equip their minds to retain information they learn. "The more you do as a learner instead of sitting back like a sponge, the more you will take in," Burgoon said. "We get the students out so they are involved in learning. We've gone to Carlsbad Caverns, to see the King Tut exhibit, to Texas Tech to see cadavers as an enrichment activity and to Imax." Porter is working on scheduling a trip to the University of Texas' marine science department. "If we get accepted, we'll go down to Corpus Christi, then go out to the Marine Research Institute and get on a research vessel that will take us into the Gulf of Mexico," Porter said. "From there, we will take organisms off the bottom, middle and then surface of the water to study the different levels of communities." Dr. Rick Tinnin, who started the UT program in 1974, talked about the value of personal experience. "There is no comparison at all to going out and doing it themselves," Tinnin said. "We go on a 57-foot research vessel and take plankton and mud and trawl samples, and it helps the students to become aware of the abundance of life in the coastal bay systems."

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