Department of Biology
Field Trips
Nature's laboratory (the "field") offers experiences quite different from those found in the confines of four walls (the "bench").
Trip to Tosohatchee
Off-campus outings like this animal conservation class trip to the Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area give biology students hands-on experience in setting up transect lines.
Trip to Mead Gardens
Eating On The Run!
Dr. Stephenson shows his Field Botany students the proper way to eat a prickly pear cactus on a recent field trip to the Everglades National Park.
Identifying Native Plants
One of many great learning experiences in Field Botany are the trips to state parks throughout Florida, such as Everglades National Park, to gain firsthand knowledge in identifying native plants.
Overview
As a biology or marine biology student at Rollins College and depending which classes you take you will be able to participate in a number of near and off-campus field experiences. The campus is adjacent to Lake Virginia and the College also supports a modern greenhouse that is used extensively by the department. Biology maintains a significant travel fund that enables field trips to local parks and preserves such as Canaveral National Seashore and the Genius Preserve, as well as the wilderness areas such as the Econ River Wilderness Area. Biology 388 Marine Bio Lab, for example, is offered regularly and allows students to study marine life at marine laboratories in Hawaii, the Bahamas, or the coast of New England. In this course, students do comprehensive, in-field-ecological analyses of representative temperate or tropical marine ecosystems, including coral reefs, rocky/sandy intertidal, mangroves, and estuarine areas.
In addition, students may choose to spend an entire semester at the Duke University Marine Lab which offers undergraduate residential courses in the fall and spring semesters and in two summer terms. Courses are taught by world-renowned faculty from Duke University and other universities and research institutions. Small class sizes and an island setting facilitate rewarding student-faculty interactions. Enrollment is open to all Duke and qualified non-Duke students.
Biology and Marine Biology majors can also pursue a semester abroad in a Rollins Approved Program. Past students have studied in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and New Zealand, and have even done fieldwork in Ecuador and Tanzania.
