Based on the Hendrix faculty’s longtime awareness of the educational value of engaged learning, the Odyssey Program was implemented in the fall of 2005 to encourage all Hendrix students to embark on educational adventures in experiential learning. While the graduation requirement includes
the completion of an approved experience in at least three of the six Odyssey categories, the Program importantly allows students to learn more about themselves and the world around them. For more information, visit the
Odyssey Program Info Hub.
Below you will find examples of ways students pursuing a major or minor in this department or program have encountered Odyssey. Remember that these are only suggested opportunities; students are encouraged to propose their own creative Odyssey projects. Further, Odyssey experiences do not need
to be related to your major or minor.
Established Pathways to Odyssey through the BIOL Major
Global Awareness
Some BIOL courses have associated trips that make them eligible for GA credit . These include:
- BIOL 355 – Marine Biology with Lab – Belize and Guatemala
- BIOL 480 – Field Ecology with Lab –Costa Rica or Big Bend National Park
Undergraduate Research
Students in Biology can achieve UR Odyssey credit through research experiences in the following classes:
- BIOL 435 – Cancer Biology with Lab
- BIOL 465 – Molecular Evolution and Bioinformatics with Lab
- BIOL 399/499 – Independent Studies (research done with Biology faculty)
Additional Examples of Past Odyssey Experiences related
to BIOL
Professional and Leadership Development
- Places where BIOL students have interned include:
- Other PL experiences have been achieved through the following projects:
Special Projects
- Riding Dirty with Science: A Summer Science Camp for Middle Schoolers
- Adventures in Insect Taxonomy: Improving BIOL’s Teaching Insect Collection
- Ethical Taxidermy in London, UK
- Nature Appreciation and Conservation through Science, Literature, and Service
- Improving the Marine Biology (BIOL 355) Staghorn and Elkhorn Coral Research Project
Service to the World
· Serving Central Arkansas Through Science Experiences
· Service with the Humane Society of Pulaski County
- Summer Volunteer Project at Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary
- Volunteering at the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation
- Penguin Conservation: Volunteering with SANCCOB
Undergraduate Research
Many of our students pursue original research with faculty on our campus and elsewhere. Below you will find examples of research topics and programs that students have used for UR credit on-campus and off-campus.
· On-campus
o Form and function of mammalian skeletal muscles (Dearolf)
o Interplay between transcription and chromatin structure (Duina)
o The physiology of stress tolerance in insects (Gantz)
o Evolution of viruses, bacteria, and snakes (Harper)
o Understanding how different components of a tumor alter cancer progression; Understanding factors that lead to increased student success in the sciences (MacDonald)
o Human impacts on wildlife behavior and conservation (McClung)
o Ecology of grasslands, tropical ecology, conservation (Moran)
o (Murray)
o Plant evolution, building and apply phylogenetic trees (Schneider)
o Bdelloid rotifers as a model system for DNA repair (Schurko)
· Off-campus
o Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU):
LINK>
o University of Arkansas Medical Sciences (UAMS):
o Arkansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE):