The biology curriculum includes special courses offering opportunities for off-campus field study.

Students can learn about desert and montaine ecosystems while camping in Arizona or visit marine biology laboratories in Florida. Another course offers the opportunity to study the flora of the northwoods in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

Many of our students take advantage of studying in other countries through programs sponsored by Associated Colleges of the Midwest. The most popular programs for biology majors are those in Wales, Costa Rica and Zimbabwe, but biology majors also have studied in Germany, Spain, Italy and England. A new program in Tanzania promises a chance to study human origins and African wildlife.

Ripon College also has joined Semester in Environmental Science, a program recently organized by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. Participating students spend a semester studying and doing research at one of the premier oceanographic laboratories in the world.

A dedicated faculty stresses hands-on learning and student research

The biology department faculty cultivates a supportative environment that encourages our students to enjoy learning for its own sake, while they get a rigorous preparation for the world beyond Ripon. We stress cooperative learning and a “hands-on” discovery approach in which students learn from each other and from the material as well as from the course instructor.

Opportunities for independent study and internships begin in the first year for selected students in collaboration with faculty mentors. Many students do summer research at Ripon College or other institutions, and the results of student research often are presented at professional meetings. As part of our landmark senior studies program, every biology senior completes an independent research project under the supervision of a faculty adviser. Students present their projects to their peers in oral presentations and complete a senior thesis.

Senior Studies has been praised by alumni of the biology program as their single most valuable undergraduate experience. It is equally effective in preparing students who go on to graduate school or professional studies in health-related fields, as well as those who go directly into industry after graduation from Ripon.

Program Opportunities

Ripon College offers a rich program of exciting and instructive field trips. While at Ripon, you could take field courses in:

• Marine Field Ecology
• Orinthological Field Studies
• Desert and Montane Field Ecology
• Northwoods Field Ecology
• Ethology of Killer Whales (Psychology 251). This last course is offered by the Department of Psychology and is co-sponsored by the Department of Biology.

These off-campus courses are offered during our Maymester program. Sometimes we offer Maymester courses that stay on campus.

Further, through the Associate Colleges of the Midwest, we offer summer courses in northwoods environments, an academic year program in tropical field research in Costa Rica, and a program in environmental sciences at Oak Ridge National Labs in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Ripon College students also may take a semester at the University of Swansea in Wales (U.K.) and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole (Woods Hole, Massachusetts).

More Information about Internships

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