Every other spring, students have the opportunity to engage in authentic research-based learning in various areas of biology.Students immerse themselves in one course at a time, each course meeting daily for five weeks.
A number of previous Immersion offerings are back in Spring 2022 — from lab-based molecular biology to field-based biodiversity to infectious disease epidemiology — as well as three new courses, where students will have some truly unique experiences getting face-to-face with charismatic megafauna in Marine Mammal Biology; learning about changes in our local forests in Field Ecology & Data Analysis; and working hands-on with frogs, turtles, snakes, and their pathogens in Disease Dynamics in the Wild. To learn more about the Biology Semester of Immersion and for a complete list of Spring 2022 Courses, visit https://biology.ufl.edu/immersion-semester/.
Dr. María Torres Sánchez, a postdoctoral researcher with Dr. Ana Longo, holds a barking treefrog (Hyla gratiosa) at UF’s Ordway-Swisher Biological Station, where students in the Disease Dynamics in the Wild Immersion Course will study amphibian pathogens.
Students will work at several local field sites in the Field Ecology & Data Analysis Immersion Course. The site shown below is the Natural Area Teaching Laboratory on the UF campus, where prescribed fires are being used to restore a longleaf pine ecosystem.
