Splash Biography

Pokémon was originally conceived by Satoshi Tajiri as a way to instill in children of the modern, urbanized Japan the same enjoyment that he felt as a young boy collecting insects near his hometown. Today, Pokémon inhabit every corner of the world (both literally and figuratively). There is no doubt that video games from Japan are popular around the world, but Pokémon is considered the “most successful export of Japanese culture”. Why, and how did this happen? Pikachu and his friends have not only changed the face of modern video games, but also redefined mainstream globalization and cultural exchange. In this class, we will discuss the history of Pokémon and its effects on global culture (with a focus on the Japanese and American audiences).

We have captured wild gummy bears and entered them into a captive-breeding program in order to study genetics. You will examine various offspring that resulted from different cross-breeding experiments and learn about topics such as inheritance, Mendelian and non-Mendelian genetic patterns, alleles, and Punnett Squares.

Adaptation is the evolutionary process whereby a population becomes better suited to its habitat. This process takes place over many generations, and is one of the basic phenomena of biology. In this class, you will learn the basics of Darwinian evolution and partake in an activity in which you create an animal with useful adaptations.

Defining "art" has become especially problematic since the early 20th century. Is art the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way to affect the senses or emotions? Is art the expression of objective aesthetic principles? Is art anything that is beautiful or appealing? Does art include music, literature, film, photography, sculpture and paintings? Or is art limited to specific modes of expression? Let's discuss.

You are probably used to thinking of your city, town, or neighborhood as a community, but did you know that all animals and plants live in communities too? Biological communities consist of a variety of different types of organisms. We will gather samples from two biological communities on campus and examine our findings in the lab!