The equipment obtained through this project assists students and faculty in furthering research goals by establishing a laboratory of molecular ecology. The faculty have devised a curriculum that both encourages and requires students to become actively involved in research. In addition to the training of biology majors in a broad assemblage of current molecular techniques, the project focuses on experimental design and data analysis and emphasizes problems relating to population biology, ecological and evolutionary genetics, and phylogeny reconstruction. Consequently, a broad suite of course offerings is affected, including Ecology, Evolution, Genetics, and Molecular Biology.
