Biology & Wildlife Learning Lab
The Biology and Wildlife Learning Lab in Murie 202 is a resource available to all ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ Biology and Wildlife (B&W) students. TAs are available to answer questions about specific courses, provide guidance on study strategies, and make space available to complete work (including lab work for online courses taken through ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ B&W).
The calendar shows the schedule for the B&W Learning Lab. TA office hours are listed in this calendar format. Note that each TA lists the courses they can provide assistance with. You are welcome to stop in and talk with any TA, but please realize that any given individual has specific expertise and can best help with questions in that area of expertise. The Learning Lab is also a good place to go to work alone or in groups or to ask questions about how to effectively study and learn material.
Distance and in-person ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ B&W students are welcome to make use of the lab during open hours. When a TA is supervising the Learning Lab and holding office hours, students in that TA's course will have priority over students who are not in the course if space is limited.
Additional Information
In most courses, you will turn in work (either online or on paper) and receive feedback. Some of this will be work done in class, during lab, or outside of class or lab that helps you practice and prepare for important assessments like exams or lab projects. These assignments help you master important skills and concepts that are essential to your success in the course, biology and wildlife program, and your future fields of study. Generally, you will receive feedback on these, and that will include pointing out where you got things wrong or could make improvements. It is important to learn how to make use of this feedback. If you get something wrong or are told that something could be improved, do NOT take it as a personal affront. The person providing feedback is doing so in order to help you. Learning how to take criticism and learn from mistakes is a key to success in any field. Take the feedback seriously and use it to make improvements; using feedback in this way is part of the learning process and will help you master that skill or content. If you're confused about an assignment or the feedback received, talk with the person who wrote it to get clarification.
Similarly, make use of exams and major lab projects as a learning tool. If you get something wrong or make a mistake in a project, use that to re-learn the concept and improve your understanding. Many students are in the habit of studying for an exam or working on a major project (sometimes by last-minute cramming), then "brain-dumping" everything afterwards. This is, frankly, a TERRIBLE strategy to use. The courses you take in Biology and Wildlife build on each other and on the other prerequisite courses they require. You need to remember material from one exam and section of the course and apply it to the next. You need to remember as much of the material from one course as you can so that you can build on it in the next. Similarly, what you learn about experimental design, data interpretation, graphing, paper writing, presentations, and techniques in one course will need to be applied in later courses. You are on a path to gaining expertise in your chosen field, and by the time you earn your degree, you should have assimilated all the material from various courses and be ready to use it as you apply your degree in your career and/or future studies.
Everyone in Biology and Wildlife - including the TAs at the Biology Learning Lab - is invested in your success. Make use of the resources available to you here, in your courses, and elsewhere on campus.