Pre-Arrival Activity - Biology

Welcome to Biological Sciences

Save the Biologist

Who will stay in the basket of the sinking Balloon?

You decide.

Which biologist has made the biggest contribution to Biological Sciences?

You decide.

Hi, as part of the introductory material to your degree course we have chosen six of the not-so-famous contributors to the Biological Sciences.

What we are asking you to do is visit the www sites given below and start your research efforts. We would like you to try and make a judgement as to who you think has made the biggest contribution to biology, and why.

During Welcome Week this information will be used to see who stays in the basket of the sinking hot air balloon. The team making the best case as to their Biological importance gets to stay "in" the basket and save the scientists life, as simple as that.

This is an icebreaking piece of fun but is also to start you on your University career. This next phase of your development will be about not just knowing facts but more importantly how you use them.

This activity will allow you to practice some detailed research, collect and record information that is fit for purpose as well as allowing you to think about the skills needed to marshall a convincing argument.

What do you have to do?

Below are the starting points for the Biologists we have chosen. They all start from the same site but feel free to expand your research efforts and follow whatever route you fancy, even a good old search engine would give some interesting pages.
By all means look at all of them but try and carry out a detailed research on at least one character. The more information you collect the better you can justify why they should be allowed to live.

James Lovelock (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lovelock)

Rosalind Franklin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin)

Peter Mitchell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_D._Mitchell)

Barbara McClintock (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_McClintock)

Richard Dawkins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins)

Rachel Carson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson)

Recommended Reading

If interested further information regarding Balloon Debates can be found at http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1683444

If you have any questions or queries don't forget you can always contact your Faculty Student Guidance Advisor: