HIGH-IMPACT PRACTICES

Study Abroad. Developing a global perspective gives students the know-how to be leaders. From studying mathematics in Greece and Germany to researching ecology in Honduras and Costa Rica, the college offers abundant opportunities to learn overseas.

Student research. We learn by doing, and opportunities abound for groundbreaking research. Students use computational modeling to address legislative gerrymandering, to study mosquitoes for new pest control measures, and to research nontoxic, cost-effective delivery systems for chemotherapy drugs.

Mentorship. The innovative Health Pre-Professions Mentoring Program matches students with Tarleton alumni and friends in the medical, dental, pharmacy and health professions. The program helps students learn more about their field of study while connecting alumni and professionals to the university.

Sense of Place. Learning to communicate in the public arena is vital to the scientific community. Sense of Place, a provost-supported initiative, begins this process in the freshman biology course sequence. Sense of Place helps students develop an awareness of ecological impacts on local species. Students acquire skills that can be used in other courses by learning how to connect content knowledge with real-life examples, plus they begin to develop partnerships with individuals outside the classroom. Additional Sense of Place experiences occur in geology and environmental sciences courses

Field experiences. Biological science, geoscience and environmental science programs have large field components, from daily lab trips lasting only a few hours to week-long endeavors to important formations or ecoregions, such as the Guadalupe Mountains, Davis Mountains, Big Bend, New Mexico lava fields and Timberlake Biological Field Station.

SEA-phages and SEA-genes. As part of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science Education Alliance, students discover and characterize new bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) and use bioinformatics to annotate their sequenced genomes. Students can continue their research on bacteriophage genetics by performing microbiology, molecular biology and biochemistry experiments on cytotoxicity, immunity and protein interactions. Students present their work at regional and national conferences and publish the results in scientific journals.