General Zoology

In General Zoology, students learn a great amount of information from one of Northwest Missouri State University's best professors Dr. Peter Kondrashov. Lectures start from learning about the different types of cells which includes information about organelles and how they interact. Dr. K then moves onto Kingdom Protista, telling about the phyla, subphyla, and organisms under this kingdom. After going quite in depth about the Kingdom Protista, the professor starts into the Kingdom Animalia. Information ranging from the smallest animals to the biggest mammals is covered. Students in General Zoology learn the different phyla, subphyla, classes, etc. They also learn different information about specific animals in each phyla such as leeches in Class Hirudinea or tapeworms in Phylum Platyhelminthes or dogs in Class Mammalia of Superclass Gnathostoma of Subphylum Vertebrata of Phylum Vertebrata. Along with the lecture, lab is a very fun and interesting component to the course. Lab meets once a week and spans two hours each week. Since lab does not meet very often, lab and lecture often are not about the same topics. Lab is composed of looking at different protists and microscopic animals through microscopes, numerous animals preserved in glass jars, and eventually animals dissected by the students. Students generally work in pairs during the dissection and it is handy to have a box of gloves especially during the fetal pig unit (which spans three weeks). General Zoology sounds like a lot of work, but for people interested in biology rather than computer programming, it is a great class to take.