 |
| Cross Orbweaver (Araneus diadematus) |
I’m a freshman at LC and despite the difficult learning situation that COVID has brought about, I’ve very much enjoyed some of the unique learning experiences LC has to offer. The class that I have so far found the most interesting and engaging has been my first year core class; Biodiversity through eight eyes, known affectionately by me and my peers as spider class. All new students take two first-year classes, one called numbers relating to science and math, and one called words relating to culture writing and literature. These classes are often oddly specific things like feminist literature, interpreting poetry, or diversity in spiders. It is easy to assume that classes that are this specific will never yield useful skills, but the purpose of these classes is to learn more basic over arching skills like collecting data, conducting an experiment, or analysing literature. Spider class is a first year seminar taught by professor binford, looking at analysing data and surveying biodiversity by focusing specifically on spiders. This focus has allowed us to do more project based learning through field research.
Our second big project was to watch a spider for 30 minutes. Usually the spiders I’d seen had been very inactive so I was worried that not much would happen, but there I caught a lucky break. I found a spot that had three spiders, all cross orb weavers, I figured one of them was bound to do something. Just as I was sitting down a crane fly flew right into the web of the smallest spider. I got to watch as the spider paralized its prey, wrapped it in silk and continued to repair the web. Spiders may be frightening to some but I’ve always found them fascinating and beautiful. I’ve enjoyed learning more about them, and I think its made me look at the forest in a different way. I hope this gave you a little more of an idea about what LC has to offer, or just increased your interest about the spiders you share the world with. Link to iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations Have any questions? Email me at t.d.maclaughlin@gmail.com |
