The diversity of life

One subject that seems to be popping up in the classroom lately is the diversity of living organisms. In Advanced Biology students were  oohing and aawwwing over the different phyla of animals (try googling blue ringed octopus, sea slugs, or sea stars).

In Earth Science we discussed Jared Diamond's Collapse, and how a loss of tree and bird species led to the failure of a human civilization.

In Kitchen Biology students got to smell first hand the diversity of yeast and bacteria species that are in the air around us, as some of the sourdough starters were growing perfectly, and some actually bubbled over the jars with colonies we didn't want growing.

Finally, Biology is learning all about nonliving and living things that can give us disease, such as viruses and bacteria.

What diversity of organisms has shown up in your life recently?

A western tanager in a ponderosa pine- two different species we know well in GV