Faculty members often seek new ways to engage students with course material. Kristen Covino, PhD, postdoctoral teaching fellow in the Biology Department, recently challenged her ornithology students to put their knowledge of birds to the test.
Students examined the biology of a real bird and created two fake birds. Classmates were then asked to vote on which of the birds was real. Demonstrating that truth is often stranger than fiction, most students did not correctly identify the real bird, often because behaviors or characteristics of the real birds seemed unlikely.
Submitted by: Sara Morris, PhD, associate vice president, Academic Affairs
