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Show '., ~~ ,. --~-.-. . . _ ..,........ __ .__,...... w . - ,...,-.~.., .. ,, ~ •"'"- ·",..,. "i FOCUS: BIOLOGY ,,, TH&UNIVERSITY JOURNAL• SOUTHERN UTAH UNIVERSITY ·:t@ x.: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1994 Burgoyne to retire this year Frederick Sherman, a senior biology ma;or, studies a specimen under the microscope in a biology lab. Biology ma;ors at SUU can specialize in areas such as botany, horticul ture or zoology. Cl asses in mammalogy, ichthyology, entomology, agrostology-basically all of the 'ologies'-are also offered in the biology departmen t. Seated comfortably behind the desk of his office in the Life Science Building, Biology Department Head Paul C. Burgoyne seems very much a part of the campus he has made his professional home for nearly three decades. 1n his final year as a professor at SUU, the decorated man of science can look back on a successful career on this campus; but his work with thousands of students over the years has been far from his only focus of interest. Earning a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Utah, a master's in zoology at the University of South Dakota and a Ph.D. in that same emphasis at BYU, Burgoyne taught science at high schools in Salt Lake City before joining the faculty at SUU, then susc, in 1966. "I came to the college as a specialist in biology education, and that remains my focus," said Burgoyn e. His work as chair of the biology department has allowed him to visit many of the state's secondary schools in evaluating the performance of the university's student teachers, he added. That intimate contact with the teaching role came in handy in 1988-89, when Burgoyne and his family found themselves in Norway as part of a teacher exchange program. "I taught high school courses in physics, chemistry and biology, " he said. "Not only was I teaching in a foreign language, but I was teaching two subjects I had never taught before. I had filled a mission to Denmark in the 'SOs, and the two languages are similar; but my vocabulary was the language of salvation in Danish, and my assignment was to teach the language of sciences in Norwegian." Despite the challenge, the experience proved an enjoyable and a memorable one to Burgoyne, who recalls in particular a moment on the street when selling waffles to finance a musical tour for his son's adopted Norwegian band. " It reminded me of 'My Fair Lady,"' Burgoyne said of an encounter with a man who just couldn' t place the accent of the displanted Utah native. "He eventually said, 'I know where you're from; you're from Iceland!' and I was pretty pleased that he didn' t recognize my American accent." Fluent in the language of science as well, Burgoyne has turned his summers away from the university into a ve ritable grab-bag of experiences, working in positions ranging from a wildlife specialist and the driver of a tour bus to service as a ranger with the Forest Service. Burgoyne, who wi ll retire from SUU at the end of this year, is married to the former Marilyn Ames. T hey have three children. "I will probably miss the excitement of the students most," Burgoyne said of his impending retirem ent. "I think that's why teachers stick with teaching in the first place; it's the students who keep your brain stirred up all the time. Just when you think you have heard all the questions, here comes another one you haven't got an answer for." Biology department well suited to IDeet students' needs By PHIL CHIDESTER OF THE JOURNAL STAFF Since the dawn of the ages, men and women from every walk of life have sought to understand both themselves and the physical world around them, to define and categorize and describe the processes that compose life itseli. It is an endless quest, one that has drawn attentions and fueled careers for centuries on end; and it is just such a noble pursuit that drives students and teachers alike to the Science Center and the I ;fe Sciences Building at the heart of this university campus. According to department head Paul C. Burgoyne, the SUU biology department is well suited to m eet the needs of students pursuing an education in such a broad-based field of inquiry. Offering degrees in biology, botany, zoology and biology education, the department combines the best in experienced faculty m embers and up-to-date facilities and resources to create a stimulating, inspirational environment for s tudy in what may well be humanity's most timehonored arena of investigation. As a vital component of SUU's overall educational mission, the department is sure to host every student at one time or another, Burgoyne said " All students need to take either general biology or general h uma n physiology; and trying to service just t hose general education students occupies a good deal of our time," the departmen t chair said. "We could simplify life trem endously if we eliminated the labs I for these classes, but we refuse to do that- we feel that hands-on learning is much more valuable than simply listening to a professor talk." That doesn' t mean, however, tha t the department isn' t ready to provide a broad spectrum of more specific courses. "Entomology, which is the study of insects; ichthyology, or the study of fish; herpetology, the study of reptiles; ornithology, the study of birds; and mammalogy-we' re still teaching these classic field-based studies that have disappeared from many schools, " Burgoyne said. Add to these a strong agricultural program that offers practical experience on the university's fully operational farm, and the department is ready to provide a vital introduction to life and learning in a host of professional fields. Even the most complete course card, however, can't compensate for a lack of technology in the classroom, but the recent construction of the Science Center has left the campus rich with the modern trappings of scientific inquiry as well, Burgoyne said. "We have four different levels of microscopes in the new building, for example," he said. " In the entomology classrooms, the students can look through microscopes specifically designed for entomology. We have television microscopes, we have phase microscopes; we have equipment that I don't even know what it does in [biology professor] Mike Donovan's lab. "An electron microscope came with the new building as well," he added, "and that has allowed students to learn with state-of-the-art technology. We have been doing electron micrographs of fabrics for the home economics department, for example, as well as of plant and animal parts for our own work; that is really [College of Science] Dean Al Ta it's speciality. " We feel we are right on the cutting edge in the equipment we can make available to students." And the department's talented corps of instructors hasn't had any trouble keeping up with this explosion in technology. "Our faculty is as diverse as the courses we teach," Burgoyne said. "We have people who are very bio-chemical in orientation, and we have others who are very field/environment oriented. "As I visit the various classrooms to do evaluations of the professors, I come back every year shaking my head at the diversity in teaching styles," he added. "I feel like each does what he or she does well, but the differences between them are really very remarkable." Experienced instructors, cutting edge technology, dedicated students-nothing m ore than one would expect from a department offering studies as old as time itself. It is a com fortable environment indeed for men and women of all ages to discover the meaning behind the tenuous threads of life; but don't expect, Burgoyne reminds, those answers to come easily. "Since there is such an incredible amount of knowledge out there, we can' t possibly stuff it all in the students' heads, " he said. "It is more important for students to kn ow how to do science than to know information. We would like our graduates to know how to solve new problems, not to simply have m emorized the solutions to old ones; and that's the direction we are moving in this department." |