Your courses in biology at Ball State will teach you so much about the foundations of our living world, but it’s also important for you to learn by applying your studies outside the classroom. In the Department of Biology, you can join a student organization that focuses on your chosen concentration, assist our professors in running their active laboratories, sign up for an immersive learning course in scientific journal publishing, be part of a field study in a different country and much more.
There’s a Group for You
We encourage you to seek out membership in one or more student organizations in our department that align with your course of study. These clubs connect you with other students in your concentration, bring in speakers that are academics or working professionals and inform you of career opportunities locally and elsewhere.
Fine Focus is a student-run academic journal featuring undergraduate microbiology research from around the world, produced right here at Ball State. Our students review manuscripts for scientific accuracy, make recommendations to the editorial board and design, write for and publish the content of the journal.
Our current student organizations include:
Living Laboratories
At Ball State, our biology faculty are not only teachers and scholars. They are also active researchers, and most of them operate a lab in the Cooper Life Science Building or at a nearby field research site. Many of our professors are looking for passionate and dedicated undergraduate and graduate students to help run their lab and assist in their research, including opportunities to assist you with your own authentic experiments.
Visit our faculty and staff directory to learn more about our faculty’s research interests.
Field Studies Abroad
Chances are good you’ll already find yourself in a research position or field study through one of your biology courses, but the Department of Biology also offers field studies in distant areas, including other countries. Students who join these two-or-three-week May trips will get firsthand experience studying the selected area’s ecology, flora and fauna.
The 2020 field study will take students to South Africa, while in the past students traveled to Belize, Costa Rica and to the Sapelo Island off the Atlantic Coast in Georgia during spring break.
Learn MoreEast Central Indiana Science Fair
Every year, Ball State University is the proud host of the East Central Indiana Science Fair, which brings together fledgling scientists in grades 4-12 throughout the region to present their science projects. Winners go on to the state level, where they compete for the opportunity to compete at the national level.
In order to serve the children in our community by providing this science fair, the Department of Biology relies on faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students to assist with judging, organizing and monitoring the event, and our fair coordinator is always looking for extra helping hands to make a difference.
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