Experiential Education
INTO THE WILD
Mentorship, discovery and hands-on learning in Biology’s innovative courses
The morning sun filters through the towering trees of New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, casting scattered light on a group of Villanova students making their way through the thick forest. With cameras and notebooks in hand, they marvel at the spongy, peat-covered ground beneath their boots—or bare feet—and the insect-eating plants that thrive in this nutrient-poor environment. A few students pluck tart cranberries straight from the bush, while others crouch to examine a sundew curling its sticky tendrils around an unsuspecting insect.
“I think it is essential for students to get outside and interact with nature,” says Vik Iyengar, PhD, professor of Biology. “It’s easy to learn about ecology and nod your head during lectures, but it’s a different thing entirely to walk barefoot through a bog, witness cattle egrets fishing, hold a praying mantis and get your hands dirty planting seeds.”
Dr. Iyengar instructs the innovative Evolutionary Ecology course where students spend over a third of their labs outdoors, with fieldwork on sites ranging from Villanova’s West Campus to the salt marshes of New Jersey’s coastline. The class also incorporates greenhouse experiments, allowing students to design and conduct multi-week research projects involving planting and harvesting crops. Dr. Iyengar’s own research on insect behavior heavily influences his teaching.
Vik Iyengar, PhD
“I have always found insects fascinating—they are remarkably diverse yet often underappreciated,” he says. Dr. Iyengar often uses invertebrates in his labs, as they are plentiful and accessible in the surrounding community. His enthusiasm is contagious, sparking student interest in ecological interactions that might otherwise be overlooked.
“In addition to studying pollinator behavior on West Campus, we do a mark-recapture study on praying mantises,” he shares. “This field experience provides me with an opportunity to talk about the role of these predators on pest management, as well as discuss some of their more interesting reproductive behaviors such as sexual cannibalism.”
It’s a passion he shares with Carter Young ’25 CLAS, whose love for biology began long before he arrived at Villanova. Growing up, Carter could be found exploring the environment around him, going on hikes and turning over logs to examine creatures and plants that fascinated him. He took every opportunity to learn beyond what his high school AP Biology class could offer, and when he arrived at Villanova, he was eager to take his intellectual curiosity to the next level.
During his first year as a Biology major, Carter enrolled in Dr. Iyengar’s Entomology course, where he quickly distinguished himself as a leader. “Carter was my de facto teaching assistant for the class,” says Dr. Iyengar. “He actually knew more about specific local species than I did.”
Since then, Carter has spent his undergraduate years immersed in ecological studies, seeking faculty-mentored research experiences with Dr. Iyengar and collaborating with faculty across disciplines. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences provided him with a range of hands-on experiences to take part in, from participating in the annual BioBlitz where students and faculty try to find as many species as possible in a few hours around Villanova’s campus, to conducting his senior thesis research in the Pacific Northwest, and exploring the wildlife of Costa Rica through the Tropical Ecology course with Robert Curry, PhD.
“That was probably one of the best experiences in my four years here,” says Carter, reflecting on his research in Costa Rica. “It was really student-driven—we all had to come up with our own ideas for what we wanted to study. I had plans to research jumping spider diversity or how many insects I could attract with rotten bananas, but neither of those panned out. I ended up looking at lichens, which are very cool, but definitely not what I had planned. That was a valuable experience to show that you never know what to expect out there in the field.”
For Carter, fieldwork has been a defining aspect of his Villanova education. “I think the most important advantage is it teaches you that failure is something that is very common and something that you shouldn't be discouraged by,” he says. “Fieldwork is totally open ended. You can go out there and get absolutely nothing, and there are so many steps along the way that you must trial and error. And that's a really important experience to have.”
Dr. Iyengar’s Evolutionary Ecology
“Ecology is the study of the relationships among living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment,” says Dr. Iyengar. “There is no better way to understand our place in nature than to get outside and experience it first-hand."
CARTER'S CORNER
iNaturalist Observations
iNaturalist is a social network for sharing biodiversity information to help others learn about nature. Carter Young ’25 CLAS is the top contributing member for the ĂŰĚŇTV Biodiversity project, logging more than half of the total observations for the community! Below is a snapshot of Carter’s observation stats worldwide, beyond Villanova’s project.
6,400+
recorded observations
3,780+
different species
Hemiptera*
most observed taxon
*Hemiptera is an order of insects, also known as true bugs, that comprises more than 80,000 species within groups such as cicadas, leafhoppers and shield bugs.
Unusual Pets
Centipedes
Isopods
Cockroaches
moths
Crickets
Nematodes
Earthworms
Praying mantises
Scorpions
Snails
Vinegaroons
Too Good at Bug Care?
Dr. Iyengar and Carter joke about how Carter’s knowledge of invertebrate care hasn’t always gone so smoothly for the department. “The Biology Department absolutely relies on his expertise in animal husbandry with invertebrates,” Dr. Iyengar shares.
“And I made problems for them, too, because I fed the cockroaches a much better diet that caused them to way overproduce,” Carter laughs. “So, we probably had several thousand more cockroaches than we needed for running the labs. Since then, I’ve been trying to separate the males from the females so they don’t breed. … So, yeah, a little overzealous there.”
