Insect diversity in introductory entomology courses: Why teach it?

Learning the diversity of insects and their biology, morphological characteristics, ecology, behavior, and economic importance is an important goal of all introductory general entomology courses. In addition to requiring an insect collection, many introductory entomology courses focus the laboratory portion of the course on learning the various morphological characteristics and taxonomy used to identify a variety of insect families, and use lecture to reinforce these same concepts. At Luther College, a small liberal arts undergraduate institution with a strong tradition of preparing students for graduate school in the natural sciences, entomology requires a significant insect collection, but very little lecturing or lab time is spent presenting or learning insect taxonomy or family characteristics. If our goal is for students to learn insect diversity, it appears that Luther students learn to identify insect diversity very well while working on their insect collections rather than by teaching it to them. This allows lecture and lab time to be focused on more in-depth discussions of insect biology, ecology, behavior, economic impacts, and performing a variety of investigative research projects that develop important scientific skills.