Biology students gain exposure via wildlife photography

Jim Matheny, WBIR 7:44 p.m. EST January 19, 2015

Maryville College professor Drew Crain holds a mass of wood frog eggs for his students to photograph at Cades Cove.(Photo: Jim Matheny, WBIR)

(WBIR - CADES COVE) Your typical college biology class requires a great deal of memorization. At Maryville College, a unique course is teaching students about the world around them by creating photographic memories.

"It's not just a science class. And it's not just an art class. It's an art-meets-science class," said Dr. Drew Crain, professor of biology and wildlife photography at Maryville College.

For around a decade, Crain has offered a course that develops a greater understanding of biology by providing students exposure through the lenses of high quality cameras to capture wildlife photography.

Maryville College wildlife biology-photography students walk through Cades Cove.(Photo: Jim Matheny, WBIR)

"These are not photography majors. Many of them, the closest they've come to taking a great photo is taking their iPhone out at a concert," said Crain. "With technology today, anyone can take a good photograph. My challenge to these students is to take great photographs."

Crain and around half a dozen students arrived at Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at dawn with DSLR cameras in tow. As they waited for the early morning haze to burn off, Crain took them on a walk through a swampy spring.

A Maryville College student captured this photo of a wood frog egg at Cades Cove.(Photo: WBIR)

"See this big gelatinous mass? Those are wood frog eggs," said Crain as he lifted a gooey spotted mass of eggs out of the water. "These are all embryos. The wood frogs actually lay their eggs during the winter. There are not any predators and the membrane around these eggs is like antifreeze."

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Biology students gain exposure via wildlife photography