By Ian M. Kim ’28
In a society where the effects of climate change influence many conscious choices made in daily life, some students at Andover are at the forefront of biological conservation here at PA and the surrounding communities. In the fall of the 2025-2026 school year, Phillips Academy offered BIO460, an interdisciplinary course on conservation biology. Students target biology and conservation from social, economic, and historical perspectives, while putting an emphasis on hands-on experience and being outdoors to engage with the local Andover community.
Dr. Catherine Kemp teaches BIO460 as well as BIO500 (an advanced biology course open for upperclassmen) and BIO600 (an independent research course open for seniors). She explained how many of her interests and passions led her to teach BIO460. “I heard about it [the course] over the summer when I was out hiking in a bunch of national parks, and I said, ‘I love national parks!’ I spend so much of my free time… interacting with different kinds of conservation spaces and that’s been throughout my whole life. And so, I ended up taking over the course.”
To make this course interactive and hands-on, Kemp takes the students outdoors. Sophia Tabibian ‘26, who took BIO460, appreciated this aspect as it helped her relieve stress: “Every Thursday, we actually go outside. That’s been really nice because, especially as a Senior, it’s been good to get out and have that work-life balance.”
Tabibian elaborated on how the course has given her a newfound perspective on biology beyond academic performance. “Every Thursday, we’ve been taking some measurements, and then we go back into the classroom to do calculations. Those calculations tell us how the health of the lawn compares to the health of the sanctuary. In contrast with a theoretical math class, it’s much more applied. You get to learn about the world physically. I like going outside and engaging in these projects because there’s so much to biology beyond just your test scores.”
Dr. Kemp and her students also appreciate the course for exploring how conservation biology interacts with different aspects of society. Bianca Mohamed ‘26 described this in further detail: “Conversation biology really challenges you to think about what the science is shaped by, [whether it be] Western ideology, imperialism, or colonization. We obviously talk about the scientific aspect but we walk about how that scientific aspect intersects with the more social aspects of conservation.”
Dr. Kemp approaches this course with the main goal of not only teaching but helping guide students to create solutions to related problems. “The whole goal is to find real-world solutions, and so a big part of the class, maybe even a majority of the class, is actually thinking about factors that are not just biology, but you need to take into account economics, legal structures, social context, different cultural views, underlying ethics, and the way people think about the world, nature, and the relationships [between them], because ultimately, it’s about how do we find solutions to help preserve life on Earth?”
She expanded on the fact that biology alone cannot cover the aspect of conservation: “[Finding real life solutions is] never going to be just a biology thing. Biologists can give you some information, but they can’t tell you how to use it to come up with a solution in the world, because there’s so many other factors at play.”
Beyond a standard science class, BIO460 aims to incorporate humans into the larger context of the global climate and seeks to challenge the status quo by considering real-world applications. As Mohamed describes it: “We interact with nature every day. In order to improve biodiversity, to improve our ecosystems, to preserve our ecosystems, we have to find solutions that incorporate humans into the equation.”
