I went to a small, liberal arts school for undergrad. My eco class had 12 people in it. We had the typical theoretical/book rigor of an upper-level class, but we also had a major part in ongoing research at a local battlefield, Cowpens National Battlefield (read here: we were slaves for his on-going research, but, in the name of "learning and education" we got good grades and collected data well).
The park service clearcut a forested area on one side of the park a few years ago, and left the rest of the forest standing. At different locations throughout the park, we were given the task of collecting soil and litter (tree leaves) samples, temperature and rain gauge readings, as well as soil moisture, pH and microbe counts. We compiled all of this data throughout the semester and compared our results to the published literature for the type of environment we were studying. We also had one very large report with data analysis and tables and graphs to submit at the end of the semester.
Lecture was really interesting to see how we humans impact our environment and to see how different climate regions have different "schedules" by which they grow, and basically how those regions limit/enable different species living within them.
I encourage you to take a bio class or two not as specifically-related to medicine as are biochem and immunology. Get a broader perspective on the world than the few miles you drive everyday. 😀
