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Wonder sometimes catches us by surprise, but it comes more often when we have time, energy, and focus. While walking outdoors, we may glimpse a full-bloomed flower, bedewed and glistening in the sun, and marvel for a moment. Our wonder increases if we do more than pause, but so many distractions and diversions, whether pleasant or worrisome, often pull us away. 

A part of the Â鶹AV purpose statement encourages the entire college community to pursue wonder, stating that students, faculty, and staff are to be striving "to see creation as the handiwork of God and to study it with wonder and respect." Arguably, Covenant's biology department is the North Star in this endeavor.

A Love of Teaching

"I love teaching biology at Covenant," says assistant professor Dr. Lynell Martinez. "Whether it is advising students or teaching, it is such a blessing to share my wonder and awe at seeing God's fingerprint on all of creation, including the unique gifts and talents of my students." Covenant alum Dr. Tim Morris, professor of biology and the dean of sciences, reaches for the word "wonder" as well when discussing science. "Almost 45 years of study, research, and teaching in the sciences has continually increased my wonder at the goodness of God's gifts: His word, His people, His world, and the fruitfulness of scientific endeavor." He adds, "God uses human ingenuity and imagination in the sciences to consistently uncover features of the world that contribute to wonder, worship, and human flourishing in multifaceted ways."

Biology at Covenant is always a rich tapestry of learning, a careful examination of the life sciences that foreground the patterns of God's revelation of Himself in the natural world. When Dr. Martinez studies the respiratory system with her students, she asks them to hold their breath as long as possible. The students are then led into a discussion about the urgency with which the body demands to breathe and the factors that regulate the respiratory rate. The students read Psalm 42:1 ("As a deer pants for water…") so that they can remember the urgency with which our hearts should seek after God. The class also learns how toxins like smoke affect the functioning of the lungs and have time to reflect on how sin, like a toxin or a tumor, can interfere with spiritual "breathing," affecting the ability to keep in step with the Spirit. 

That kind of teaching is rooted in the biology department's commitment to ensure that students have a firm foundation in a biblical theology of scientific endeavor. Science, scientific research, and scientific discoveries take their rightful place within the biblical understanding of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. Dr. Morris explains, "As with many of God's good gifts, so with the gift of science, many of us are tempted to worship the gift rather than the Giver or to use the gifts in selfish, destructive ways. What a privilege to help my younger brothers and sisters in Christ embrace the good gifts of God's grace we find in biology, while also rejecting idols that arise from our tendency to worship features of the created order and ourselves."

Senior biology major R.J. Bascom has no doubts about the difference it makes to learn from professors who consistently encourage students to see both how the Bible enriches the study of science and how the study of science deepens our insights into scripture. When studying blood and how white blood cells are designed to cleanse the body of bacteria and infections, Bascom and his classmates also considered the biblical theme of Jesus's blood cleansing us from sin. "It's something that we don't really encounter anywhere else in society, this idea that blood cleanses," he explains. "They didn't know about white blood cells a couple thousand years ago," Bascom adds, referring to biblical times, "But God knew because God created blood to be a healing agent. God is integral to this subject."

Carefully Tended Road

Like Bascom, there are many Covenant students who are eager to study biology. Last year biology was second only to business in the number of students graduating with their bachelor's degrees, and currently close to ten percent of students have declared biology as their primary concentration. In this, Covenant is similar to colleges and universities across the country. Ask a college student today what he or she is majoring in, and you are very likely to hear that it's either something in the business arena–marketing, finance, accounting–or something in the realm of biology such as pre-med or pre-physical therapy. For many, the road to a job looks clearest through one of these majors. 

Covenant offers far more than a career path, however, even while preparing students well for both employment or continued study. For a college-aged believer, being equipped with knowledge and certain skills is only part of the preparation for a lifetime of work and worship. Biology as just a means to an end, whether it is becoming a nurse or a doctor or working as a public health scientist, falls far short of biology as both an avenue to meaningful and needful work and the wonder-filled opportunity to better understand God's creation. For Covenant's biology students, their years in the department also give them the opportunity to discover the ways they can serve, protect, and restore that creation.

Many graduates from the biology program serve God's creation–and promote human flourishing—by entering a health profession. Chair of the department, Dr. Richard Nelson, estimates that about two-thirds of Covenant's biology majors pursue a career in a health-related field. It's one reason that Dr. Nelson worked over the past year with the other department members to create a health science major at Covenant—a brand new major recently approved by the entire Covenant faculty and board of trustees. As he explained in the official proposal for the major, it is a concentration that "explicitly leverages our commitments to liberal arts education, interdisciplinary connections, and multifaceted wholeness to prepare students for service in health and healing roles." 

Health Sciences and Biology Concentrations

As with the current biology major, the new health science major offers far more than a means to an end. The purpose of the major is to equip students with a robust education that integrates scientific insights with a Christ-centered vision of healthcare. The courses required for the major will include the expected study of general biology, chemistry, and anatomy and physiology. But there will also be a course offered titled "Redemptive Healthcare," a flagship course that will focus on what exactly a faithful Christian can and should be doing in pursuing a health science career. The new major will also require a choice of electives from other specialties at the college, such as a philosophy course in "Bioethics" and "Faith and Suffering," taught in the biblical and theological studies department.

Meanwhile, students in the traditional biology major may select concentrations in organismal biology, cellular and molecular biology, the focus of Dr. Nelson's own research, or ecology, the speciality of the biology department's fourth member, assistant professor Dr. Joelle Fletcher. For those concentrating in ecology, Covenant is not the only place in which to explore the intricacies of environmental science. Students can also take field-based summer classes at the Au Sable Institute, an academic partner that shares the college's commitment to scripture as the word of God with three separate campuses, two in the U.S. and one in Costa Rica.

A Long History with Unchanging Commitment

Biology has a long history at Covenant (a 100-level biology course was a requirement for graduation when the college first moved to Lookout Mountain). It is where many a career in nursing, medicine, physical and occupational therapy, or scientific research began. But more importantly, it is where many students are given the gift of being able to understand and wonder at "the amazing diversity and the marvelous complexity of the biological aspects of creation." These last words come from the biology department's mission statement, which ends with the goal of helping students "become motivated servants who are committed to putting skills and knowledge to work in redemptive activity." Dr. Fletcher echoes those words when describing her own commitment as both a Christ-follower and a scientist: "I believe that scientific study is a powerful way to discover the nature of God and to develop a love and care for His creation."

A little over 300 years ago, Puritan theologian and philosopher Jonathan Edwards sent out his first piece of writing into the world. It was not a theological treatise or an exegesis of scripture, it was an essay on spiders. He was the age of a Covenant student when he dispatched a letter about spiders to the Royal Society of London. He had been observing them since the age of 11, and spiders filled Edwards with wonder. "Of all insects," he began, "none is more wonderful than the spider." He marveled at their "multitudes of little shining webs" and "glistening strings of great length." Seeing all that spiders could do also increased his admiration of their Creator. To read Edwards's essay is to know the great depths of wonder that can be achieved by an observer who is willing to pause and marvel.

In today's world, it seems less likely that many 11-year-olds are spellbound by spiders "swimming in the air." How much more precious it is then, to study God's creation with professors who cultivate in their students a sense of wonder and awe so that even as they partake of the various areas of study in biology—cellular, molecular, genetics, environmental, physiology—they are reminded of the greatness of their God and encouraged to think of how they might serve Him in His wondrous world.

Our Alumni Say

"I chose to go to Covenant because I wanted a Christ-centered education. I have always loved studying science and it seemed like God made it all fall into place for me. My time at Covenant played a huge role in my life, especially the biology program and writing my senior paper about how chiropractic care helped people with Parkinson's disease. My education helped me pursue going to chiropractic college, and I have now been a chiropractor for over 10 years!"

Emily (Vander Veen) Buel '10
Doctor of Chiropractic,  Sports and Spinal Wellness Center

"I was never more academically challenged anywhere in all my medical career than I was at Â鶹AV. My professors were absolutely incredible; each and every one consistently displayed passion for their subject, dedication to the highest quality teaching, and a true commitment to the lives of their students. Covenant prepared me for medical school exceedingly well and also helped me grow in my relationship with God. Since graduation, new global challenges, political policies, and scientific technologies have arisen which impact my work as a physician on a daily basis and are debated in the medical community. Covenant helped provide me with tools for how to approach the ever-evolving challenges of life while constantly coming back to God's goodness, power, and ever-present hand in the world."

Tom Yates '13
Internal Medicine Physician, Lawndale Christian Health Center 
Founding Core Faculty Member, Lawndale Family Medicine Residency

"I had dreamed of becoming a physician since middle school and felt Covenant gave me the academic rigor and personal mentorship needed for success. After Covenant, I enrolled in medical school at the Medical University of South Carolina. The academic rigors of Covenant's biology and chemistry departments fully prepared me for the didactics of med school. I felt better prepared than the majority of my peers in almost every aspect. After completing a residency in anesthesiology where I served as a chief resident, I then completed a regional fellowship at the University of Colorado in Denver and worked in private practice there until I took on my current role."

Clark Sealy '12
Director of Regional Anesthesia, Prisma Health

"After graduating from Covenant, I spent about a year and a half as a registered dental assistant at Lookout Mountain Dental and Revive Dental while studying for the Dental Admissions Test. After being accepted at UTHSC, my wife and I moved to Memphis, TN, where I began school. Covenant's rigorous coursework not only prepared me well for the very heavy academic load of dental school, but also taught me how to find joy in learning about God's creation, which is what I get to do every day in dental school. Whether it be through a human anatomy class or making a set of dentures for a patient, I am able to do all of those activities through the gifts that God has given to me."

Samuel Caine '22
Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) Student, University of Tennessee Health Science Center

"I started as a lab assistant in a hospital setting where I swore I'd never be a technologist because I thought it would be boring. Yet I was soon introduced to the field of molecular diagnostic testing, and I haven't looked back. I got my molecular biology certification through the American Society for Clinical Pathology and now do genetic testing for research and clinical purposes. I find genetics and molecular biology fascinating and enjoy helping people, so getting to combine those two joys is a gift. Almost all of my biology classes at Covenant prepared me for my career. I owe a great deal to my brilliant and caring professors, especially Dr. Nelson and Dr. Morris. They taught me to think critically and objectively, skills that I continue to improve upon to this day."

Alyssa Davila '19
Clinical Lab Technologist, Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine at CU Anschutz

"I'd always felt called to some vocation in science, initially thinking I would pursue a career in scientific research, but as time passed, it became clear that I was being called towards a career in teaching. I entered a PhD program at Vanderbilt and then took a postdoctoral fellowship in a lab before transitioning to my current position in teaching. My education at Covenant did an incredible job of preparing me for graduate school. Because of the diversity of classes I had taken, both within the sciences and in other areas, I had an excellent base of knowledge to build from and was better equipped than many of my classmates from larger institutions to deal with the coursework and expectations of my graduate program. The faculty at Covenant were not only supportive of my career by writing me letters of recommendation and giving me chances to speak about my research, but they also serve as examples of the kind of professor I hope to be."

Karin Bosma '10
Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics, Vanderbilt University

"Covenant's biology department did a good job at laying the foundations so that my transition into the forensic toxicology and analytical genetics program at the University of Kentucky went very smoothly. I even had several faculty at Covenant take the  time to consult with me on my graduate school thesis project while at Kentucky.  God led me to forensics, and the life I have now is so much more fulfilling  than what I had originally planned."

Kendyll Freeman '21
Forensic DNA Analyst, Adams County Crime Lab

"I have the pleasure of working for the world's longest running dolphin research program, approaching 55 years this year. I perform 
photo-ID, drone work, and help with rescue operations. Covenant was an amazing facilitator in my education. I especially appreciate  all the time my biology professors invested in their students."

Jonathan Crossman '18
Staff Researcher, Sarasota Dolphin Research Program Brookfield Zoo Chicago

"Covenant was a truly foundational experience in my intellectual and spiritual development. While at Covenant, I loved taking field trips with the biology professors to the woods on Lookout Mountain. I also loved how much each professor was willing to sit and talk with me about any subject. After taking a summer entomology class at the Au Sable Institute through Covenant's partnership, I finally knew what I was called to do. I went to graduate school at the University of Georgia and studied insect biodiversity, focusing on beetles. I've now been managing a collection of over seven million specimens of arthropods at the Illinois Natural History Survey while also doing my own research. I love telling people about ‘the little things that run the world' and shifting their perspectives away from ‘big charismatic megafauna' like tigers and elephants. If there's anything we  can learn about God from His creation, it's that he really likes beetles, 
since there are more than 400,000 species of them."

Tommy McElrath '10
Assistant Research Scientist and Insect Collections Manager, Illinois Natural History Survey at University of Illinois

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