Professor uses colorful stories, dynamic personality to teach biology

by Joe Pecoraro, posted May 5, 2010

As students pour into a dim lecture hall on a dark Tuesday morning, a shared look of gloom and fatigue appears across the room. Douglass Gayou prepares his itinerary for the day’s lecture. The clock hits 9:30 a.m., and it begins.

“TODAY, we are talking about community ecology!” Gayou bellows across the hall. Although the temptation to fall asleep is usually a viable option during a large lecture like this one, Gayou keeps the pace and the volume of the lecture high. For the amount of time Gayou tries to instill knowledge of ll living things, very few know about his life before Mizzou biology.

Gayou hails from St. Louis, Mo., where he attained his bachelor’s in biology from Washington University in St. Louis. He then went on to get his master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Missouri, where he now works as a biology professor.

But his love for biology and especially birds began long before his time at Mizzou or even college at all. It can all be traced back to his 6th birthday present.

“When I was 6 years old, my parents gave me a bag of birdseed, a bird feeder and binoculars and just said go outside and watch,” Gayou said. “ I ended up really enjoying it, very interesting.”

His joy for science began to flourish even more in high school, partially because of a helpful teacher.

“I was lucky enough to have a great high school ecology teacher,” Gayou said. “He was very supportive and a great help for me.”

Students in any of his three biology courses are now reaping the benefits of Gayou’s love for biology. Because of his high energy and passion for the subject, students are finding his classes much more interesting than they would expect.

MU freshman Ben Abbott, a student in his Biology 1010 course, said he would have trouble keeping focused on the subject without a dynamic professor such as Gayou.

“Gayou lectures us on the why rather than the how,“ Abbott said. “He'll explain a concept and then show an example in nature and why it's that way.” Abbott also ponders about his most memorable moment in Gayou’s lecture.

“He was talking about how vicious squirrels are because they eat tree babies [nuts],” Abbott said. “It made me laugh hysterically, and he ended it with his trademark ‘very tricky.’”

Another student on a long list of those who are impressed with Gayou is Joshua Gaunt, MU sophomore. Gaunt was especially impressed with Gayou’s work outside the classroom.

“He always had really interesting stories about his field work,” Gaunt said. “I guess he was in a national park and a condor latched onto his arm.  He wasn’t wearing a glove, so the bird’s huge talons went into forearm. He just held onto the bird attached to his arm three hours. It showed me he does field work.”

Gayou stated his main goal, especially for non biology majors was to be informed enough so they could make the right decisions later on for topics in politics that involve biology.

“It could be anything from stem cell research to climate change,” Gayou said. “But these students would benefit from being informed.”

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