I really like my vertebrate zoology lab. I have a lab practical in a few weeks over all these fish, plus 20 more fish I haven't put on that page yet, 24 amphibians, and 10 frog calls. Wow. It really is a lot of memorizing, but I think I'll do good. The labs are pretty ridiculous though, because we have to be able to sight ID these fish that have been in jars for years and years, and that really don't look much like they do when they're alive. The majority of their coloration is gone, and that's one of the easiest ways to identify them. A lot of them also have their fins all ripped up, which is sometimes a key distinguishing feature. Example: one of the fish I have to identify vs. what the fish looks like while it's alive. So instead we're left to count how many rays are in their dorsal fins (if they're not totally ripped up) and annoying things like that. We should be out in the field catching these fish and learning to identify them that way. It would also teach us a lot more about their ecology rather than having our TA just tell us that "it's a bottom feeder" or "it lives in fast-flowing water". We'd actually be able to see it first hand. I don't know why we don't do that, it's not like it's expensive to hop into a van and drive a few miles down the road to a river or lake.
