Biology 1101 Course Goals and Outcomes

Students in Biology 1101 will be assessed on the following Goals (numbered) and their associated bulleted Expected Learning Outcomes.

1. Students will understand the fundamentals of organismal structure and function, energetics, genetics, evolution, and ecology.

  • Students will be able to recall, explain, apply the core concepts of organismal structure and function, energetics, genetics, evolution, and ecology.
  • Students will be able to analyze and synthesize the areas of organismal structure and function, energetics, genetics, evolution, and ecology and their interrelatedness.

2. Students will be able to engage with multiple sources of information about biological phenomena within the mass media and Internet.

  • Students will be able to evaluate the validity and reliability of these sources.
  • Students will be able to accurately interpret scientific information from these sources.
  • Students will communicate scientific information found from a range of sources.

3. Students will understand the nature of science and be able to ask meaningful questions and seek answers to those using the process of science.

  • Students will be able to formulate testable hypotheses based on observations on the natural world.
  • Students will be able to propose/develop a way to test hypotheses.
  • Students will be able to develop/interpret/critique quantitative and graphical test results to formulate conclusions
  • Students will communicate the conclusions from their experiments.
  • Students will be able to articulate and distinguish aspects of and variations in the process of science.

4. Students describe the inter-dependence of scientific and technological developments.

  • Students will explain the relationship between basic and applied sciences.
  • Students will analyze the interdependence of science and technology and their reciprocal relationship.

5. Students will understand social and philosophical implications of scientific discoveries and understand the potential of science and technology to address problems of the contemporary world.

  • Students will be able to identify and evaluate how course concepts of biology impact their lives. 
  • Students will be able to identify and evaluate how they impact life on earth.
  • Students will be able to evaluate societal decisions associated with biological concepts. 
  • Students will be able to evaluate how these decisions are influenced by technology.

6. Students will understand key events in the development of science and recognize that science is an expanding and self-correcting body of knowledge.

  • Students will analyze the significance of key events in the development of science.
  • Students will articulate the expanding and self-correcting nature of biology.

7. Students will learn to work collaboratively.

  • Students will be able to reflect on their growth in respect to group work.
  • Students will be able to compose constructive feedback to group members.