Learning Outcomes

Biology Program

Students who complete the major in biology are expected to achieve an understanding of the basic principles of the life sciences, the scientific process, and be able to communicate science.

Students are expected to be able to:

1. Describe and explain the specialized factual and theoretical concepts involved in modern biology including the flow and regulation of genetic information and signaling in biological systems.
2. Recognize that living systems are subject to the same laws and rules of chemistry and physics as the inanimate world and understand the fundamental relationships between structure and function in biological systems.
3. Understand how organisms adapt to their surroundings in the short-term level via physiology and in the long-term via evolution.
4. Analyze the primary scientific literature, evaluate the evidence presented, and critically assess the conclusions.
5. Identify problems and questions in the life sciences, evaluate their importance, craft hypotheses, and select and design the appropriate rigorous experiments to test these ideas, as well as providing constructive feedback to peers on their experimental designs.
6. Conduct experiments reliably, reproducibly, and independently.
7. Analyze and interpret qualitative and quantitative data.
8. Communicate science effectively to other scientists in writing and orally.

For the specialization in Brain and Cognitive Sciences, the outcomes are the same except that learning outcome 1 is modified as follows:

1. Describe and explain the specialized factual and theoretical concepts involved in modern biology including the flow and regulation of genetic information and signaling in biological systems with an emphasis on the nervous system.