PART I - CONTENT OBJECTIVES

1. Exposure to representative organisms of the major taxonomic groups: Eubacteria, Archaebacteria, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia.

2. Understanding the characteristics that unite living organisms and distinguish them from non-living entities and, at the same time, understanding the diversity that exists among organisms.

3. Understanding how similarities and differences among organisms form the basis for systematics and serve as a means of categorizing and naming organisms.

4. Understanding the relationship between structure and function at all levels of organization: molecular, cellular, organismal, population, community , and ecosystem.

5. Understanding the physical and chemical properties of organisms and processes that occur in living things.

6. Understanding the cellular basis of life.

7. Understanding the nature and function of the gene and the flow of genetic information in the cell, in the organism, and in the population.

8. Understanding the homoestatic control mechanisms that allow the organisms to respond to changes in the internal and external environment.

9. Understanding the interdependence and interrelationships among organisms and between organisms and their environment.

10. Understanding the origin of life and the process of evolution.

11. Understanding the historical background leading to contemporary views on major biological topics and awareness of the dynamic process of scientific inquiry.

PART II - DEVELOPMENT OF AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE SCIENTIFIC PROCESS

1. Majors are able to understand communications about biology through diagrams, pictures, graphs, mathematical representations, and the written word. Majors area able to communicate this understanding to others.

2. Majors have developed and can use scientific vocabulary.

3. Majors can access sources of information and data.

4. Majors understand experimental design and understand that experiments are tests in limited and defined situations. This means that majors can design and implement an experiment with adequate controls that test the hypothesis.

5. Majors have competence in various observation methods and have data acquisition skills.

6. Majors are able to draw inferences from sets of information and can analyze data presented.

7. Majors have problem solving skills.

8. Majors can use instruments commonly used in the discipline.