Biology Program Learning Outcomes

The Biology major fits within the Biology Department as a more generalized life sciences major that creates graduates who understand science as a way of knowing and provides preparation for students to pursue a wide array of biomedical, biotechnological, environmental, and life science graduate school opportunities and careers. The Biology program learning outcomes are guided by the Biology Department’s motto that the best way to “learn science is by doing science,” so we prioritize students conducting experiments or hands-on activities in a wide array of teaching labs to apply the principles they learn in lecture. For students who wish to take this scientific exploration further, we offer a wide array of on-campus research opportunities and local, off-campus internships.

For graduates who successfully complete the Biology major, they are assessed in three ways during the course of their program: 1) a 2.0 GPA or higher in their major required courses; 2) meeting expectations in their Capstone paper; and 3) successful performance on presentations in their Senior Capstone course.

There are six core learning outcomes broken into three themes. These learning outcomes are embedded in courses, research opportunities, internships, and assessments throughout each Biology major.

Science as a Way of Knowing

Scientific investigations require methodical and careful planning. Students are regularly charged with obtaining expertise in a given field and designing tests of hypotheses to reinforce the theory they learn in the classroom.

Graduates can:

  1. Frame testable hypotheses and predictions.
    With expertise based on lecture material and prior investigations, students are expected to hypothesize the answer(s) to a testable question. Such hypotheses should provide the basis for detailed predictions of expected results.
  2. Design and execute investigations and perform analyses that address biological questions or problems.
    While predictions are an important first step, students should be able to correctly conduct their proposed experiments using available materials and methods in which they are trained. Once completed, they need to be able to analyze and interpret their results in a biological context.

Critical Analysis and Communication

Graduates can:

  1. Communicate results of scientific investigations effectively, both orally and in writing.
    No matter which careers our majors pursue, they will need to be able to communicate in a professional manner to diverse audiences. Thus, we require our majors to present their scientific findings (e.g., from experimental or library research) in written and oral forms.
  2. Locate and understand appropriate literature in the biological sciences.
    In this era of frequent misinformation, careful reading from a skeptical perspective is critical to becoming an informed citizen. To this end, we teach our students how to effectively search scientific databases for the literature appropriate to the question they are investigating. We require our students to become proficient with challenging literature in the biological sciences by thoroughly reading each section and applying knowledge from their courses.
  3. Evaluate scientific arguments critically.
    As students build an understanding of the field, they are expected to compare and critique competing scientific ideas. Once completed, they must effectively argue for their own opinion based on the literature and/or their own data.

Working Knowledge

Graduates can:

  1. Demonstrate knowledge of two unifying themes: evolution and emergent properties, and demonstrate knowledge of biological principles at all levels of organization – particularly cellular/molecular biology, organismal biology, and population biology/ecology.
    We require our students to understand that biology involves the study of complex, adaptive systems that are subject to natural selective pressures, and that increasing levels of complexity can result in the emergence of new properties that do not belong to any of the individual components of that system. We also expect them to comprehend these tenets across all the levels of structure/function that are expressed in living organisms.