Goals for the course
Biology is complex. Biological processes happen at microscopic and global scales over time frames measured in fractions of a second to millions of years. We are biological beings sustained by myriad processes happening automatically everyday; processes that sustain us and also make us sick. We are biological beings that resulted from the process of evolution spanning back to the origin of life billions of years. We are also social organisms. We live in communities of mutual interdependence. Not surprising, our individual biology has implications in society. This course is about the biology of life and its implications in society.
The course is designed using research-supported best practices. What this means is that the design and implementation of the curriculum and assessments are based on evidence of teaching effectiveness stemming from peer-reviewed research. This first-year course is designed around multiple dimensions, including psychosocial integration, deliberate practices of creative and critical thinking, and becoming enlightened about the depth and complexity of biology.
Psychosocial integration
There are four important individual needs that form the basis of psychosocial integration: belonging, identity, meaning, and purpose.
Creative and critical thinking
This course is designed based on research-supported best practices in teaching. In particular, the course is designed based on the intersection of the Next Generation Science Standards (Links to an external site.) and the American Association of the Advancement of Science Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education (Links to an external site.). These two frameworks outline why we should teach biology, how to teach biology, and what to teach so that students are prepared to grapple with significant and relevant issues in society today.
Mostly, the course focuses on core competencies and cross-cutting concepts Core competencies are skills or ways of doing aligned with effective strategies for making sense of the world. Cross-cutting concepts are ways of thinking that help make sense of the depth and complexity of the world.
Essential core competencies
Core competencies, also called practices or science process skills, are ways of knowing the world we live in. The skills define the dimensions of critical thinking. We emphasize 6 science process skills:
Essential cross-cutting concepts
Cross-cutting concepts are ways of thinking about the complexity of biology using framework that transcends biology and apply broadly across diverse disciplines, including, but not limited to, sociology, psychology, chemistry, history, and art. We emphasize 6 cross-cutting concepts.
Depth and complexity of biology
Biology is immensely complex and there are an infinite number of facts. Our focus is not on facts but rather on gaining an understanding of some of the big ideas in biology. For this class, we focus on a relatively small set of big ideas and repeatedly emphasize the big ideas. Thus, the course does not emphasize facts but rather integrating biological information and developing our understanding of the big ideas.
Essential big ideas in biology
There are a handful of important big ideas in biology. By big ideas, we mean broad descriptions of the content and processes of biology with everyday relevance. In this class, we organize the biological content around 6 big ideas. The big ideas will be addressed with a number of different focus questions and each focus question will be supported by investigating several related key topics that comprise part of the scope of a big idea. Each of the big ideas will be emphasized repeatedly during the course.
Finally, you will also assist in the development and implementation of the course because you will be an integral part of a learning community. We will depend on each other, sustain each other, listen to and learn from each other. We are better as a group and the group is best when we strive to work with each other towards a better understanding of the biology of life and its implications.
Biology is complex. Biological processes happen at microscopic and global scales over time frames measured in fractions of a second to millions of years. We are biological beings sustained by myriad processes happening automatically everyday; processes that sustain us and also make us sick. We are biological beings that resulted from the process of evolution spanning back to the origin of life billions of years. We are also social organisms. We live in communities of mutual interdependence. Not surprising, our individual biology has implications in society. This course is about the biology of life and its implications in society.
The course is designed using research-supported best practices. What this means is that the design and implementation of the curriculum and assessments are based on evidence of teaching effectiveness stemming from peer-reviewed research. This first-year course is designed around multiple dimensions, including psychosocial integration, deliberate practices of creative and critical thinking, and becoming enlightened about the depth and complexity of biology.
Psychosocial integration
There are four important individual needs that form the basis of psychosocial integration: belonging, identity, meaning, and purpose.
- Belonging: the course fosters an environment of community and inclusion in a larger social context aimed at understanding the world
- Identity: the course is designed to support developing a sense of self built on academics, intelligence, curiosity, creativity, and the pursuit of personal and professional goals and interests
- Meaning: the course will provide the tools and develop the context necessary for making sense of the world
- Purpose: the course is designed to advance knowledge, skill development, cognitive ability, and professional aptitude towards realizing personal and professional goals
Creative and critical thinking
This course is designed based on research-supported best practices in teaching. In particular, the course is designed based on the intersection of the Next Generation Science Standards (Links to an external site.) and the American Association of the Advancement of Science Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education (Links to an external site.). These two frameworks outline why we should teach biology, how to teach biology, and what to teach so that students are prepared to grapple with significant and relevant issues in society today.
Mostly, the course focuses on core competencies and cross-cutting concepts Core competencies are skills or ways of doing aligned with effective strategies for making sense of the world. Cross-cutting concepts are ways of thinking that help make sense of the depth and complexity of the world.
Essential core competencies
Core competencies, also called practices or science process skills, are ways of knowing the world we live in. The skills define the dimensions of critical thinking. We emphasize 6 science process skills:
- Questioning and constructing hypotheses: generate a scientific question or construct one or more hypotheses about a real world event, observation, phenomenon, data, scenario, or model
- Planning investigations: design an experimental method or identify a set of observations that can be used to answer a scientific question or test a claim or hypothesis
- Developing and using models: construct a mathematical, graphical, computational, symbolic, or pictorial representation and use it to explain or predict an event, observation, or phenomenon
- Analyzing and interpreting data: analyze data (using quantitative thinkinga) and interpret its meaning in the context of a question, claim, or hypothesis and data collected from an experiment or observation(s)
- Constructing explanations and arguments from evidence: construct or evaluate claims and explanations using evidence
- Evaluating information: find and assess the validity, credibility, and/or relevance of information and ideas
Essential cross-cutting concepts
Cross-cutting concepts are ways of thinking about the complexity of biology using framework that transcends biology and apply broadly across diverse disciplines, including, but not limited to, sociology, psychology, chemistry, history, and art. We emphasize 6 cross-cutting concepts.
- Scaling: scaling is the idea that the characteristics of processes can change as the geographic and temporal scale (e.g. things measured in meters and seconds) changes. In this course, we emphasize five different scales of investigation: global, population, individual, cellular, and molecular.
- Structure and function: typically the function of some biological thing (molecules, cells, individuals, populations) is determined by its structural properties
- Pattern and process: patterns result from process and can be used to infer the characteristics of processes and processes produce patterns and knowledge of process can be used to predict pattern
- Systems: all of biology involves systems of interacting parts so that if we want to understand one thing we often have to understand the system in which the thing is embedded
- Random and deterministic: random processes result in some degree of unpredictability whereas deterministic processes are much more predictable; often, processes generating patterns involve both stochastic and deterministic elements. Another way to think about it: random events happen independently, or in spite of, their effects whereas deterministic events happen dependently, or because of, their effects.
- Cause and effect: causation is an important inference about the world and is the basis for developing effective medical practices, designing and engineering solutions to problems, and making claims about why the world is the way it is
Depth and complexity of biology
Biology is immensely complex and there are an infinite number of facts. Our focus is not on facts but rather on gaining an understanding of some of the big ideas in biology. For this class, we focus on a relatively small set of big ideas and repeatedly emphasize the big ideas. Thus, the course does not emphasize facts but rather integrating biological information and developing our understanding of the big ideas.
Essential big ideas in biology
There are a handful of important big ideas in biology. By big ideas, we mean broad descriptions of the content and processes of biology with everyday relevance. In this class, we organize the biological content around 6 big ideas. The big ideas will be addressed with a number of different focus questions and each focus question will be supported by investigating several related key topics that comprise part of the scope of a big idea. Each of the big ideas will be emphasized repeatedly during the course.
- Biology consists of matter and energy in regulated processes that generate and maintain order, support growth and reproduction, and enable homeostasis
- Cells are the fundamental unit of life: cells are created from other cells, cells interact with other cells, and cells differ from each other depending on genetic effects and the environment
- Biology consists of complex systems of interacting parts operating at different spatial and temporal scales
- Hereditary information is stored, replicated, translated into functional molecules, transmitted from one generation to the next, and subject to change
- Evolution explains the diversity of life
- Biological structure determines function
Finally, you will also assist in the development and implementation of the course because you will be an integral part of a learning community. We will depend on each other, sustain each other, listen to and learn from each other. We are better as a group and the group is best when we strive to work with each other towards a better understanding of the biology of life and its implications.
Schedule and links to lessons
Introduction to course
Module 1: Scaling: From global to molecular
Module 2: Ecosystem services: How we affect and benefit from ecological processes
Module 3: Sex and gender: From molecules to divergent vertebrate species
Module 4: Disease and immunity
Module 5: Cognition: The biology of being intelligent
Introduction to course
Module 1: Scaling: From global to molecular
Module 2: Ecosystem services: How we affect and benefit from ecological processes
Module 3: Sex and gender: From molecules to divergent vertebrate species
Module 4: Disease and immunity
Module 5: Cognition: The biology of being intelligent
