Biological Sciences, BS

The biological sciences are undergoing an extraordinary revolution, and the plans of study are formulated to give students a broad basis for comprehending the diverse nature of this field. Biology builds upon this knowledge and attempts to understand the complex systems that ultimately give rise to biodiversity. Our curriculum is designed so that this basic biological knowledge can readily be applied to critical practical problems in health and medicine, agriculture and the management of other renewable resources, and the nature of populations and their control.

The amount of information that is currently being discovered in the biological world is daunting, and we recognize that some students may want to focus within an area of specialization. Students begin our curriculum with a four-semester biology core. These courses provide a common knowledge base for all biology majors. The sequence begins with an overview of evolutionary, environmental, and organismal concepts, and then proceeds to examine relationships between development, structure, and function as adaptational mechanisms. The third and fourth semesters are concerned with cellular organization and function followed by genetic and molecular principles so important to modern biology.