Given the profound changes in the nature of biology and bow biological research is performed and communicated, each
institution of higher education should reexamine its current courses and
teaching approaches (as described in this report) to see if they meet the needs
of today's undergraduate biology students. Those selecting the new approaches
should consider the importance of building a strong foundation in mathematics,
physical, and information sciences to prepare students for research that is
increasingly interdisciplinary in character. The implementation of new
approaches should be accompanied by a parallel process of assessment, to verify
that progress is being made toward the institutional goal of student learning.
These non-biomedical biologists would benefit from the increased attention to biological concepts in their other science courses. All biology students should study some of the concepts in depth as undergraduates. The specific concepts studied in detail by any individual student will depend on their interests, career goals, and the course offerings and course content available at their own school. Beyond the specific content of what they learn, students need hands-on experience with experimental inquiry and research starting early in their undergraduate careers. Their undergraduate experience should give them a sense of the power and beauty of science that takes full advantage of the richness of ideas and tools provided by a broad range of disciplines. The concepts are presented first so that faculty can consider how they might be incorporated into the courses offered. An evolutionary biologist teaching introductory biology will select different concepts from these lists than a developmental biologist teaching the same course.
Either set of choices can improve
interdisciplinary training of students and contribute to the creation of
graduates who think more broadly. Ideally the changes will also help students
see the connections between their different science courses and relate the topics
to their own lives. Most biology students will not take such intensive
schedules as presented in the sample curricula, and it is certainly possible to
become a biomedical researcher without all of this background. However, the
committee feels that future biomedical researchers, and possibly many other
types of researchers, would be better prepared to contribute to
interdisciplinary breakthroughs with such a background. Browsing through all
the things above, maybe you have learned something on learning a foreign
language, especially the one you have chosen.
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