A basic tenet of the Biology Department is that the best way to learn about biology is to do biology. Therefore, almost every course has weekly laboratories or field trips, where students learn to become biologists by making original observations, asking questions about life processes, solving problems and designing and testing hypotheses by performing experiments. Communication skills are emphasized in all biology courses, as students read and evaluate research articles in scientific journals, write laboratory reports according to the standards of professional scientific writing, participate in frequent opportunities for oral presentations and critical discussion, and work in research teams. A diversity of advanced courses affords the student the opportunity of building a broad biological background while concentrating, if they choose, in some specialized areas such as cellular and developmental biology, animal or plant physiology, microbiology, neurobiology, genetics and evolution, ecology, and ethology. Our advanced seminars are centered on current research in eleven different fields that span the biological disciplines

Learn more on the Biology Department website and in the College Catalog.