Student outcomes in Biology are assessed by:
1. Examinations, scientific papers reports, essays, oral presentations, and laboratory notebooks in classes.
2. Comprehensive examinations at the start of the students’ last semester. These examinations includes two 3 hour written examinations and one 40 minute oral examination by a panel of four faculty members.
These assessments are used to modify the curriculum in the following ways:
1. During many of our weekly faculty members the faculty discuss the results of comprehensive examinations and in-class assessments. These discussions then result in proposals for curricular change.
2. Faculty in the two introductory classes hold meetings (2-4 times per year) to refine content and pedagogy in both these classes.
3. The faculty hold department-wide retreats (the last one was spring of 2005) during which both the content and the pedagogy of our classes are discussed and modified.
Recent assessment-bases modifications to the curriculum include:
1. Restructuring all laboratories in both Introductory Biology classes to help students learn scientific methodology more thoroughly. The restructuring included revising labs to make them more open-ended and more tightly integrated with learning about data analysis.
2. Refocusing “core knowledge” areas – at our last faculty retreat we decided to engage in this process and the conversation is currently underway.

Students are assessed in two broad areas: scientific methodology and core knowledge.

I. Scientific methodology. Students should be adept with the process of scientific investigation and communication, particularly: (a) hypothesis generation, (b) experimental design, (c) descriptive statistics and the use of graphs, (d) inferential statistics, and (e) scientific proposals, papers and oral reports.

II. Core knowledge. Students are expected to use core biological knowledge at three levels: (a) factual recall and comprehension – students should be familiar with all the areas described and should be able to clearly communicate their knowledge both orally and in written form; (b) analysis and integration – students should be able to connect the different areas of biological knowledge and understand how biological systems are integrated across spatial and temporal scales, (c) synthesis and extension – students should be able to use their knowledge and skills to explore new areas of biological knowledge through synthesis and critique of previous information and through intelligent hypothesis-generation.

Overview of core knowledge for biology students:

Biological macromolecules and basic bioenergetics
• Structure of the main classes of macromolecules and how structure relates to function
• Bioenergetics and enzymes

Overview of cell structure and function
• Main components of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, incl. their basic functions
• Overview of respiration and photosynthesis

Biological membranes
• Structure and function of membranes, incl. movement of ions and molecules and signaling across membranes

Genetics
• Structure of DNA, genes, chromosomes. Replication, transcription, translation. Gene expression and regulation. Meiosis, mitosis.
• Polygenic vs discrete allele inheritance. Mendel’s two principles.
• Intro to molecular genetics.
• Genes to phenotypes: genetics and development.

Communication and coordination within organisms
• Structure and function of nerves
• Hormones in animals; growth substances in plants
• Homeostasis in animals; regulation of the internal environment in plants

Evolution
• The pattern versus the process of evolution.
• Evidence that biological populations change through time and are linked in a branched pattern of ancestry
• Mechanisms of change: natural selection, genetic drift, immigration, emigration, mutation. Adaptation.
• Speciation: sympatric vs. allopatric. Definitions of species: biological species concept and its problems. “Phylogenetic” species concept
• Macroevolution: role of mass extinction, general sequence of who evolved when.

Systematics
• trees as hypotheses, the general principles of cladistics. Classification: how to name these branching trees.

Diversity of life
• Hypotheses about the origins of life.
• The three Domains and their main characteristics. The endosymbiont theory and the evidence supporting it.
• The two prokaryotic Domains Archea and Bacteria: general structure and a few examples to illustrate metabolic diversity.
• The Eukarya: four kingdoms -- protists, fungi, plantae, animalia. Know the distinguishing characteristics of each.
• Protists: not a monphyletic clade. examples of phyla to illustrate diversity.
• Fungi: body plan and life history of a basidiomycete and an ascomycete. Ecological and economic importance of fungi.
• Plantae: alternation of generations, diversity of plant structure and life cycle illustrated by four phyla (know the distinguishing characteristics of each phylum and how these characteristics relate to the function of the organisms): bryophyta, pterophyta, coniferophyta, angiosermae.
• Animalia: Know the distinguishing characteristics of the following phyla: Porifera, Cnidaria, Platyhelmithes, Mollusca, Annelida, Arthropoda (Uniramia, Chelicerata, Crustacea), Echinodermata, Chordata, especially. Understand how these characteristics relate to the function of these organisms, especially with respect to locomotion, gas exchange, feeding and nervous systems.

Ecology
• The basic idea: study of the distribution and abundance of organisms in space and time, and the factors and interactions that control distribution and abundance.
• Four levels: individuals, populations, communities, ecosystems. Describe main themes at each level and provide illustrative examples ( -- need to settle on what which of these themes are most important to include). Importance of scale.

Conservation
• Conservation’s many faces: maintaining biodiversity; maintaining ecological, genetic and evolutionary processes that support biodiversity; sustainable resource exploitation; sustainable use of ecosystem services.
• Importance of ethical worldviews.
• Trends in human population and demography, trends in human consumption. Some effects of these trends on biodiversity and ecology: Habitat loss, Habitat fragmentation, Overharvesting, Spread of exotic species, Pollution, Loss of ecosystem services.
• Examples of how biological science can be combined with other disciplines to solve some of these problems.