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Personal Philosophy

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8 views3 pages

Personal Philosophy

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Pkan
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Personal Philosophy

The key characteristics of the biology faculty at Rollins College are our love for biology and our

enthusiasm about the opportunity to share that love with our students. We also believe that, while
there

are fundamental concepts all biologists need to know, true understanding of those principles can
best be

developed through discussion and investigation. Thus, the lecture portion of our courses is often a
class

discussion.

Philosophy of the Department

The Biology Department’s guiding principles are excellence, innovation, and community. We provide

a strong and distinctive undergraduate education that enables students to explore diverse
intellectual

traditions and empowers our graduates to pursue productive careers. We are dedicated to
scholarship,

academic achievement, and environmental stewardship.

The departmental goals are to ensure that students who graduate with a biology degree from Rollins

College have had learning experiences in the major subfields of biology and have developed
proficiency in

the methodologies used in theoretical, laboratory, and field studies. Additionally, the department
provides

opportunities for student investigations, enabling students to develop the necessary skills to design
and

conduct scientific investigations and draw valid conclusions. In essence, students who graduate from
our

program will be able to function as biologists.

46 47

Course Organization

Class Profile

The introductory biology sequence, General Biology I and II (BIO 120 and BIO 121), has been
designed

to provide students who are majoring in biology or biochemistry/molecular biology with a


fundamental

background in the biological sciences; approximately 60 percent of these students plan on entering a
health-related professional school after graduation. Because most of the students who are enrolled
in the

course sequence have completed AP or honors biology courses in high school, emphasis is placed on
skills

development, especially analytical, communication, and laboratory skills. General Biology I is open to
any

student who has an interest in biology, but students who do not intend to major in the sciences are
advised

to enroll in other courses that are specially designed for them. Students must successfully complete
General

Biology I before they may enroll in General Biology II.

Rollins awards students who earn a grade of 4 on the AP Biology Exam with four semester hours of

general college credit. This credit exempts them from the life science general education requirement
for

graduation but does not count toward the biology or biochemistry/molecular biology majors.
Students who

earn a 5 on the exam are exempt from the life science general education requirement and one term
of the

general biology course sequence; some of these students choose to skip one of these courses. Those
who do

complete both terms, however, regularly comment that, while some of the material repeated what
they had

studied in their AP Biology course, the study and time management skills they learned in General
Biology

I and II made taking both courses extremely valuable.

Both General Biology I and General Biology II meet 3 times a week for 50 minutes each meeting and

once a week for a 4-hour laboratory. The two courses are organized into 3 sections each with a
maximum

of 24 students per section. This arrangement maintains a small class size and enables us to give
students

individualized attention. The Biology Department offers General Biology I in the spring, which allows

freshman to take the first term of general chemistry during the fall semester and adjust to college
life

before enrolling in both chemistry and biology in their second semester. Enrollment for General
Biology I

is 60 to 70 students; General Biology II enrolls 50 to 60 students. Over 80 percent of the students in


General
Biology I also take General Biology II in the fall. Also in this course are a few students whose AP
credit

exempted them from General Biology I.

Course Overview

General Biology I and General Biology II compose a two-semester introductory-level sequence that

introduces students to the main themes of biology that serve as a foundation for their advanced
courses in

this field. The three overarching goals of the sequence are (1) to learn general principles of biology
that will

allow students to study specific topics, (2) to provide an overview of biology and its many disciplines,
and

(3) to begin the process of becoming a scientist. The two courses are designed to ensure that all
students

who major in biology leave the college with an understanding of two major groups of organisms,
plants,

and animals.

In General Biology I we study cell structure and function, metabolism, and the mechanisms of

evolution, using plants as examples. We then go on to examine the whole plant in details of
structure

and physiology. Throughout the course the practice of science is emphasized in class discussions and
in

laboratories, where students learn the basic laboratory skills that are necessary for carrying out
simple

experiments. While the first course uses plants as its main focus, the second course uses zoological

examples to demonstrate biological principles. General Biology II completes the year of general
biology by

covering such topics as genetics, animal diversity, development, anatomy and physiology of animals,
and

general ecology

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