The Biological Sciences Program (BioSci) provides a connected, supportive, and collaborative learning experience so students develop the fundamental biological knowledge and scientific practices needed to succeed in subsequent courses and life science careers. As part of Michigan State University's College of Natural Science, BioSci offers introductory lecture and lab courses in cell and molecular biology and organismal and population biology. For more course details, please visit the BioSci Academics Pages.
The mission of the Biological Sciences Program is to provide students taking the BioSci curriculum with the knowledge, understanding, and scientific practices needed to succeed in upper-level biology courses. As students move through the BioSci curriculum, they are consistently asked to explicitly build on knowledge and practices they have previously learned, both within individual courses and across linked courses. To accomplish this, the BioSci program creates inclusive, supportive, and active learning environments in which students use principles of evolution, biological structure and function, biological matter and energy transformation, and biological utilization of information to develop systems-based mechanistic models of key biological processes across biological scales from molecules through ecosystems. Students who complete the Bio Sci curriculum learn to think like scientists: asking questions, formulating and testing models, analyzing data, and communicating their findings. Key to this process, students use mechanistic, model-based thinking to make testable predictions regarding how changes in a biological system affect the function of the system and learn to support claims they make about biological systems by articulating scientific arguments using evidence and reasoning.
In lecture courses, students actively use principles of evolution, biological structure and function, biological matter and energy transformation, and biological utilization of information to develop mechanistic, model-based explanations of important biological phenomena and processes supporting claims regarding these processes and phenomena using evidence and reasoning. As students move through the curriculum, they are consistently asked to build on knowledge and skills they have previously learned, both within individual courses and across linked courses.
In lab courses, students engage in inquiry driven, course-based undergraduate research experiences to build on and further explore what they have learned in lecture. Labs draw from, and make significant connections to, lecture objectives, but are not intended to cover all aspects of what is taught in lecture. In labs, students use mechanistic, model-based explanations to guide scientific inquiry and scientific argumentation to communicate their findings.