Biology, Ecology, Evolution & Biodiversity Concentration, B.A.

The Biology Program focuses on giving students a basic knowledge and understanding of biology to prepare them to follow a concentration that best suits their career goals, whether in industry, government, health-related professions or graduate school. The concentrations offered are Pre-Medical (to prepare for any health-related career), Ecology, Evolution & Biodiversity, and Psychological Biology. A Self-Designed concentration is also available for students with specific interests or requirements. In addition to modern research laboratories, the program utilizes or collaborates with other local resources such as local hospitals, local/state agribusiness organizations, the West Campus Woods, and the North Maine Woods.

Mission & Outcomes

Students completing a program in Biology will be able to:

1. Evolution: Describe the evidence for and mechanisms that lead to evolution occurring at the molecular, organismal, and population levels.
2. Structure and Function: Relate physical characteristics to functional processes from molecules to ecosystems.
3. Information Flow: Describe information flow within, between, and as inherited by organisms in response to their environment.
4. Energy Transformation: Trace the path of energy as it is transformed through biological systems.
5. Systems: Describe the interrelationship of nodes of a biological system at the molecular, organismal, and ecosystem levels.
6. Quantitative Reasoning: Identify quantitative approaches utilized to describe patterns of information in data.
7. Scientific literacy and evidence-based research: Be able to identify a research question, investigate what is known and summarize current evidence, design a hypothesis-driven study which generates original data, and analyze and interpret the results in the context of scientific Literature.
8. Communication: Deliver effective written and oral scientific communications.
9. Interdisciplinary: Identify how the integration of multiple disciplines contributes to biological knowledge and broadens career possibilities.
10. Impact of Science: Debate the merits and risks of conducting scientific research and utilizing scientific knowledge.