Courses explore genetics, evolution, emerging diseases, conservation biology, human biology, neuroscience, and environmental field methods.

• [BIOL 152] Aquatic Biology: Students in this course learn practical skills related to doing biology, including experimental design, collection and evaluation of quantitative data, collaboration with peers, and scientific communication. Students also learn the five core concepts of biology (evolution, systems, structure/function, energy transfer, and information transfer) within the context of freshwater and marine organisms. This course is an exploration of all types of aquatic ecosystems, the evolutionary relationships, ecology, structure and function, and behavior of the organisms that live there, and contemporary issues in aquatic biology, including how human influences have altered aquatic ecosystems over time.
• [BIOL 220] Conservation Biology: This course explores the study and practice of conservation biology, a field that endeavors to understand and retain biological diversity at local, regional, and global scales. Students examine the nature of biological diversity, the effects of human activities on biological diversity, and the management and restoration strategies for ameliorating these threats. Students read research literature on conservation efforts at the population, community, and ecosystem levels, and learn to use quantitative models to predict changes in population size.
• [BIOL 372] Ecology: An investigation of the study of interactions among organisms and interactions between organisms and the nonliving environment. Ecologists study these interactions to understand the patterns of organism abundance and distribution of organisms that occur in different ecosystems. In this course, students examine these interactions at the population, community, ecosystem, and landscape levels through classroom, field, and laboratory activities. Contemporary questions about sustainability, biological diversity, and global change will be examined at each of these levels using quantitative methods.