The 12 Learning Expectations

 Students testing antibiotoc effectiveness

The twelve learning expectations are:

Graduates are expected to gain an understanding of the aims and basic methods of science through the experience of doing science whether this be in the field or laboratory.

Graduates will be information literate and be able to convey their understanding of a topic effectively using a diversity of both verbal and written communication skills.

Graduates will understand the processes and patterns of biological evolution and the role of evolution as the central unifying concept in biology.

Graduates will understand the interactions among organisms and their environments, and the consequences of these interactions in natural populations, communities, and ecosystems.

Graduates will learn the scope and consequences of biological diversity and the evolutionary relationships among major groups of organisms. 

Graduates will understand principles of inheritance including molecular mechanisms, reproductive strategies, and population genetics.

Graduates will learn the basic structure and function of the cell, the basic unit of all living things.

Graduates will understand processes underlying development, cellular differentiation, and reproduction.

Graduates will understand the relationship between form and function in biology, as expressed in molecular, cellular and whole organism physiology.

Graduates will understand the mechanisms organisms use for the sensing and perception of the internal and external environments through communication and signalling systems.

Graduates will understand the interconnectedness and interdependencies of biological processes – systems biology – as it pertains to processes at the cellular, whole organism, and ecosystem levels.

Graduates will understand the historical and social context of biological thought and research and the contributions of biology (and science in general) to the resolution of ethical, social and environmental issues.