Appreciating the scientific process can be even more important than knowing scientific facts. People often encounter claims that something is scientifically known. If they understand how science generates and assesses evidence bearing on these claims, they possess analytical methods and critical thinking skills that are relevant to a wide variety of facts and concepts and can be used in a wide variety of contexts.
—National Science Foundation, Science and Technology indicators, 2008
The skills that will be vital to your success in the future and that are most valued by employers now include critical thinking, problem solving, ability to collaborate, ability and willingness to learn new things, and the ability to communicate in both oral and written forms. Discipline specific skills, or hard skills are also important, but it may surprise you to learn that the soft skills are ranked more highly than your content. The rate at which knowledge is being generated means that your ability to learn new things and apply them will be one of the most important skills that you can develop.
The goals of this course are to help you start building the skills that you will need in whichever discipline you pursue. We will be focusing on collaboration, communication, and critical thinking, but we will use many other soft skills throughout the course. We will also work to solidify the foundational content knowledge that you will need to be successful in the introductory biology lecture and in upper division biology courses.
Student Course Learning Objectives
Do
- Convert units, calculate concentrations
- Communicate in writing
- Analyze and present data in graphs
Know
- How energy is transferred from molecules to cells
- How information is transferred from gene to protein
Value
- Learning how to learn
- Ethical collaboration with peers
- Curiosity about the natural world