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Like automobiles making their way down an assembly line, most biology majors take a standard sequence of courses to earn their degrees. Chemistry, physics, and calculus are the usual prerequisites. A one- or two-semester introductory biology course leads to electives in genetics, ecology, cell biology, or development, or a more rigorous core sequence in biology leads to advanced courses. Out of the nearly 300 programs Heppner surveyed, fewer than a dozen were trying something substantially different. The biggest surprise: small liberal arts colleges were more likely than research universities to have a research requirement. One institution that is now rethinking many of the issues behind the standard biology curriculum is the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. Faculty members from the chemistry, biology, and biochemistry departments have worked together to create a series of new courses that integrate biology and chemistry. Faculty members within the biology department also have sought to construct courses that combine levels of organization — such as a course in comparative physiology that ranges from the organismic to the cellular level. "Integrative biology is more than a buzzword," says Notre Dame biology professor John Duman. "It's designed to produce people who have the background and capacity to think in an integrated fashion and see problems and solutions that others can't." Other departments have worked with disciplines outside biology to create a more integrated education in the sciences. "We're a small biology department, but we have a large medical school across the street and a big engineering department nearby," says professor Norman Rushforth, the biology department chair at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. In the neurosciences concentration offered by the department, students under the direction of both an engineering professor and a biology professor build robots that mimic biological behaviors and model neural networks. "By drawing in faculty from other parts of the university, you can build a much richer curriculum," Rushforth observes. Sometimes it is students who lead the drive toward a more integrated
curriculum. At Haverford College outside Philadelphia, a select group of
upper-division students gathers each week for an interdisciplinary seminar
to discuss their research in chemistry, biology, and physics. "One
of the things we've found about this program is that it greatly increases
the communication among faculty in different departments," says professor
Judith Owen. "Because we have two students talking each week, the students
and faculty often hear about a subject outside their department." |
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hen University of Rhode Island zoology professor Frank Heppner and his
colleagues surveyed the biology curricula of several hundred colleges a
few years ago, he expected to find a diversity mirroring the subject itself.
He couldn't have been more wrong. 
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