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Nature of course request C00900 :

Description change		Prerequisite change		Undergraduate
LACC

From:
Course Prefix & Number	Descriptive Title	Credits/Hours
BI 211, 212, 213	Principles of Biology	5 - 0
To:
Course Prefix & Number	Descriptive Title	Credits/Hours
BI 211, 212, 213	Principles of Biology	5 - 0

Abbreviation for Class Schedule(20 spaces) PRIN OF BIOLOGY

Current Course Description: An introduction to the science of biology, including morphological, physiological and developmental aspects of living organisms; the phylogeny, evolution and ecology of both plants and animals, and fundamental concepts of genetics and molecular biology. Designed for the biology major. Four hours of lecture and one three-hour laboratory period. Prerequisites: Passing grade in BI 211 required for admission to BI 212. Passing grade required in BI 212 for admission to BI 213. Offered in sequence during the academic year.

New Course Description: An introduction to the science of biology, including morphological, physiological and developmental aspects of living organisms; the phylogeny, evolution and ecology of both plants and animals, and fundamental concepts of genetics and molecular biology. Designed for the biology major. Four hours of lecture and one three-hour laboratory period. Prerequisites: Passing grade in BI 211 required for admission to BI 212 and BI 213. Students interested in BI 211 are strongly encouraged to have taken high school biology and chemistry or BI 102 and BI 104. BI 211 offered fall and winter term. BI 212 offered winter term. BI 213 offered spring term.

Justification for changing the course (e.g. alignment with other institutions, program revision, etc.): Based on assessment and tracking students in our 200 series courses, and facing serious annual enrollment challenges in BI211, the Biology Department has decided it is finally time to develop and implement a BI211 trailer course, scheduled to run every winter and serve 48 students (in addition to the primary, current BI211 offering, which serves 144). Assessment and tracking data show that ~40% students fail, drop out, or earn a D in BI211; most of these students lack recommended preparation for beginning this challenging series and do the most poorly on a placement style biology pre-test we piloted last year. At this time, such students fall a whole year behind in the program if they leave BI211. Given these data, we strongly believe that our efforts to pre-test and advise “at-risk” students into more basic coursework (e.g. BI102, math through 111, CH104) in fall term will increase their chances of success when they then sign up for the new BI211 trailer option in the winter. Because we want trailer students to be able to seamlessly continue in the series, we are proposing dropping the BI212 prerequisite on BI213 (i.e. BI213 will only require BI211), enabling students to move from winter BI211 to spring BI213 – and then complete BI212 the following year along with other majors coursework. Because we recently and successfully argued for lecture hour/credit hour increases in all BI211-2-3 courses, we believe that altering our prerequisites in this way is possible and pedagogically sound. Finally, other OUS programs (e.g. OSU) operate under a more flexible 200-series pre-requisite situation – and thus this change does align better with other institutions. In terms of space and FTE issues, adding a winter trailer (48 students, 1 lecture and 2 labs) will require instructional FTE and space – but we believe we have accounted for both. For the latter, Dr. Latham will be the winter trailer instructor – lecture and lab (with fall instruction being shifted to Dr. Boomer and the new Cell Biology hire). Because Dr. Latham will no longer be responsible for teaching winter Cell Biology (owing to the new Cell Biology hire taking over that course fully), there will be available FTE. Owing to the anticipated move of all our Anatomy & Physiology lecture sections (i.e. 2 lecture sections in winter) to the new Health and Wellness Center, there will be sufficient space to accommodate 1 new lecture section of Biology 211. Biology 211 lab sections will be held either in NS202 or NS204, where sufficient space exists during winter term.

Students/Program affected: Biology Majors – all emphases Biology Teacher Education degree Biology Minors Chemistry Major/Forensic Chemistry option Earth Science Major Integrated Science Teacher Major History of the Earth and Biosphere minor

Approval Queue C00900

Attached Files:

400 Bad Request

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