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Nature of course request C00907 :

Description change

Prerequisite change

Undergraduate

From:
Course Prefix & Number	Descriptive Title	Credits/Hours
BI 331 W	General Microbiology	4 - 0
To:
Course Prefix & Number	Descriptive Title	Credits/Hours
BI 331 W	General Microbiology	4 - 0

Abbreviation for Class Schedule(20 spaces) General Microbiology

Current Course Description: Selected topics in the science of microbiology with an emphasis on microbial structures and physiology as they impact diversity and ecology, biotechnology, and diseases (bacterial, viral, and protozoal). Involved lab component represents nearly half course grade. Prerequisites: BI 211, 212, 213, CH 221, 222, 223. BI 314 and BI 315 strongly recommended – offered winter and spring terms.

New Course Description: Selected topics in the science of microbiology with an emphasis on microbial structures and physiology as they impact diversity and ecology, biotechnology, and diseases (bacterial, viral, and protozoal). Involved lab component represents nearly half course grade. Prerequisites: BI 211, 212, 213, BI314, CH 221, 222, 223, WR135 – offered winter and spring terms.

Justification for changing the course (e.g. alignment with other institutions, program revision, etc.): Facing serious annual enrollment challenges, the Biology Department reassessed its third year core (which includes General Microbiology and General Ecology or Plant Ecology) with an emphasis on ensuring students are more adequately prepared for the rigors of these advanced courses. This is particularly important for understanding microbiology, which requires strong experience in both chemistry and genetics. After years of only “strongly recommending” Introductory Genetics (BI314), we are – given 2 years of survey and tracking data – proposing to finally require this course BI314 outright. Although the catalog generally states that writing-intensive courses require WR135 and this course is always writing-intensive, we wanted this more explicitly stated in the course description. We are also changing the scheduling of General Microbiology to allow our most well-prepared students to seamlessly transition from BI314 (fall/sophomore) into General Microbiology (now winter or spring), provided they have completed all 200-level Biology and Chemistry. The majority of students, however, will have to wait until their third year to take this advanced core course. This course description change involves no new FTE or space requests.

Students/Program affected: Biology Majors – all emphases Biology Teacher Education degree Integrated Science Teacher Education major (one of dozens of elective choices)* Environmental Studies minor (one of three elective choices)* *The Biology Department recognizes that adding BI 314 as a prerequisite for BI 331 will add more hidden credit hours to these degree. If these programs want to drop BI 331 from their option list, we will support that; in the interim, we will support substituting other relevant 300-level Biology offerings. Nonetheless, BI 331 is not a discrete requirement in either case – but, rather, one of several choices. NOTE: the Biology minor does NOT require microbiology, but students can select it as an option.

Approval Queue C00907

Attached Files:

400 Bad Request

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