Science and technology are major influences in our lives. Scan a newspaper, read a magazine, or listen to a news broadcast; you will certainly encounter stories with a scientific component that should be understood if one is to conduct a rational discussion of the issue. Should the USDA expedite the approval of new drugs to fight lung cancer? How will crude oil exploration and production impact an ecosystem like the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge? You immediately recognize that each question yields a range of answers. Why? Are some answers better than others?
As a liberally educated citizen, you need to develop skills that allow you to recognize a problem, to propose possible solutions, and to put each solution to a test…an expected outcome measured against what you observe. It’s not only a critical thinking approach used by scientists, but, not coincidentally, one used by folks working on problems across a range of disciplines. So, BI100 shares more similarities with other courses in the core curriculum than you might think! My goal is to offer you the opportunity to clearly understand what science is and when a scientific approach to problem solving is warranted. Our examples will come primarily from the study of living things. I hope you will find the course stimulating, challenging, and relevant.
As a science, biology comprises sets of theory, concepts, and associated terminology that describe and attempt to explain the operations of the living world. BI 100 is an introduction to this body of knowledge. At the conclusion of the course, you should better understand:
1. The molecular and cellular make-up of organisms;
2. How cells harness, transform, and use energy to power processes essential to life;
3. The nature of reproduction, inheritance of genetic information, and the function of genes;
4. The nature of evolution by natural selection, and its position as the central idea in biology that explains the unity and diversity of all living things; and
5. The ecological relationships among organisms and the physical environment that determine the abundance and distribution of life on our planet.
Another group of course objectives is concerned with introducing you to the processes used to generate a body of scientific knowledge. In other words, what is science, and how does it work? There is no way to know all the content of biology, because there is a LOT of information out there, and it changes rapidly. New information leads to new theories and the modification or abandonment of old ideas. It is important for you to understand this process so you can evaluate new ideas and information as they hit the news and impact your life. At the conclusion of this course you should understand:
1. The goals and assumptions of science in general and biology in particular;
2. The basic methodology of science and how it operates in the "real" world;
3. The limited nature of scientific truth, i.e. its inherent uncertainty; and
4. The difference between science and non-science.
Remember, I want you to learn how scientists solve problems, and that the basic approach is useful in any field of study. Everyone needs to know how to form a hypothesis, assemble information (e.g., observations, data), evaluate it, make an interpretation, and draw some conclusions. We will operate as a community of "active learners". We will employ reading, writing, laboratory inquiry, and discussion to help you advance your scientific reasoning skills and think more critically about the world.
General Botany – BI 101 Katherine Schmid
Since this course fulfills the core requirement in natural sciences, you should expect the content to reflect the physical observations and hypothesis testing that distinguish science from nonscience. At the same time, it is important to realize that humanity's concern with plants reaches deep into prehistory. A knowledge of plants, their uses, and ultimately their cultivation has been key to the development of world civilizations. Description and classification of plants and plant structures, as well as testing of many practical physiological questions, were well underway by the time of Aristotle's student Theophrastus, whose writings even discuss some issues in plant growth and reproduction covered in this class. To what extent have the tools and theories of modern science altered our perception of plant biology? In addition to an overview of our growing understanding of plant structure and function, this class will address some of the changes in plants and the environment brought about by domestication, breeding and genetic engineering of seed plants.
Genetics and Evolution – BI 103 Richard Miller
This class is for students who are not biology majors. Most of you will not take any further biology classes and are taking this course as part of your general education in the liberal arts and sciences. Among the purposes of such an education are personal enjoyment and enrichment. I hope you will find the class enlightening and fun. That is why I teach it.
Teaching and Learning Goals
This set of goals is broader than the subject of biology and involves various teaching strategies that are meant to help you become an active learner. One of the purposes of a liberal education is to prepare you for a lifetime of learning. When you leave college you must be prepared to think and act independently: in your career, in your role as a citizen and in your intellectual life. This class offers various opportunities to develop your thinking and learning skills.
Environmental Biology – BI 106 Bob Holm
Why is Environmental Biology in the Butler liberal arts curricula?
Environmental studies are an important part of our curricula because environmental problems are directly or indirectly related to our daily lives. Environmental issues are among the most pressing facing our world. These issues have broad implications for every facet of our life. Our ability to impact the environment causes changes in the quality of life around the world.
A liberal arts program helps you develop the ability to understand concepts related to the environment and our effect on it, to solve practical problems, and find better ways of meeting complex environmental issues. My goal is to provide you with the tools to solve and manage the complex environmental problems that our world faces. Regardless of your future career, it is important to understand how environmental problems affect your life, and the lives of others, and how these problems are managed. I hope to heighten your awareness of environmental issues confronting our world, enhance your ability to think critically, and to become involved in environmental issues on a local, regional and worldwide basis.
Principles of Biology I – BI 120 Biological Investigations I – BI 121 Travis Ryan
It would be incorrect to suggest that biology has always been a part of the liberal arts tradition. However, in the Middle Ages, when what we would recognize as the first “western” universities were established, the sciences were a vital part of the program of study. The prevailing science of the day, astronomy, was a critical aspect of the quadrivium, along with mathematics, geometry, and music theory. As the liberal arts tradition evolved, other sciences came to take their place in the curriculum: physics then alchemy which gave rise to chemistry. Biology would not exist as a distinct discipline until Darwin suggested a unifying theme for zoology, botany, and other studies of living things. Despite its relative youth, since its ascension as a formal discipline, biology has become a key component of the natural sciences area of most modern liberal arts curricula.
As a natural science, biology is based on the use of observations, logic and mathematics (both key components of the liberal arts tradition) to propose and rigorously test ideas about the rules that organize living systems.
Principles of Zoology – BI 301 Shelley Etnier
Zoology is a required course for all biology majors because it is pivotal to understanding our existence within the broader context of all organisms. While humans are an interesting group, they pale in comparison to so many other organisms. This course emphasizes that we do not exist in a vacuum of our own making, regardless of our technological advances. In addition, this course teaches an appreciation of how many different ways there are to solve life’s problems of survival.
Principles of Physiology – BI 303 Shelley Etnier
This course is about the function of living organisms. Dead animals have all the structures necessary to carry out these same functions, but in living animals the structures work. While the course itself deals with complex details, the basic goal of this course is for you to understand how animals, including yourself, deal with the everyday demands of life (oxygen, food, water, energy). In more familiar terms, this course deals with eating, breathing, excreting, moving and so on. While each of us has passing familiarity with these functions due to our own personal experiences, this course will emphasize the many different ways that these problems can be solved by a diverse group of organisms. Thus, this course deals with the themes that unify living organisms, but also with the differences that occur at all levels. While we are using a human physiology text, we will be discussing physiology from a comparative viewpoint. By the end of the semester, you will have an understanding of the fundamental principles allowing animals to maintain internal body conditions enabling them to survive a remarkable range of habitats. To do well in this course, it is not enough to simply memorize the information. This course will ask you to apply what you know to a wide range of situations, demanding that you learn to think critically and problem solve in the context of novel situations.
Mammalogy – BI 316 Carmen Salsbury
The main objective of this course is to familiarize students with the ecology and evolution of mammals. A variety of topics dealing with the morphology, physiology, and behavior will be explored from an evolutionary perspective. Additionally, this course will familiarize students with the main groups of mammals and train students to identify several common species of mammals based on key features. Basic taxonomy of the Class Mammalia will be covered during the laboratory sessions and species found in Indiana will be emphasized. The lab will also consist of a field component designed to expose students to various trapping / handling and observational techniques (see lab schedule for more detail). Finally, this course will expose students to current literature in the field and give them experience discussing and evaluating empirical studies.
More importantly perhaps is how this course fits into the “big picture” for you, the student. Being a student in a liberal arts college means something more than being a student in a college geared toward a specific profession. A liberal arts education emphasizes “the whole person” by exposing the learner to a diverse array of subjects with the ultimate goal of creating broadly educated citizens capable of recognizing, understanding, and responding to their social context. To this end, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Butler University encourages its students to take a variety of courses geared toward broadening student perspective and understanding so that they may achieve success not only in their careers but also in their lives. Mammalogy (BI 316) contributes to the objectives of a liberal arts mission by helping to increase our understanding of ourselves and many of the animals living around us. By understanding the basic physiology, biology, ecology, and evolution of mammals, we gain a clearer understanding of ourselves as mammals and our connection to the natural world. Further, this course will strive to educate students such that they may recognize biotic diversity as a valuable resource necessary for human existence and happiness.
Population and Community Ecology – BI 364 Travis J. Ryan
The field of ecology is relatively new – having been established in a professional sense in the early 20th century – but it can be clearly traced back to the centuries-old liberal arts tradition. A liberal arts education places a premium on developing thinking and reasoning skills rather than direct vocational training. A goal within the liberal arts and sciences is to develop new ways of looking at and solving problems; in ecology these problems deal with how organisms interact with their environments. In this course, we will focus on ecology of populations and communities. The approach we will take is theoretical; we will use the logical development of mathematical models to explore general theories of what factors regulate populations, communities, and the interactions within them. We will then evaluate these models by looking at real world phenomena.
If at some point during the course you ask yourself (or me, or a classmate, or the pre-health advisor) “when in the world am I ever going to use the Lotka-Volterra interspecific competition equations after I am done with the class?” you are missing the point. You might not ever use the equations on a daily basis…most professional ecologists rarely do*. What you are going to use again (and again and again) is the ability to look at a problem (e.g., how do two species using the same resources affect each other?) and develop a logical basis for arriving at a reasonable answer or expectation, and then test that expectation against your observations. This is the heart of the scientific process and it is dependent on rationality, critical thinking, and creativity which are, in turn, essential elements of the liberally educated person. So there.
*however, don’t let this statement mislead you into thinking that the specific topics we engage in the course are not meaningful in their own right. They are, indeed. This is especially true if you have an interest in pursuing these topics in more detail in post-graduate study. And they are also important if you wish to receive a high grade in the course.
Senior Biology Capstone - topic Behavioral Ecology – BI 408 Carmen Salsbury
This course will address the behavior of animals living in their natural environments. A strong emphasis will be placed on the relationship between animal behavior and the ecology and evolution of various vertebrate and invertebrate taxa. Many aspects of animal behavior including mating, foraging, aggressive, cooperative, social, parental, and signaling behavior will be investigated.
This capstone course is meant to mark the culmination of your experience as a biology major at Butler. To this end, the course follows in the classic liberal arts tradition in that it is seminar- based and it addresses a diverse array of topics within the field of behavioral ecology. Thus, this course will consist of student presentations and open discourse requiring critical thought and an integration of knowledge – quintessential skills of a liberally educated individual. We will explore the primary literature to gain an understanding of the field and students are expected to draw on their backgrounds and diverse knowledge of biology to critique the content and methodology of the empirical studies examined. Ultimately, this course will help students to develop their advanced critical thinking and communication skills while compelling them to take an integrated and broad approach to understanding the topic of behavioral ecology. Further, the skills and knowledge gained in this course will help students to make educated and responsible decisions as active citizens of the natural world.
Biology Capstone: Genetically Modified Plants – BI 480 Katherine Schmid
Genetically modified (GM) plants have become indispensable tools for hypothesis testing in plant biology, as well as contributing increasing proportions of food and other plant-based commodities to the world economy. In this course, we will analyze a tiny fraction of the primary literature on GM plants. For each case selected, we will examine immediate and long-term project goals, the methods by which the researchers modified and tested the organisms, the validity and significance of the researchers' conclusions, and potential risks and benefits of the genetic modifications undertaken. As a capstone experience, this course will call upon you to exercise some of the reading, writing, speaking, and knowledge integration skills you have developed as students of the Liberal Arts and Sciences. Most class periods will involve student presentations and subsequent discussion. In addition, this writing intensive class will include both short writing assignments concerning the papers covered, and a major literature review requiring extensive library research.