BIOL 498 - Capstone Course for Biological Sciences Majors

Prerequisites, MATH 303, biological sciences major, senior standing, consent of instructor. A seminar course will be run according to the NSF-sponsored CREATE (consider, read, elucidate the hypotheses, analyze and interpret the data, and think of the next experiment). This class will use a guided analysis of a series of journal articles produced sequentially from a single lab or a series of papers from different labs focused on a single line of research to highlight the evolution of a research topic over a long period of time. Students will break down information from the paper and reassemble it into individual experiments as well as critically interpret the data. At the end of the semester, each student will write their own mini NSF grant proposal. The topic for discussion will vary each semester so that students can choose the capstone class most interesting to them. Lecture. Letter grade. (Offered every semester.) 3 credits