2026-2027 Academic Year

Fall 2026

BIOL 131 Intro to Org, Pop & Ecosyst
Permission of Instructor Required. The overall goal of this course is to give students an understanding of the biology of marine communities. This includes principles of marine science, organisms of the ocean, structure/function of marine ecosystems, and the interactions between humans and the ocean. This course we will also discuss ways to help minimize negative human impacts on the marine environment, such as: eutrophication, climate change, marine pollution, coastal development, and overfishing.

Spring 2027

BIOL 131 Intro to Org, Pop & Ecosyst
This introductory course spans levels of biological organization from basic multicellular microanatomy to organismal physiology and ecology, as understood through the lens of evolution. Course content will be focused around a specific theme determined by the instructor, and will include evolutionary principles of variation, selection, competition and cooperation, and how their operation at different levels of organization accounts for form and function of organisms, communities, and ecosystems. We will investigate homeostasis, reproduction and development as physiological processes that take place within organisms, and as ecological processes that interact with the environment and generate diversity of form over evolutionary time. Finally we will take stock of the existing forms and levels of biological organization and ask how their relationships establish the biosphere in which we live. Three hours classroom and three hours laboratory a week. This is one of two courses required of all Biology majors before entering the upper level. It is complementary to BIOL 132 – Introduction to Molecules, Genes, and Cells, and the courses may be taken in either order.