Courses within the Botany curriculum will address goals and objectives at the appropriate level through measureable student learning outcomes developed by course instructors.?Upon completing the 1000-3000 level Life Sciences courses and additional upper-level courses required for the Botany major, students completing the B.S. in Botany will be expected to meet the following learning goals and objectives:?

GOAL 1: Students will be expected to remember, comprehend, apply, analyze, and synthesize the following core concepts in botany:

  • Evolution.
  • Biodiversity.
  • Structure and function.
  • Information flow, exchange, and storage.
  • Pathways and transformations of energy and matter.
  • Systems.

GOAL 2: Students will develop the ability to apply the process of science.

  • Understand defining characteristics of the process of science.
  • Practice the skills of the scientific method.
  • Engage in research projects.

GOAL 3: Students will be able to reason quantitatively.

  • Understand common quantitative approaches in biology.
  • Apply quantitative skills to biological problems.
  • Interpret and act on quantitative data from a variety of sources.
  • Understand the role of uncertainty in science.

GOAL 4: Students will be able to use modeling and simulation.

  • Understand how models and simulations describe living systems.
  • Evaluate the advantages and limitations of reductionist and systems approaches, which recognize the spatiotemporal complexities of the natural world.
  • Understand the variety and major differences in available models and their structure, including stochastic versus deterministic models and analytical versus simulation modeling.?

GOAL 5: Students will be able to communicate and collaborate within and outside of biology.

  • Understand the distinguishing features of different forms of scientific communication.
  • Communicate concepts through peer interactions and collaboration.
  • Communicate science through formal and informal written, visual, and oral methods.
  • Tap into the interdisciplinary nature of science.

GOAL 6: Students should understand the relationship between science and society.

  • Evaluate the impact of science on society.
  • Evaluate the ethical implications of science.
  • Explore how science is applied in a social context.