BIO 110 Introductory Biology: Ecology, Evolution, and the Environment
Intro Bio: Ecology, Evolution, and the Environment will explore the diversity of life on Earth and interactions between organisms from evolutionary and ecological perspectives with a focus on the interconnectedness of systems. These concepts will be studied at the level of the individual, population, ecosystem, and biome, and emphasis will be placed on how organisms, from distinct biological groups, meet environmental challenges such as: obtaining energy and nutrients, maintaining water and osmotic balances, reproducing, and adaptations for a changing climate. You will learn to recognize and frame hypotheses about biological organisms and phenomena that can be tested by acquiring and analyzing appropriate evidence; you will gain the ability to recognize bias and insufficient evidence. You will also learn to acquire, analyze, and evaluate biological data through observation and experimentation in the laboratory and in the field. Some of the topics we will cover include: biological diversity, biological classification schemes, the species concept, forces of evolution, adaptation, the relationship between biological structure and function, ecological niches and communities, global change and biological conservation, and extinction.