Biology Department Home page

Department Chair: Dr. Pamela Hanson

Welcome to BSC Biology! We offer a dynamic academic program that prepares our students for a variety of careers in health care, research, and related fields in a collaborative welcoming atmosphere.

biology class at waterfall BSC biology students don't just study science, they DO science. Students learn the art of practicing science in our classrooms, laboratories, field trips, pre-professional internships, and study abroad experiences. Our program emphasizes hands-on collaborative learning in ways that sharpen the problem-solving and critical thinking skills that are the foundation of a successful career. Small classes and labs allow faculty to guide students in small group and one-on-one settings. All of this is housed in our $24.1 million state-of-the-art Elton B. Stephens Science Center, a facility enabling us to offer the best possible training.

Our active Pre-health Program engages students to learn about the health professions, meet with administrators from medical, dental and other professional schools, and work alongside practitioners through our pre-health internship program. Our Health Professions Advisory Committee (HPAC) advises students from day one on how to prepare for professional school, and assists our students in the application process to ensure they submit the strongest applications possible to the professional schools of their choice. Our exemplary acceptance data demonstrate the success of our pre-health program.

The Biology Research Program offers students many opportunities to work alongside our faculty in the investigation of exciting and relevant scientific problems. These experiences include the Summer Research Associate Program (SRAP), independent study, and two semesters of senior research that culminate in the Senior Capstone Research Experience. These valuable experiences enable our pre-health and pre-research students to be very strong applicants to professional and graduate schools.

Nested within BSC's liberal arts curriculum, our students not only train for their desired careers, but also learn to appreciate the greater importance of their career choices as they relate to society and the important issues of the day.

Upon completion of the biology major, students will be able to

search the scientific literature and find adequate, appropriate source material on a given topic,
derive hypotheses to answer biological questions,
design experiments to test hypotheses,
conduct experiments and analyze data,
draw appropriate conclusions from scientific data,
explain the results of their experiments to a broad audience,
write clearly and concisely in a scientific research paper format,
demonstrate knowledge of the broad fundamental concepts of biology.