Along with Malcom's comments on courses, I suggest that good undergraduate biology programs should provide a range of opportunities for students to engage in authentic research - whether through coursework, independent study, or summer research experiences.
On Fri, Nov 12, 2010 at 7:14 AM, Aimee Phillippi <[email protected]> wrote: > Being at a school that is currently revising its biology program, I'm > interested in folks' opinions on this. I'm especially interested in > perspectives on Malcolm's first list item. Specifically, what coursework > and/or curricular experiences have people seen that best prepare students for > moving into "good" biology-related jobs. > ________________________________________ > From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news > [[email protected]] On Behalf Of malcolm McCallum > [[email protected]] > Sent: Thursday, November 11, 2010 10:16 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] what makes a biology program good? > > I didn't really have anything specific in mind regarding what you > listed. In fact, though most general bio programs are divided up in > tracts of the programs you listed. I guess I wasn't really looking at > specialized programs when I posed the question but graduate or > undergraduate, generalized or specialized should not really matter all > that much. > > I hear all of the time people say "That school has a good program" or > "that school's program is weak." > But really, what makes it good vs weak? > > I felt it basically boiled down to the following, but wanted to see if > others had different or refined views: > > 1) Coursework is sufficiently rigorous for students to move on into > good jobs or postgraduate study. > 2) students leaving the program succeed in later pursuits. > 3) faculty are trained in the subjects they teach > 4) courses have sufficient facilities and resources to be effective > 5) courses from other disciplines (chemistry/physics/math, &c) provide > suffienct depth for biologists. > > This is just off the top of my head and pretty open-ended. > > Malcolm > -- Laurie Anderson (Laurel J. Anderson) Associate Professor Network Coordinator of the Ecological Research as Education Network (EREN) Department of Botany/Microbiology Ohio Wesleyan University Delaware, OH 43015 740-368-3501 [email protected]
