Lower-Division Courses

Biology Courses for Non-majors

• BIO 100 - Perspectives in Biology
• BIO 115 - Explorations in Regional Biology (Australia, East Africa, Ecuador)

Core Biology Curriculum for Majors

• BIO 110: Biological Investigations
  • Introduction to scientific investigation through project-based studies of biological phenomena in the lab or field. Topics in this hands-on course introduce students to experimental design, data collection, data analysis, hypothesis testing, and scientific communication. The specific focus of individual Bio 110 sections will vary with faculty expertise. Sections offered in Spring of 2025 are described below.
    • Bio 110-01 Cilia: Swimming, sensation, and disease (hermann@lclark.edu)
      This Bio110 section will focus on the formation and function of cilia. Cilia are ancient and amazingly conserved cellular structures that function in many processes, including: cell swimming, the movement of eggs in the female reproductive tract, the expulsion of mucous from lungs, establishing the left-right body axis during embryonic development, and sensing the external environment (light-sight and odorants-smell). Defects in the formation and function of cilia, called ciliopathies, underlie many instances of male infertility, kidney disease, congenital heart disease, Situs Inversus, and Retinitis Pigmentosa (a form of blindness). Students will explore how cilia are formed and how they contribute to organism behavior by carrying out investigations using two different model organisms, the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. This course will introduce you to how biologists ask and answer questions to generate new knowledge. The course’s central goal is to give you the opportunity to learn and apply the scientific method as used by biologists, and by so doing to help you decide if you are interested in choosing Biology as a major. If you choose not to continue your study of biology, taking Bio 110 will help you be a wiser consumer of the scientific knowledge that you encounter in your daily life concerning your health, as well as data-based claims in many other fields.
    • BIO 110-02 The Forest and its inhabitants. (heidil@lclark.edu) 

      This section will explore the structure and function of plants and animals and their ecological interactions in the forested areas around our campus. Students will learn about seed dispersal, species interactions (predation, competition, mutualism), and the effect of invasive species on local biological communities. Working in groups, students will learn about and apply the scientific method to carry out their own experimental and field-based studies of these phenomena, and learn to analyze data in R and report their results (both orally and in written form). This section will also introduce students to how field biologists ask and answer questions and how they design studies in a field setting with all the complexities that entails.

    • BIO 110-03 Antibiotic Hunters (lindygewin@lclark.edu)This section will explore the scientific method in a search for new antibiotics produced by soil bacteria. Antibiotic-resistant infections are a growing issue throughout the world. Students will grow bacteria from soil samples, screen them for antibiotic activity, and work to identify any candidate microbes using current techniques of microbiology, biochemistry and DNA sequencing. The results of these experiments will be shared with the class and interesting candidate antibiotic microbes will be added to an international student-sourced antibiotic discovery database called Tiny Earth.
• BIO 201: Biological Core Concepts - Systems  
  • This 4-credit, lecture- and discussion-based course serves as an introduction to core principles that underlie all of biology, illustrated through evidence-driven examples centered on integrative organismal biology and organisms’ interactions with the biotic and physical environment.
• BIO 202: Biological Core Concepts - Mechanisms
  • This 4-credit, lecture- and discussion-based course serves as an introduction to core principles that underlie all of biology, illustrated through evidence-driven examples centered on interactions among molecules and cells within organisms.

Second-year Biology Courses for Majors

• BIO 244 - Practicum
• BIO 252 - Introduction to Neuroscience