Introductory Biology is being revised to make it a more creative, engaging, and participatory experience for both potential majors and for non-majors. The intention is to strengthen student interest in Biology by designing an exciting and more realistic new course. The new lab format will involve doing real laboratory experiments and learning real research skills such as experimental design and data analysis. The students work in small groups that use the 'PI system' and write group lab reports modeled on the writing of a scientific paper. Students who take the revised course will have a clearer grasp of how laboratory science is actually done and will have first-hand knowledge about such key ideas as hypothesis creation and testing, data collection and interpretation, and scientific writing. This experimental course is being compared with the current introductory biology course by a team of evaluators from other institutions.
