Undergraduate biology education is undergoing decisive change. Professors are experimenting with ways to engage students more actively in learning. Laboratory experiences are turning into open-ended investigations in which students learn how to design experiments, solve problems, and communicate their results. Students are getting involved in research projects even as freshmen and sophomores. And everywhere — in dorm rooms, libraries, laboratories, and classrooms — new technologies are redefining science education.
Several powerful forces are contributing to the ferment. The number of students taking biology classes has soared in recent years, even though budgets in many biology departments have stayed level or declined. In part, students are being attracted to the perceived rewards of careers in health care. But less utilitarian forces also are at work. After a century in which engineering and the physical sciences dominated public attention, many of the most pressing issues in the 21st century are likely to have biological roots: preventing and treating formidable illnesses like AIDS, feeding a rapidly expanding world population, developing biological sources of materials and energy. Biology “is what students read about in the newspaper all the time,” says biologist Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of Sciences.
Furthermore, biology seems on the verge of answering some of the most tantalizing questions in science: How do organisms grow and develop? To what extent can and should we manipulate the biological world? And these questions are not far removed from the world of undergraduates. College students are cloning genes, investigating the properties of neurons, and measuring molecular evolution — activities that were limited to graduate students, postdocs, and professors just a few years ago.
Growing enrollments and the changing job market for biologically oriented careers are raising complex questions for faculty. As the percentages of students accepted into medical school and graduate school decline, the needs of students going into other careers have become more prominent. Biology faculty members are asking how biology can serve as the core of a strong liberal arts education, preparing students for a wide range of ever-changing careers. And they are reexamining whether their courses for non-majors adequately prepare students for citizenship in a democracy that depends increasingly on science and technology.