Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Hello and welcome to BI 213, Principles of Biology.  I look forward to getting together and exploring the living world with you this term.  I've structured this class as a mix of independent learning, weekly workshops for completing homework, and weekly labs where we get to practice the kind of work that Biologists do-  exploring cells with microscopes, making solutions of biochemicals to see how they behave, and testing hypotheses related to the content we are learning in class.  This is the "flipped classroom" model (doing schoolwork at home, and homework at school), and several studies show this model increases student success.  Plus, it's fun.  You are going to make some friends in this class.  Here's what you'll do each week:

Before class:

Read one or two chapters in the textbook and watch a series of instructor-recorded lectures (these go hand in hand), and complete an active learning worksheet as you do so.

During class (workshop):

Work in small groups to apply what you learned, to complete a set of activities, case studies, or novel problems.  This will prepare you for quizzes and exams, also taken during class meetings.

During lab:

Work in groups to complete a set of lab activities.  Take a quiz on the previous lab.  There are several assignments that go with lab, as well, but no weekly lab write-ups.