Biology Curriculum
The department hastaken the lead on redesigning and revising our pre-med curriculum to meet the changing 2015 MCAT andto address the growing and urgent national problem of declining African American professionals in the field of medicine. Withthe generous support of theHoward Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)funding of $1 milliondollarstothe University, Dr. Ireland, Endowed Professor of Biology, led the efforts by working with faculty in Biology and other STEM disciplines to implement specific recommendations issued by theScientific Foundations for Future Physicians(SFFP) committee.A joint venture between the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the HHMI, the SFFP's goal is to make students more active learners with demonstrated knowledge and ability toapplythe principles of biology, mathematics, and statistics along with those of computer programs, physics, chemistry and biochemistry to human health and diseases.
To accomplish this, the department introduced an array of innovative instructional approaches. Two new courses in Biology (Biol 1210L and Biol 1220L) were launched to address self-reported impediments for freshman-level success and labs will be revised to include more discovery/research-oriented projects such as those in Xavier's currentlyHHMI funded 'Phage Genomics' course offered in our department. Several additional pre-med courses have been infused with increased in-class activities, more interdisciplinary content, and exercises to hone students' computational and critical thinking skills with an emphasis on theapplicationof knowledge as opposed to rote memorization.We believe that our new and improved curriculum will helpallour majors to become more competitive and score well onwhicheverstandardized admissions tests they end up taking (MCAT, GRE, DAT, PCAT, etc).