Chapter Two Appendices Academic Program Profiles
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- Mission and Values
- Unit Governance, Leadership, and Faculty
- Faculty Profile
DescriptionThe Department of Life Sciences is an academic constituent of the School of Science and Technology and serves as the foremost component of the science education received by the students at Dixie State College. The courses and degree programs offered through the Department represent a foundational cornerstone of a ‘classical’ education while preparing students for their future roles in a myriad of expanding professional areas. The charge of the faculty and staff of the Department is to transmit the current understanding of the natural world and the mechanisms of scientific inquiry to a new generation of students and to prepare these students for advanced training and professional roles beyond their limited time within the Department; all the while serving the College and its mission. Mission and ValuesThe mission of the Department of Life Science’s biology program is to provide our students with an extensive education in the biological sciences through an integrated perspective of study allowing them to consider the many facets of living systems. The program trains students in the epistemology and application of science through traditional coursework, extensive laboratory experience, and student-driven research projects. Graduates are prepared to meet the challenges of the advanced research and training encountered at graduate and professional programs in the biological and medical sciences. The Department supports the mission of the College by fulfilling its obligations to meet needs of the diverse categories of students within the entire student body. Regardless of their ultimate field of study, all DSC students must fulfill a science course as a requirement for their graduation. The Department of Life Sciences offers a variety of popular introductory level, lab-based, science courses that fulfill General Education requirements while providing non-science students a broad survey of the biological sciences and the natural world. For those students who wish to enroll in one of the many professional health programs offered by the College, the Department provides the requisite core curricula necessary for their admission into the allied health programs. For these students, the Department serves as the gateway into their technical profession and the foundation for their success. Finally, the Department’s principal academic role is through its unique baccalaureate program that offers bachelor’s degrees in the biological sciences. Students enrolled in the bachelor’s program are most often high achieving students capable of successfully meeting the rigorous challenges encountered by the in-depth science curricula. The majority of students who have earned their bachelor’s degree in biology at DSC have continued their education to pursue professional degrees in the medical field or doctoral research in the natural sciences at the graduate level.
Currently, the faculty is revising aspects of the program (e.g. course pre-requisites and scheduled offerings) to enhance retention rates and further enhance the quality of education offered. Under consideration is the implementation of a more standardized ‘path’ of matriculation for students to pursue so as to avoid them becoming lost and/or overwhelmed by a circuitous meandering through the program. Once finalized, these changes are expected to be in effect no later than the entering freshman class of 2013. As described below (Assessment and Effectiveness), Department of Life Sciences alumni have had great success in gaining admission into and continuing through post-graduate programs. Although anecdotal, faculty members regularly receive thanks and accolades from former students for the quality of education and technical preparation they received through the DSC biology program. The Department of Life Sciences understands its role as an interface between its students and the College’s culture, at large. From its First Year Experience (FYE) course through its senior-level curricula, the value of integrity as students and future members of the scientific and professional community is continually reinforced and the College’s policies, procedures, and codes are presented throughout the program. While theoretically objective and independent of moral perspectives, the faculty stresses the moral implications and consequences of scientific practice. Most students of the bachelor’s program enroll in a Bioethics course (BIOL 3100) where they are asked to confront the myriad of ethical issues that arise from the sciences. The Rural Health Scholars program, which the vast majority of degree-seeking students enroll in, puts a great emphasis on each participant serving the community in various capacities. RHS students volunteer at area clinics, raise money and collect materials for disaster victims, and conduct an annual trip during the spring to locations throughout the globe to assist established medical relief organizations. In effort to develop stronger partnerships with area businesses and professionals, the Department has begun to reinvigorate its Life Science Internship program whereby biology students can earn course credit through their service in the community. Currently, DSC students are serving internships at local pharmacies, medical and dental offices, a dental prosthetic manufacturing facility, state and federal national resource agencies. These internship programs enhance our students’ technical abilities, increase their prospects of gaining admission into subsequent programs, and forge deeper ties between area professionals and the College. Within the biology program, students can choose between multiple degree options based on their future career plans. Bachelors of Science in Biology Bachelors of Science in Biology/Secondary Education Bachelors of Science in Biology with Integrated Science/Secondary Education The canonical Bachelors of Science in Biology is the preferred option for students wishing to become educated in the many areas of the modern biological sciences and to apply this knowledge towards advanced degrees in the research or health professions. In addition, students seeking to become science educators can choose to pursue a Bachelors of Science in Biology/Secondary Education or Bachelors of Science in Biology with Integrated Science/Secondary Education through programs offered jointly with DSC’s School of Education.
The faculty and staff of the Department of Life Sciences are comprised of individuals who are personally committed to the educational arts through their own training in the sciences. The professional backgrounds of the current faculty are as diverse as the science of biology. Within the full-time faculty exist members whose technical categorization include ecologists, evolutionary biologists, plant and animal physiologists, microbiologists, and molecular biologists. Moreover, the entire faculty includes medical and veterinary professionals whose direct field experiences provide insight to students as valuable as their discipline-specific information. The Department has begun to employ a process whereby recent graduates of the biology program are given the opportunity to instruct freshman-level laboratory courses, under the supervision of full-time faculty members. Because the DSC mission remains that of a teaching college, this program is intended to provide our recent alumnus with direct experience in professional academics and is another feature of their education. This amalgam of technical knowledge and personal curiosity supports the intellectual framework from which the Department is built and provides students a successfully integrated, whole-systems approach to their education in the science. The daily operations of the Department are coordinated by the continual service of a professional staff, capable of maintaining a steady course regardless of conditions. The full-time faculty alone represents of over a century of combined service to the college and its community. The four most senior faculty members have been active in the institution since it was a two-year junior college and whose stewardship was critical for the Department’s transformation into a bachelor’s degree-granting program and beyond. With so many years of active participation, the current faculty members of the Department have been engaged in most areas of the institutional organization and governance. Included in this are past a Vice President, Dean, Associate Dean, Faculty Senate President, and the chairs of most academic service committees found on campus. During this current academic year, Life Science faculty members are found serving as the Faculty Senate Science Representative (J. Ciaccio), Curriculum Committee member, (D.Jones), chair Academic Appeals Committee (P.Allen), chair Dixie Fourm (M. van der Merwe), Institutional Effectiveness (C. Walker), Library Committee (D. Warner), Policy Committee (K. Bauer), and the Undergraduate Research Committee (E. O’Brien and C. Walker). In addition, faculty members are involved in student athletic and cultural organizations and a current member of the faculty represents the College and Department as the president-elect of the Utah Academy of Arts, Sciences, and Letters (E. O’Brien). Faculty Profile
Full-Time Faculty
Courses and Programs offered The DSC biology program introduces students to an integrated perspective of study allowing them to consider the many facets of living systems. From its intricate molecular machinations, to the function and form of organisms, to the complexities of ecological communities, students gain an understanding of life through the entire spectrum of its properties. The Department of Life Sciences offers programs leading to a Bachelor of Science degree. Majors will complete a core of courses that provide understanding of the essential tenets of biology. This core begins as a two semester series surveying the foundational principles of the biological sciences (BIOL 1610 and 1620). In subsequent terms, students explore the spectral poles of living systems viz. the molecular mechanisms governing the regulation of gene expression (BIOL 2030) and the function of biotic and abiotic factors influencing ecological systems (BIOL 2220). The core and its many concepts are united with a thorough enculturation of the mechanisms and principles of evolutionary processes as the guiding force of all life and its actions (BIOL 3010). Additional coursework in chemistry, physics, statistics, and mathematics provides essential knowledge and analytical skills. After the above primary courses, the core of the degree intends to further strengthen the students’ understanding of living systems and develop their capacities as students and practitioners of science. As the cell is the fundamental unit of life, students must complete an in-depth course in prokaryotic or eukaryotic cell biology and their associated labs (BIOL 3450 or BIOL 3020, respectively). The final courses of the core, while not overtly focused on discipline knowledge, are designed to train students in the methodologies of science and the proper communication of scientific information. These courses immerse the students in proper experimental design, implementation, and data analysis through an intense, individual research project (BIOL 3150) and, importantly, training in the proper writing techniques and formats expected by the scientific community (BIOL 3110). Together, these courses give students real and applicable experiences in the exercise of scientific research. The final core course is a seminar (BIOL 4910), emulating those encountered in a graduate-level program, which serves as a “capstone experience” whereby the student is expected to research, review, and analyze the current primary literature and formally present the material during the course.
Advanced laboratories for molecular and microbiology experiments, a controlled desert garden and greenhouse facility, a marine reef aquarium, and fieldwork in the unique ecosystems of the surrounding areas are some of the resources employed for the education of our students. Most, if not all, graduate and professional schools expect their applicants to have participated in some research experience for their applications to be considered competitive. The Department has recognized this issue and has implemented an active research program allowing qualified students to gain first-experience in scientific research. Unlike research universities, where research is the primary focus of activity and its success determines the viability of the individual faculty member and the program, the DSC Department of Life Sciences approaches its research program as an educational tool that is utilized to enhance and improve the quality of education offered. Students participating in the multitude of on-going research projects are given veritable carte blanche access to the design and implementation of the research project its success or failure is their responsibility. As the technical knowledge and resources of the Department expands, the nature of types of inquiry has accordingly evolved. http://www.dixie.edu/biology http://www.dixie.edu/biology/research.php Directory: wp-content -> uploads -> sites sites -> 587 Return function, r i(X) r i(0) r i(1) r i(2) r i(3) 1 0 2 4 6 Thermal Station, I 2 0 1 5 6 3 0 3 5 6 10 sites -> Medical Radiography Program sites -> Background on the Haitian Earthquake sites -> Desk review yemen sites -> Safe Transitions for the Elderly Patient (step) sites -> District profile Haripur Introduction sites -> Germanie VanTrease and Tyler Tetzloff sites -> For more information sites -> To be completed by the cerf secretariat. Type of submission sites -> Sponsor Content Above the Clutter with Pete Krainik Download 3.94 Mb. Share with your friends:
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