Typically, students' experience with science is textbook-bound, focusing not on the process or the concepts involved in science but on the facts of science. SI helps students break their dependence on memorization of facts by encouraging participants to identify relationships, arrange topics, and create structure. Another concern with biology is the breadth of content. From micro to macro systems of life, the course moves quickly. To be successful in this course, the ability to organize information in meaningful ways becomes crucial.
Biology relies on knowledge from other disciplines.
Students must have some basic understanding of chemistry, for instance. One of the most useful functions of SI in biology is the opportunity to discuss how to structure the information presented in the lecture and the textbook. The process of mutually creating charts and graphs that identify similarities and differences or that visually represent the relationships between concepts gives students opportunities to personalize information. SI sessions often start with discussions or questions about the content of the course. Then students then move toward discussion of ways to organize or structure material.