We expect Coe biology students to make important contributions to our understanding of the principles and mechanisms governing life, through careers in health and medicine, genetics and cell science, or physiology, ecology and the environment. We expect that for many, those contributions will begin here. Our goal is to create an environment within which each student can learn the underlying principles and mechanisms governing genes, cells, organisms, populations and landscapes, while also developing the intellectual skills used in the experimental process. This means that in addition to learning a great deal about what other scientists have learned about living systems, students in all classes do their own research and present their results in posters, scientific papers and seminar presentations. Our teaching areas are well-equipped to support lectures, interactive seminars, and sophisticated laboratory and field studies.
Classes are small, allowing for ample interaction among students and faculty.
The labs are well equipped and provide all students with the opportunity to conduct independent investigations, beginning in the very first semester. Coe's Biology Major combines breadth and depth. Required courses provide a solid conceptual foundation on which students can build expertise by selecting elective courses in areas they find particularly interesting. In the core courses, students learn to operate and interpret data from all of the sophisticated instrumentation that the department owns. In elective courses, they can focus on specifics of the experimental design rather than how to run the instrument.