These questions typically emphasize critical thinking and problem solving which require the student to demonstrate understanding of concepts individually and as they relate to the study of life, i.e. biology. We encourage students to read and think about these as measures of their comprehension of the material. Instructors use one or more methods to aid in informal assessment of the students' understanding of topics. Formal assessment is primarily by examinations, which test not only whether the textbook has been well-utilized to assimilate and integrate the information, but also whether the student can apply these reading skills to the comprehension of test questions. Several instructors also give extra credit assignments which require that students read several articles in science magazines and summarize them or that students answer specific questions with the responses then evaluated by the Professor to provide feed-back to the student on their progress.
All biological processes follow the laws of physics and chemistry.
Especially, phenomena on the molecular level are unknown to most students. Understanding molecular mechanisms requires skills of logical synthesis, analysis and assimilation of knowledge from the laws of the non-living nature. Molecular processes eventually determine the functioning of the whole organism. Consequently, student swill have to learn to integrate and synthesize their knowledge to get some perception and admiration of the complexity of the nature of life. Some test questions are included in each exam to evaluate the student's progress here.