There is a general survey of the microbes with some emphasis on those that cause human disease. An intensive study of the anatomy, morphology, taxonomy, physiology, and ecology of plants, fungi, and algae. The commercial and medicinal uses of plants are considered. An intensive study of insects as representatives of the phylum Arthropoda. Lecture topics include insect physiology and behavior, insect morphology and classification, social insects, methods of insect control, and insect ecology.
Laboratories consist primarily of work on the local insect fauna.
A collection is required and forms a major part of the student's grade. A study of the diversity of the animal kingdom, excluding vertebrates, taught from a phylogenetic perspective. The major species of each phylum is discussed, including ecology and systematics. Representatives of the major phyla are examined and dissected in the laboratory. Examines the growing field of problems lying at the interface between advancing technological expertise in the health fields and the related moral and ethical problems which are being raised by such advances.