Students should be able to write a scholarly documented research paper that synthesizes their own ideas with ideas and information from sources. Students can distinguish between the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of natural phenomena. Students can apply scientific principles and methods to prove or disprove a hypothesis.
Students can use theories to explain past observations and to predict answers to new questions.
Students can understand the uses of scientific technology and their implications. An understanding of the relationship between structure and functions, an assessment of interactions of organisms with their environment, and the ability to make decisions that ensure a sustainable environment for all organisms. The knowledge that members of invertebrate phyla have basic characteristics in common which are the products of their common ancestry and that progressive modifications of these characteristics reflect evidence of the process of evolution. That invertebrate animals have physiological and behavioral characteristics which accommodate them to either broad or specific niches and bioregions. An understanding of diverse causes of extinction throughout invertebrate history, including the current influence of human activity on habitat destruction.