Introduction

The department offers an undergraduate program leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science and a graduate program leading to the degree of Master of Arts in Teaching. The goal of the undergraduate program is to provide students with broad backgrounds allowing for flexibility in making career choices. Students enrolled in the graduate program have the opportunity to develop their skills and knowledge in more specialized areas.

The Department of Biological Sciences is located in the Conant Science Building. The department has ten teaching laboratories, two lecture rooms, a faculty research area, a biology museum-seminar room, a bioassay laboratory, an electron microscope laboratory and a cell biology laboratory. The laboratories are well equipped to help students apply the theoretical principles of their courses. Equipment includes not only the basic light microscopes but also two electron microscopes; there are microtomes, a liquid scintillation counter, electrophoretic equipment, spectrophotometers and electrophysiological recording instruments. In addition, there is close cooperation between the biology and chemistry departments, so that other equipment may be shared.

Located on the three acres next to the building are a 20- by 80-foot greenhouse and the Biology Garden. The greenhouse and gardens support laboratory and field work and are planted with specimens of horticultural interest.

The location of the campus is a major advantage for conducting fieldwork and ecological studies. Within an hour's drive of the campus are such diverse habitats as bays, salt-marshes, sandy beaches, rocky shores, estuaries, bogs, freshwater ponds, streams and rivers (clean and polluted), white cedar swamps, marshes, pine groves and hemlock groves.

The department maintains and operates a new Watershed Access Laboratory located in the John Joseph Moakley Center for Technological Applications. The Watershed Access Laboratory is designed for use in teacher professional development in environmental education and for interdisciplinary watershed studies.

 

Last Modified: December 21, 2004