Ecology and Evolution Undergraduate Program Learning Outcomes

The undergraduate curriculum offered by the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) is designed to ensure that all students declared in any EEB sponsored major will achieve the following seven Program Learning Outcomes.

  1. Students will demonstrate broad-based knowledge of the fundamentals of Ecology, Behavior, Evolution and Physiology and the relationships among these disciplines.

2. Students will demonstrate skills in the observation and experimental study of organisms, using both field-based and laboratory-based approaches.

3. Students will demonstrate skills in identifying, accessing, comprehending and synthesizing scientific information, including interpretation of the primary scientific literature. This includes understanding key questions and hypotheses, interpreting results and conclusions, and evaluating quality through critique.

4. Students will demonstrate the ability to conceive and execute independent scientific research, including developing their own questions and hypotheses, designing an appropriate theoretical or empirical/experimental approach, executing that approach, and analyzing and interpreting data.

5. Students will demonstrate an ability to understand and apply fundamental quantitative skills, including models and statistical analyses, so as to properly interpret published research and apply such skills in their own research.

6. Students will demonstrate the ability to communicate original scientific work in the form of a scientific paper, as well as in oral or poster presentations.

7. Students will exhibit strong teamwork and problem solving skills.  They will demonstrate the ability to make arguments from evidence and work together to find optimal solutions.