This introductory-level program is designed for students who are prepared to take their first year of college-level science using an interdisciplinary framework. This program offers an integrated study of biology, chemistry, and physics that serves as an introduction to the concepts, theories, and structures which underlie the natural sciences. The goal is to equip students with the conceptual, methodological, and quantitative tools they need to ask and answer questions in a variety of disciplines using the models and tools of chemistry, physics and biology. Students will also gain a strong appreciation of the interconnectedness of physical, biological and chemical systems, and an ability to apply this knowledge to complex problems.

Program activities will include lectures and small-group problem-solving workshops, where conceptual and technical skills will be developed. There will be a significant laboratory component: students can expect to spend at least a full day in lab each week, maintain laboratory notebooks, write formal laboratory reports, and give formal presentations of their work. Biology laboratories in this program will include participation in the SEA-PHAGE program coordinated by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the use of bioinformatics tools on a bacteriophage genome. We will make extensive use of quantitative applications in all program activities.

All laboratory work and approximately one-half of the non-lecture time will be spent working in collaborative problem-solving groups. It will be a rigorous program, requiring a serious commitment of time and effort. Overall, we expect students to end the program in the spring with a solid working knowledge of scientific and quantitative concepts and the ability to reason critically and solve problems.

Students completing this program will have covered material equivalent to one year of general biology with laboratory, one year of general chemistry with laboratory, and two quarters of algebra-based physics with laboratory. Successful students will be prepared to pursue upper-division work in chemistry, biology, and environmental science.