Biology

A biology major includes the following components. Click on the links below to learn about each component or view the Barnard Catalogue.

There are many resources and facilities available to Barnard students and faculty to support research and teaching. These include, but are not limited to:

♦ STEM at Barnard: Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math
♦ Columbia's vast trove of electronic publications: EJournals
♦ Help with computer problems, software, and audiovisual or instructional media services: BCIT and IMATS
♦ The Barnard or CU libraries: BLAIS
♦ SPSS (a statistics package available on many of the College computers): SPSS manual
♦ Statistics Analysis Programs and Data Visualization: Empirical Reasoning Center
♦ Pre-health Professions Advising: Beyond Barnard
♦ Peer-to-Peer Tutoring: Help Rooms & Tutoring
♦ Student Groups: For a list of STEM-related co-curricular opportunities, visit: GBB Recognized Clubs

Some courses, such as the introductory 1500-level sequence, have science writing and/or speaking fellows attached to them. Both programs are described below.

The Science Fellows are students pursuing majors across disciplines who have taken rigorous science courses and pursued their own research interests. Science Fellows work closely with STEM professors across departments to support their peers in developing tools to describe and interpret data, use scientific language clearly and concisely, and blend the skills learned in humanities classes with scientific ones.

The Science Fellows aim to prepare students for advanced scientific communication, and to see themselves as members of the scientific community by:

• Breaking down the purpose of the structure and tone of scientific writing
• Supporting students' abilities to use data to construct scientific arguments
• Creating a dialogue about best practices for effectively communicating results and conclusions

Primarily, they hope to foster a space for campus-wide discussions about data literacy and effective scientific communication. To schedule an appointment with a science fellow or for more information on drop-in hours, visit: Science Writing Fellows

Seniors completing the Biology major satisfy their capstone requirement in one of two ways: either by taking a Senior Seminar in Biology or by taking a guided research and seminar course. Both courses culminate in presentations - the former being a presentation on a synthesized review paper, and the latter a 15-minute presentation at the annual Research Symposium. Though students are not required to work with Speaking Fellows, they are nonetheless an excellent resource for students throughout their time at Barnard as they complete the major since many courses will include presentations in their curriculum.

The Speaking Fellows are students who work with speaking-intensive courses and other academically-centered programs, helping students improve their presentation and class discussion skills. They aim to cultivate and empower the speaking culture at Barnard by teaching students to be reflective about what they say and how they say it. After completing a rigorous, one-semester training course in the theory and practice of public speaking, Speaking Fellows work with students across the disciplines to coach them on how to craft, prepare, and deliver presentations.

Speaking Fellows work with students through three main venues: (1) directly with courses, at faculty request; (2) one-on-one in the Speaking Center. To learn more, visit: Speaking Fellows

Several academic centers outside of our departmental facilities provide a diverse range of innovative and state-of-the-art resources to both students and faculty.

These include the Athena Center for Leadership Studies, the Barnard Center for Research on Women, the Center for Toddler Development, the Center for Engaged Pedagogy, the Diana T. Vagelos & Roy P. Vagelos Computational Science Center, the Design Center, the Digital Humanities Center, the Empirical Reasoning Center, the Media Center, and last, but not least, the Movement Lab.