BIO 2304 - Scientific Investigation of Diseases

This is an information literacy course that will equip students with the set of abilities that will allow them to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information. This course will involve students being presented with hypothetical medical scenarios in which pseudo patients exhibit specific signs and symptoms of an unknown disease or disorder. Students will be presented with hypothetical scenarios in which pseudo-patients exhibit carious symptoms and signs. The students will then be required to utilize various types of informational resources (i.e. scholarly articles, publications, and mass media sources) in an effort to identify the possible diseases or disorders possessed by the patients. In addition to making diagnoses, the students will also access, evaluate, organize and use various forms of information to make recommendations about treatment and prognosis for the patients. Students will demonstrate their understanding of the biology behind various diseases and disorders by presenting the information they have accessed, organized and evaluated in written and/or presentation form. The students will leave this course being able to use not only classroom material provided by the instructor, but also with knowledge that will allow them to use other resources from the broader community and the mass media. General Education course that satisfies SLO: Information Literacy; AK: Natural Sciences.