Reenvisioning the 7.012 Biology General Institute Requirement

Since Introductory Biology became a GIR at MIT, the overall course format of faculty-driven lectures, TAled recitations, problem sets, and exams has not changed substantially. There have been pushes to add active learning components to the existing structure, but we propose a significant revamp of 7.012 to make greater progress in these efforts. We aim to rehaul the subject in three areas: incorporating strong threads of scientific stories across the core of biology, highlighting the role of computation through these stories and the student activities, and converting more class time into active learning and discussion sessions with the help of our library of online resources. Our goal is to update 7.012 into a more engaging learning experience that enables the undergraduates to grasp the key concepts of biology better to connect to their other coursework, research, health, and careers.