Welcome to Biological Sciences

biology collage

Division: Natural Sciences
Dept Chairman: Thais Winsome, Ph.D.
email:
tel: 408-855-5217
Counseling: 408-855-5030

Full Time Faculty:
 
Elizabeth Bell, Ph.D.
email:
tel: 408-855-5208
 
Diane Lamkin, Ph.D.
email:
tel: 408-855-5333
 
Kelly Neary, M.S.
email:
tel: 408-855-5588
 
Jean Replicon, Ph.D.
email:
tel: 408-855-5267
 
Thais Winsome, Ph.D.
email:
tel: 408-855-5217

Mission's Biological Sciences program offers courses which satisfy general education requirements in Natural Sciences and prepares students for transfer opportunities to four-year programs in biological sciences, nursing, physical therapy, and programs leading to careers in teaching, medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, etc.

Students planning to continue for a four year-year degree should consult the lower division requirements of the transfer program of the university to which they plan to attend.

Career Options:
  • Nursing/ Physician's Assistant/ Physical Therapy/Occupational Therapy
  • Teaching
  • Microbiology
  • Wildlife Biology
  • Marine Biology
  • Pharmacy
  • Medicine/ Dentistry/ Veterinary Medicine
  • Research

Some career options may require more than two years of college study. Classes beyond the Associate Degree level may be required to fulfill some career options or for preparation for transfer to a university program.

Highlights
  • Transferable courses. All majors and non-majors courses (with the exception
    of BIOSC 55 and directed studies) are fully transferable to UC and CSU.
  • Relevant non-majors courses. On topics that are of current interest and pertinent to students' lives.
  • Convenient class times. Both day and evening sections are offered.
  • Student computer area. PC and Macintosh stations with access to Internet, printers and CD-Roms.
  • Modern lab facilities. Apparatus for carrying out microbiology and molecular biology, extensive collection of anatomical models, clean room for media preparation, incubators and vivarium.
  • Study Abroad. Opportunity to carry out ecological studies at tropical sites.
Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the major in Biological Sciences, students will be able to:

  • Demonstrate their knowledge of the scientific method by formulating a question, constructing a hypothesis, designing and executing an experiment, collecting and analyzing data, and evaluating the results.
  • Critically evaluate the evidence bearing on current debates in biology, realizing that biological science has an impact on every human being and is the basis for many public policy decisions.
  • Identify the characteristics of life, and compare these properties at the cellular, organismal, and population levels of hierarchical organization.
  • Apply knowledge of chemistry to the understanding of the mechanism for heredity (DNA).
  • Explain how adaptation produces unique features as a result of evolution and how evolution provides us with a context for understanding relationships.
AA Degree/Certificate
  • Biological Sciences
Additional Catalog Information