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A PERSONAL VIEW

Aims of undergraduate physiology education: a view from the University of Chicago

Department of Organismal Biology & Anatomy, The Committees on Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, and Molecular Medicine, and The College, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: M. E. Feder, Dept. of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, The Univ. of Chicago, 1027 E. 57th St., Chicago, IL 60637 (E-mail: m-feder{at}uchicago.edu)

Abstract

Feder, Martin E. Aims of undergraduate physiology education: a view from the University of Chicago. Physiology may play an important, if not essential role, in a liberal arts education because it provides a context for integrating information and concepts from diverse biological and extra-biological disciplines. Instructors of physiology may aid in fulfilling this role by clarifying the core concepts that physiological details exemplify. As an example, presented here are the core principles that are the basis for an undergraduate physiology course taught at the University of Chicago. The first of these is: Evolution has resulted in organisms comprising mechanisms for maintenance, growth, and reproduction, despite perturbations of the internal and external environment. Such principles necessitate a coupling of physiology to diverse disciplines (i.e., "sciomics") and provide a basis for integrating discoveries in other disciplines.

Key words: liberal arts education; sciomics

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