Face the Future with Human Biology

What does it mean to be human?   The new Human Biology program will show that there's more to life than science.   The area certificate and proposed major offered by the College of Arts and Sciences examine what it means to be human from both a biological and social science perspective.

The area certificate and proposed baccalaureate degree in Human Biology are interdisciplinary programs that embrace an integrative approach to learning and emphasize creativity and problem-solving. Students take courses from Biology, Medical Sciences, Anthropology, Psychology, and Religious Studies. Students can apply for the area certificate now, and a pilot class for the Human Biology program will be offered this spring.

Both the challenging life of IU students and the pressing problems facing our society prompted Associate Professor Whitney Schlegel, Director of the Human Biology program, to spearhead the development of this interdisciplinary program. Empathizing with students, Schlegel said, “You go from five different disciplines where each professor expects you to be an expert in the field . . . and they're all talking to you like this is the only thing that you have on your plate.”

An integrative approach to education not only gives students a break from academically isolated courses but also prepares them to tackle future challenges. “The complex problems of today can't be answered without understanding how those problems are contextualized socially, historically, and also within the disciplines,” explained Schlegel. “We need to think about what those complex problems are when [students] leave here – from global poverty to scarce energy resources to epidemics, like HIV and malaria . . . and bring those home so that [students] can understand what they mean. . .

So how can we turn out students who can be the leaders, to be the people to bring about change? To do that, you need to be able to talk about those problems in the complex nature of which they exist . . . We need to gather the expertise that we have on this campus and integrate it,” said Schlegel.

Schlegel and seven other faculty members from the College designed the core curriculum for the proposed major around these complex problems. They plan for students to take an integrated course and seminar that is team-taught by faculty from different departments and incorporates a wide variety of source material.

The pilot class for the program, College Topics course, E105, The Human Organism: What, When, Where, Why and How Do We Eat, debuts this spring semester. The central theme for the course is food and will address issues such as obesity in our culture. The course, taught by Schlegel from biology and Assistant Professor Vivian Halloran from comparative literature, will use sources like Super Size Me and early studies of digestion to introduce students to the human organism and the scientific method.

Although the certificate does not include these yearly integrative courses, students will take a mixture of courses from departments within the College (see the list of requirements on the left). According to Schlegel, the certificate was initially created for general studies degree students who have an interest in biology.   For these students, especially if they plan to work in the life sciences, the certificate should help them market themselves to potential employers and graduate schools.

Students in the Human Biology program will have the opportunity to enhance their education with an electronic portfolio.   The web-based tool called KEEP Toolkit, designed by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement for Teaching and Learning, facilitates collaboration and helps students assess their educational experience at IU.  

“Science is visual and about visual representation,” explained Schlegel.   “We want to give students a chance to be creative and also think about how they're going to visually represent themselves.”   The portfolio will also help students apply for jobs and to schools; by simply sending potential employers or admission directors a URL, students can send them an electronic copy of their resume and examples of their work.

Schlegel also plans to incorporate internships into the curriculum. Cook, Inc., a medical device and supplies company with its international headquarters in Bloomington, has shown interest, and Schlegel is cultivating a relationship with the Monroe County schools so that students can “help inform the science community in the K-12 environment.”

As she meets with Indiana employers, Schlegel reports that life sciences companies are excited about the human biology program. “They can train students and people to do jobs but they can't train them to be good problem-solvers, to learn how to work collaboratively with others, and to understand different perspectives,” said Schlegel. “They're excited about the way in which we've structured the core [curriculum] so that we'll turn out a student that's going to hit the ground running for them and that will already possess the skills that aren't trainable.”

For more information about the area certificate and the proposed major in human biology, visit www.indiana.edu/~humbio or e-mail humbio@indiana.edu .