The Role of Form and Function in the Collegiate Biology Curriculum

AMER. ZOOL., 28:619-664 (1988)

WILLIAM V. MAYER Professor of Biology Emeritus, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80302

INTRODUCTION ductory courses have come about slowly Form and function are usually regarded and largely independently in various col- as essential, but routine, items in a curric- leges and universities. This does not mean ulum. They seem less important now than that guidelines for improvement did not before the rise in interest in molecular biol- exist. It does mean they went largely ogy and ecology. Those of my age group unheeded. To understand the climate for can recall the morphological drudgery of change one needs to examine activities that introductory zoology that involved draw- have been underway for close to a century ing, with a 4-H pencil, typical representa- designed to improve the caliber of biology tives of the various animal phyla and label- programs. To this end one must review the ing their parts with parallel guidelines and work of committees, commissions, and properly printed names. The aim of such studies that looked at the status quo and a course seemed to be to produce these made recommendations. The following illustrated sheets rather than to under- section highlights the more significant stand either the organisms or relationships efforts focused on the biology classroom. among them. I plodded through these ster- ile and boring assignments knowing that A BRIEF REVIEW OF STUDIES ON somewhere along the line, in later courses, INTRODUCTORY BIOLOGY I would be introduced to content that would Many efforts have been made to place synthesize this mass of detail and lead to a objectives in some kind of orderly pattern. conceptual understanding of morphology Attempts to delineate cognitive and affec- and its application to the living world. Later tive objectives for biology can be traced to I was to find this a vain hope. Ultimately I the ancient Greeks, see Moore (p. 483). had to make my own synthesis. However, serious study of the subject in Fortunately the days of the dissect, look, the United States can be traced to about draw, label and memorize type of labora- 1890 according to Hurd (1961, p. 9). tory are drawing to a close. The formal- Hurd's work is a major, but little known, dehyde smell and the lanolin covered hands contribution to biological education, appli- are less a requirement for biology than in cable to all levels from elementary school the past hastened, perhaps, by the obser- through college. Its value as a source of vation that formaldehyde is carcinogenic. generalizations about the content of a col- As a graduate assistant in the formalde- legiate biology course is due, in part, to the hyde and shark era I found myself exposed early congruence of curricula in secondary several times a week to barrels of preserved schools and undergraduate colleges. At the specimens in the atmosphere of isolation turn of the century almost every student and privacy given the laboratories of dis- who graduated from high school contin- section in science halls. Changes in intro- ued education in a college or university, 619 620 WILLIAM V. MAYER making the major objective of secondary the students were to examine the external schools one of preparing students for anatomy of animals. In addition to study higher education. Prior to 1900 only 3.8% of the general form, regional parts and of the school population aged 14 to 17 years symmetry were also to be stressed. The was enrolled in secondary schools and there approach was basically comparative, with were about 2,500 high schools in the United one animal compared to others of the same States. By 1900 the number of schools had species to determine points of variation and increased to 6,005 and 8.4% of the 14 to compatibility together with comparison 17 year old age group was enrolled in high with other types. Simple physiological school, with enrollment of girls exceeding experiments were also to be a part of the enrollment of boys by 25%. In New York curriculum. Laboratory work was consid- State, between 1896 and 1900, 82.5% of ered an essential and students were to be high schools taught botany, 70% physiol- subject to both a written and laboratory ogy, 42.5% zoology and 10% biology, so test. The Subcommittee on Physiology that a variety of opportunities in the bio- suggested a one semester course in each of logical sciences were readily available to anatomy, physiology and hygiene with an students. As high schools were essentially emphasis on practical work that stressed college preparatory they reflected colle- the mechanics of physics and chemistry of giate biases in their curricula. Colleges the body. This committee separated phys- themselves were spared examination. The iology from botany and zoology, which it significant early literature regarding intro- regarded as sciences of description and ductory collegiate courses varies from non- observation, and placed it more with chem- existent to sparse. However, what was istry and physics as a science of experi- going on within the college of the time is ment. reflected in the curricula of secondary schools. It would not be unfair to note that In 1896 the National Education Asso- the study of secondary school biology cur- ciation's Department of Natural Science ricula of the period is also a study of intro- Instruction was organized. The president, ductory collegiate biology in the absence Charles E. Bessey, was concerned that sci- of usable data concerning collegiate intro- ence should be something more than accu- ductory courses. The criticisms and sug- mulating facts. More attention was to be gestions for improvement focused on the given to the classification, arrangement and secondary schools were, by and large, as generalization from facts. In short, the applicable to the collegiate introductory development of what was termed a "judi- course, if not also to the entire collegiate cial state of mind." This approach was con- curriculum. firmed by a science committee sponsored by the National Education Association in 1898 under the Chairmanship of E. H. Reports of the National Education Association Hall of Harvard. This 1898 committee Concern about the quality of biology expressed the opinion that the minute education initiated a series of studies of anatomy of plants or animals or specialized secondary curricula that now span almost work of any kind would be premature and a century. The first significant study to con- out of place in a high school course of one cern itself with the life sciences was that in year in length. Rather, the work should 1893 when the National Education Asso- confine itself to the elements of the subject, ciation formed a Committee on Secondary the principles and methods of thought. School Studies, also known as the Com- John M. Coulter, Chairman of the Sub- mittee of Ten. This was headed by Charles committee on Botany in Secondary Schools, W. Eliot, President of Harvard University. severely criticized the common practice of Subcommittees were formed to deal with examination and recitation on the gross specific disciplines and, for the teaching of structure of flowering plants accompanied zoology, the subcommittee emphasized by herbarium observations. He felt these form and function. While the outline of superficial and restricted and even an irrel- the year's course was essentially phyletic, evant presentation of biological science. By THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 621 extension, his recommendations could mental discipline approach to learning was apply to similar practices in the zoology rejected by psychologists soon after the turn class. of the century, laboratory work in a sur- These studies at the secondary school prising number of institutions still today is level represented an early attempt to conducted for its value for developing develop both cognitive and affective objec- "mental discipline." The last decade of the tives for education in the biological sci- 19th century also focused on a shift away ences. Then, as now, there was little study from a natural history approach to what of science courses at the collegiate level might be called "pure" botany and zoology due, in part, to the resistance on the part whose major emphasis continued to be of collegiate content specialists to any morphological. One must distinguish interference with the way they interpret between studies and implementation. The their disciplines. However, collegiate assumption cannot be made that teaching faculties then, as now, were expressing deep practices or course curricula immediately concern regarding the inadequate prepa- respond to committee recommendations. ration of students entering college. In 1895 Periodically, committees are formed to the National Education Association report on the state of education and most appointed a committee of 24, consisting of of these reports are read and filed, rather 12 university scientists and 12 high school than acted upon. teachers, to consider college entrance standards. The major objective of this committee was to explore ways in which sec- Recommendations of the ondary schools could do their legitimate American Society of Zoologists work as schools of the people while, at the The American Society of Zoologists in same time, furnishing adequate prepara- 1906 made recommendations for improv- tion to pupils intending to continue their ing the teaching of zoology in the high education in colleges and universities. The school. Among these recommendations was subcommittee on zoology reported in 1899. that a full year of zoology be taken by the Its members unanimously opposed the student at secondary school and that it be textbook method of teaching zoology in given for college credit for those continu- which "a large amount of information ing their education. The content outline about animals is acquired thereby in a lim- for a year's work in high school zoology, ited time, and a minimum of attainment as recommended by ASZ, was: and preparation is demanded of the 1. Natural history. Structure in relation to teacher." The subcommittee also opposed adaptation, life history, and geograph- the taxonomic approach as it gave the stu- ical range; the relation of plants to ani- dent an exaggerated notion of the impor- mals and economic relations. tance of structural parts for a limited group of animals and failed to develop biological 2. Classification of animals by phylum, ideas. The majority of the committee major classes and, in the case of insects thought that external morphology, life his- and vertebrates, prominent orders. tory, habits and the economic importance 3. General plan of external and internal of animals were of greater interest and structure for at least one vertebrate (fish value to secondary pupils than the system- or frog) in comparison to that of the atic and morphological approach then typ- human body; an arthropod, an annelid, ical of colleges. a coelenterate and a protozoon. 4. General physiology of" the above organ- The decade from 1890 to 1900 was isms and comparisons with human phys- greatly influenced by the mental discipline iology and with the life processes in theory of psychological development. Lab- plants. oratory work, for example, was seen as an 5. Reproduction of protozoa, hydroids and ideal procedure for the training and exer- the embryological development of the cising of mental faculties devoted to obser- fish or frog. vation, will power and memory. While the 6. Evidence of relationships suggesting 622 WILLIAM V. MAYER

evolution and a few facts on adaptation and function, biology teachers had reacted and variation. This recommendation against the morphological approach sug- was presented with the strange caveat gested as desirable by the Committee of that "the factors of evolution and the Ten. discussion of its theories should not be Despite the fact that the members of the attempted." Committee of Ten were well known sci- 7. History of biology presented as an entists, that the membership of the com- optional inclusion dealing with major mittee was the largest in the history of edu- discoveries and the careers of eminent cation at the time, that the report had been naturalists. well advertised, had wide readership, and had been the center of many educational Both form and function were prominent discussions, little was achieved by it. This in the recommendations of the American situation is not much different from reac- Society of Zoologists. Structure was to be tions to current reports recommending presented in relation to adaptation, clas- changes in content and approach for bio- sification and evidences of relationships, logical education. with specific investigations of the structure H. R. Linville (1910) in his article "Old of representative organisms coupled with and New Ideals in Biology Teaching" made a study of their general physiology. Repro- the following cogent observation: ductive physiology and anatomy were also to be investigated on the basis of represen- The teachers of morphological biology tative organisms so that form and function in the schools brought with them from were pervasive throughout the six initially the colleges certain ideas of method. recommended content groupings. ASZ also Possibly the lecture system never took stressed the need for laboratory facilities strong hold in the schools, but the lab- and, where other studies, such as that of oratory method of the college with much NEA in 1895, unanimously opposed the of its paraphernalia, did. The conse- textbook method of teaching, the ASZ quence of this was that thousands of stressed the necessity for a good textbook. young and untrained pupils were It is interesting to note that two-thirds of required to cut, section, examine, and the course was recommended to consist of draw the parts of dead bodies of unknown laboratory and notebook work. The note- and unheard of animals and plants and book, to be submitted at examination time, later to reproduce in examination what was to contain carefully labeled drawings they remembered of the facts they had of the chief anatomical structures studied, seen. thus placing a high emphasis on details of form and on the drawings which were From separate courses to biology? essentially dull and repetitive exercises bereft of intellectual stimulation. For the most part, physiology was treated as a separate course from botany and zoology and it experienced, as noted, a decline Reactions to committee reports in enrollments. It was generally disliked by In an attempt to measure the impact of students and was regarded as difficult to the Committee of Ten, E. G. Dexter, in teach. Oscar Riddle, writing in School Sci- 1906, examined 80 courses of study in biol- ence and Mathematics in 1906 recommended ogy prior to 1895 and 160 courses of study that human physiology be incorporated in 1905. He found, in contrast to the Com- into the zoology course with more empha- mittee of Ten's recommendations, that sis on physiology rather than morphology. physiology courses in high school had His recommendations were followed by actually decreased 50%. In addition, while those of Clifford Crosby in 1907 in an arti- more high schools were teaching botany cle entitled "Physiology, How and How and zoology, the courses were not being Much." Crosby reported on several sur- offered for a full year as had been rec- veys he had made on the teaching of human ommended and, most importantly for form physiology in high school and found a THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 623 strong negative feeling in students about This comment concerning "coverage" their physiology courses. Most of the stu- appears in a number of reports as a part dents took physiology before they had had of an ongoing debate on breadth versus zoology or botany and thus possessed little depth in education. With the passage of background for appreciating physiology. years and the increase in the amount of He, too, recommended the development material to be covered, critics of breadth of a zoology course unified by a theme of note an increasing superficiality, with con- physiology. With three separate courses sequent lack of understanding. While a reduced to two in number the next logical monomolecular film of coverage may indi- step was to combine the two into a single cate an instantaneous exposure, it does not biology course. necessarily follow that comprehension has The editors of School Science and Mathe-been achieved as well. Those critics of matics in 1908 polled a number of univer- depth criticize what they regard as sity biologists who had been involved in the attempting an understanding of very few educational as well as the academic aspects biological topics. However, most university of biology regarding the purpose and orga- curricula are organized on the principle of nization of biology courses. There was a depth rather than breadth. The prolifer- consensus on three points. 1) That a biol- ation of specialized topics has been ridi- ogy course should be adapted to the major- culed by citing such progressions as from ity of pupils. 2) That the course should courses in morphology, to those in verte- stress general educational values and be brate morphology, to those in mammalian practical and focused on broadening of morphology, to those in carnivore mor- pupil interests and the deepening of their phology, to those in canine morphology, appreciation. 3) That the course should be to those in carnassial tooth morphology. It focused more on the ideas and principles is obvious that both the proponents of the of the discipline rather than on its details. monomolecular film of content spread over This poll did not settle the issue of a single the entire corpus of biology and those biology course incorporating botany, zool- whose specialty is so narrow as to ignore ogy and human physiology. Instead, there all but a single facet of the discipline are were still options for "sub-courses" in each in error when their approach is applied to field, either each field for a third of a year an introductory biology course. Such a or a year's work in each field. course it is clearly understood, cannot be all things to all persons. Content, then, Report of the Central Association of becomes a matter of selection to illustrate Science and Mathematics Teachers major concepts and principles with excur- sions in depth in a few selected areas. A Committee on Fundamentals was established by the Central Association of The 1910 Central Association of Science Science and Mathematics Teachers in 1910. and Mathematics Teachers report sug- The result of this committee's work incor- gested great principles to which students porated suggestions for greater emphasis should be exposed. These were: on reasoning rather than memorization, more attention given to developing prob- 1. Growth and progressive development, lem raising and problem solving attitudes both individual and racial. on the part of students, greater emphasis 2. Division of labor and differentiation for on the relationships of the subject to every- efficiency. day life without commercialization or 3. Sexual differentiation and its meaning. industrialization of science, more emphasis 4. Economic dependence of man on other on the unfinished nature of science, includ- organisms. ing the great questions yet to be solved by 5. The value of social combination and investigators and, lastly, less attempts at service. coverage. The course would progress no 6. The natural processes of the human further than students can go with under- mind itself in passing from observations standing. to conclusions. 624 WILLIAM V. MAYER

The role of form and function in illumi- go on to college and of these smaller frac- nating these great principles would be left tions concentrate in science and still smaller to the individual instructor. fractions in the biological sciences, the high By 1910 general trends were apparent, school curriculum in large measure still in almost all recommendations regarding remains a microcosm of collegiate intro- curriculum content, as follows: ductory work. For all intents and purposes then, criticisms and recommendations for 1. The teaching of biology should be ori- the high school biology curriculum at this ented towards principles, ideas and time can equally well apply to collegiate interrelationships. introductory programs. 2. More emphasis should be given to scientific methodology and the processes A major recommendation of this 1913 of science. (A recommendation being NEA Committee on Natural Sciences was realized within the American Society of that unity of subject matter in any course Zoologists through this Science As A in science was of prime importance. Only Way Of Knowing program.) in this way could underlying principles be seen to apply over the broad spectrum of 3. The establishment of practical objec- the discipline. Secondly, a recommenda- tives for biology teaching. tion was made that biology should include 4. Emphasis attached to capitalizing on plants, animals and man as living organ- student interests and experience and a isms. By the 1930s and 40s, however, rejection of the mental discipline the- humans had almost disappeared from col- ory of learning. legiate biology courses. Storer's classic Within the secondary schools the argu- textbook, General Zoology, firstpublishe d in ment of breadth versus depth had defi- 1943, devotes 21 of its 832 pages to man- nitely been settled in favor of breadth, as kind in a terminal chapter 33, which was physiology failed to become established as unlikely to be reached even by the most a separate course in the curriculum and ardent proponents of coverage. Perhaps was combined in some fashion with the the discarding of mankind as a suitable sub- existing zoology course. Morphology was ject of biological study was based on the still the study of preserved specimens, a desire to shun anything that had practical practice deprecated by Oscar Riddle in or applied values because of its potential 1906 when he stated "And what objects do vocational trend. Abstract knowledge for our students handle and how do they han- its own sake was considered Aristotelian dle them? I answer that in the majority of and proper. Applied knowledge was seg- laboratories they use dead unyielding spec- regated in courses in human anatomy and imens which have centralized within them- physiology of primary interest to nurses, selves all the rigidity that is within the power premeds and others who proposed to make of over-proof spirits to impart." some use of their course content. The 1913 NEA committee, however, NEA Committee on Natural Sciences recommended that constant references The National Education Association in should be made to applications of biology 1913 appointed ten high school teachers, to human welfare and convenience. three university professors, three normal Included in the objectives for such a course school instructors and a physician to study was the recommendation that each pupil the secondary school curriculum. Remem- become familiar with the structure, func- ber, that such a study also reflects on intro- tion and care of his own body so that form ductory collegiate programs, as high and function of an applied nature became schools were, and in some instances still a desideratum. The committee saw noth- are, patterning their curricula upon those ing wrong in a human biology. It also crit- of colleges and universities in their imme- icized many common teaching practices diate vicinities. Despite the fact that only such as the use of laboratory work simply about half of current high school graduates to keep students busy or class work con- THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 625 fined to a single text within the four walls leges and universities, a disjunction that of the classroom. Committee members was not remedied until the establishment were concerned that "The most important of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study consideration is that the course should be in 1958. conducted with a live teacher." The Not all educators and scientists found emphasis on teaching of biology for its the emphasis on the practical and the importance to human welfare made phys- applied to be sound. John Dewey, address- iology come to mean human physiology and ing the National Education Association in hygiene. By now space in the curriculum March of 1916, expressed a concern that was being found for topics such as ecology the basic contribution of science would be which were being included at the expense lost in the rising emphasis on practical and of morphology. applied content. He expressed this as follows: Breakdown of collegiate/secondary school relationships The entire cogency of their position In the first two decades of this century depends on the identification of science collegiate and secondary school instructors with a certain limited field of subject worked rather closely together. Research matter, ignoring the fact that science is biologists were frequently involved in cur- primarily the method of intelligence at riculum recommendations but, after about work in observation, in inquiry and 1920, high schools and colleges parted experimental testing; that, fundamen- company, at least as regards such close tally, what science means and stands for cooperation. The high school was devel- is simply the best ways yet found out by oping its own identity and while it still which human intelligence can do the looked, and still does look, to college cur- work it should do, ways that are contin- ricula for guidance, continued recommen- ually improved by the very process of dations that biology become a more prac- use. tical course and criticism of the miniature college course taught at the secondary level Recommendations of the North Central greatly affected the high school curriculum Association of Colleges and while having little, if any, effect upon that Secondary Schools at the collegiate level. This changing rela- Reports on the state of science education tionship of the high school and the college accumulated until they began to sound like communities can be demonstrated by a broken record. They focused largely on examining the membership of two com- the need for emphasis of principles and mittees on science teaching. In 1893 the generalizations and the involvement of stu- Committee of Ten consisted of five college dents with the application of biological or university professors and/or scientists, principles to problematic situations. three high school teachers, one normal Emphasis shifted from the content imposed school teacher and one superintendent of by the discipline to meeting the needs of schools. By 1920 the Committee on Reor- the student and presenting principles ganization of Science in Secondary Schools, selected from those most important in the which consisted of 47 members, included day-to-day life of citizens. The biology 24 high school teachers or administrators, committee of the North Central Associa- 11 college or university professors and/or tion of Colleges and Secondary Schools in scientists, 6 normal school teachers, 5 1931 recommended six biological princi- superintendents of schools, and 1 business ples to fill these needs as follows: representative, further demonstrating the increase in involvement in the construction of science courses on the part of public 1. The adaptation of organisms to their school personnel and the lessened poten- environment. tial influence of representatives from col- 2. The germ theory of disease. 3. The interdependence of organisms. 626 WILLIAM V. MAYER

4. The cell as the structural and physio- 1. Acquiring knowledge that will produce logical unit of living things. a better understanding of our environ- 5. The theory of evolution. ment. 6. The distinctive characteristics of living 2. Presenting knowledge that will func- things. tion to achieve the cardinal principles of secondary education as defined by While these recommendations did not spe- the Commission on the Reorganization cifically isolate form and function as a major of Secondary Education (Caldwell, principle, cellular structure and function 1920). was a desideratum and adaptation and the 3. Developing an appreciation of nature distinctive characteristics of living things and of individual responsibility in the implied knowledge of form and function. world. Morphology, per se, however, continued 4. Acquiring knowledge of the fundamen- to be deemphasized in a trend discernable tal principles of biology. as far back as the beginning of the century. 5. Developing an interest in nature. The committee was realistic in its 6. Developing the ability to think scientif- approach, recognizing that, while princi- ically. ples provided a sound and practical focus of biology teaching, acceptance of such Despite the enunciation of objectives reit- recommendations was not guaranteed. It erating still earlier recommendations, vis- expressed concern that teachers were not its to biology classes showed that teachers interested in spending the time necessary still asked questions that could be answered to develop an understanding of a principle. in one word and which were primarily Rather, they chose to have students mem- focused on the parts of either plants or orize large masses of unorganized facts animals. Details of morphology still dom- which were easy to teach and simple to evaluate. Colleges were perceived as part inated the curriculum and examinations of the problem, as their entrance exami- measured only the students ability to nations consisted primarily of questions remember isolated facts. The biology lab- focused on the recall of facts. The com- oratory work was also centered on detail mittee observed that college science classes and typically requested copying pictures were not taught from the point of view of from the textbook, a pointless and stulti- the consumer of science and that, there- fying exercise. fore, teachers at the secondary level were not prepared to make use of science as it The report of the National Society for applies to problems encountered by stu- the Study of Education dents. Further, such emphasis could have In 1932, the National Society for the negative effect on college admissions and Study of Education (NSSE) issued a 364 student's subsequent performance in classes page report entitled "A Program for devoted to rote memory. Teaching Science." This committee was chaired by S. Ralph Powers and explored questions on science teaching at every level Office of Education "Instruction in Science" from kindergarten to college. Course con- The difference between promise and ful- tent was to be selected in terms of its appli- fillment was underscored by a publication cability and should illuminate the major of the Office of Education, United States generalizations of science as well as relat- Department of the Interior in 1933 enti- ing to the welfare of human beings. The tled "Instruction in Science." An investi- committee recognized that content should gation of biology curriculum objectives not only have a practical value, but cultural demonstrated they were laudable but and liberalizing values should be stressed unfulfilled. The six major objectives most as well. In terms of laboratory work, it, too, frequently listed included: should be directed toward problem solving THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 627 and be focused on providing students with and the principles and concepts were left science experiences, rather than on simply for students to derive from large masses of being illustrative or confirmatory of what unsifted data. had already been presented in either lecture or textbook. Again, a series of biolog- Union of American Biological Societies ical principles was considered as funda- Committee on the Teaching of Biology mental. This time nine such principles were The disparity between what was actually elucidated as follows: done in the classroom and the recommendation of "experts" in the field of science 1. Energy cannot be created or destroyed and science education is nowhere better but merely transformed from one form demonstrated than by responses to the to another. Committee on the Teaching of Biology of 2. The ultimate source of energy for all the Union of American Biological Societies living things is sunlight. questionnaire published in 1942. Responses 3. Microorganisms are the immediate to the questionnaire were received from cause of some diseases. 3,186 biology teachers and two sets of data 4. All organisms must be adjusted to their are especially revealing. In the first, the environmental factors in order to sur- teachers felt that the greatest classroom vive in the struggle for existence. emphasis in general biology should be on 5. All life comes from pre-existing life and (1) Health, disease, hygiene; (2) Physiol- reproduces its own kind. ogy; (3) Heredity; (4) Conservation; (5) 6. Animals and plants are not distributed Structure. This confirmed the emphasis on uniformly nor at random over the sur- form and function which was apparently faces of the earth, but are found in def- still taking up some 40% of classroom inite zones and in local populations. instructional time. Secondly, that class- 7. Food, oxygen, optimal conditions of room practice differed from that recom- temperature, moisture and light are mended is clearly noted in the nature of essential to the life of most living things. the topics to which the teachers gave the 8. The cell is the structural and physio- lowest rating in terms of emphasis. These logical unit in all organisms. were: (1) Eugenics; (2) Behavior; (3) Sci- 9. The more complex organisms have been entific method; (4) Photosynthesis; and (5) derived by natural processes from sim- Biological principles. In short, the princi- pler ones. These, in turn, from still sim- ples approach so highly recommended by pler and so on back to the first living study groups was the least used in class- forms. room presentations of any of the recommendations. It can easily be seen that the NSSE program for teaching science had principles that paralleled those developed by the Cooperative Committee on Science Teaching North Central Association for Colleges and Secondary Schools in 1931. Evolution and During World War II the Cooperative the germ theory of disease are common to Committee on Science Teaching was estab- both as are adaptation and the focus on the lished. It included representatives of the cell. Here again, form and function are not American Chemical Society, The Mathe- specifically delineated except in relation to matical Association of America and the the cell but are implicit in coverage of other Union of American Biological Societies principles. Despite recommendations of among others. Despite its war time slant prestigious committees and commissions, toward practicality, it developed a series of science examinations continued to reflect instructional goals not too different from emphasis on naming parts, giving func- those recommended earlier. These tions, arranging in order, or defining terms, included: indicating that emphasis was still basically 1. Structure, function, care, first aid and on the vocabulary of form and function nutrition of the human body. 628 WILLIAM V. MAYER

2. Bacteria and disease. biology. It should be remembered that 3. Personal and public health. biology, per se, did not constitute an iden- 4. Use of plant products as food, medi- tifiable discipline within colleges and uni- cine, shelter, and clothing among other versities until the early 1920s when the first uses. college biology for general education was 5. Genetics as exemplified by plant and offered at Stanford University. Biology animal breeding. courses were not common enough even to 6. Conservation of soil, grasslands, forest, promote the preparation of texts in the wild life and flood control. subject for use at the collegiate level. Except 7. Applied ecology. for the experimental programs of the 1930s, most universities introduced stu- In this report the study of structure and dents to life sciences through either botany function was primarily related to the human or zoology. It was not really until the 1950s body and such topics as evolution and the that biology as a recognizable discipline was cell were only incidental. common enough to foster the production of biology textbooks, one of the first of Trends toward scientific literacy which was Garrett Hardin's Biology, Its When one examines the recommenda- Human Implications(l952). tions made by the many committees and Every committee which studied biology commissions studying introductory science curricula supported, wholly or in part, the courses two trends can be discerned. Rec- importance of science in the maintenance ommendations from committees com- of a free society and democratic ideals. All posed primarily of scientists requested more felt such support would be accomplished time be given to the social implications of through the preparation of a citizenry science, supported a balanced program of informed in science and by maintaining an physical and biological sciences, and sug- adequate supply of scientific and technical gested special attention be given to the tal- manpower. However, despite good inten- ented student and potential scientist. In tions, the expected widespread curriculum addition, the scientists on these commit- reforms in science curricula and improved tees recognized that the nature of science, teaching procedures did not materialize. its methods and place in the social and economic life of individual citizens was of Between 1950 and 1960 it was recog- growing importance. nized that few of the major problems of modern civilization could be dealt with in Those committees composed principally the absence of scientific literacy. The real- of educators looked upon science as a means ization that an understanding of science for meeting the "needs" of individuals. was imperative in the education of all peo- They spoke of making science functional ple was beginning to be apparent, although in the lives of young people. However, they, how this understanding should be com- too, considered that the methods and tech- municated was unclear. niques of the scientist were valuable procedures for solving problems of daily living Southeastern/North Central Conferences on and suggested that scientific attitudes were Biology Teaching worthy goals for all students at all levels. In the 1930s, new ways of presenting The Southeastern Conference on Biol- introductory collegiate biology were being ogy Teaching held during the summer of developed in a few institutions. At the Uni- 1954 brought together 85 high school and versity of Chicago, under the leadership of college teachers. Six biological scientists Robert Maynard Hutchins, a general edu- prepared written summary statements of cation program was developed that broke how their special fields could and should with tradition to develop what was consid- contribute to the improvement of biolog- ered a more meaningful introductory ical education. The six fields were: course. At Yale, George A. Baitsell also 1. Heredity and development. developed an innovative approach to an 2. Evolution and paleontology. introductory course emphasizing human 3. Morphology. THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 629

4. Taxonomy. inadequate facilities, the ineptitude and lack 5. Physiology and health. of enthusiasm of some teachers, the notion 6. Ecology and conservation. that students learn as well from demon- strations and films as from laboratory work Morphology and physiology together con- they do themselves, have led to drastic stituted a third of the special fields consid- reduction or even total abandonment of ered of value in biological education. laboratory and field study. Elsewhere, In 1955 at Cheboygan, Michigan the though 'laboratory' remains on schedule, North Central Conference on Biology what is offered is so pedestrian and un- Teaching involved 87 persons including imaginative, so unlikely to challenge the high school science teachers and college student's powers as to be almost worse than biology teachers. Its work closely paral- no laboratory work at all." The latter part leled that of the Southeastern Conference, of this statement at least categorizes my with research biologists invited to prepare own experience with introductory zoology papers as background resources. There was laboratories and it is distressing to find this a consensus that current scientific develop- trend continuing into 1954 and beyond. ments and social trends should influence the content of biology courses, that course adjustments are needed to meet the prob- Source Book of Laboratory and Field lems of urbanization, and that the whole Studies in Biology biology course needed to be upgraded in In an attempt to provide more challeng- terms of intellectual content. ing laboratory opportunities a writing conference was held at Michigan State Uni- NAS I NRC Committee on Educational Policies versity during the summer of 1957. A The National Academy of Sciences writing team composed of ten biologists National Research Council (NAS/NRC) from colleges and universities worked with established, in 1954, a Committee on Edu- twenty high school biology teachers to pro- cational Policies which recognized a need duce what was called the The Source Book of for agreement among educators and sci- Laboratory and Field Studies in Biology. None entists as to what constituted biology in of the major eight outlined topics was con- courses at high school, college and grad- cerned primarily with form and function, uate levels. This committee also felt that a although both would play a part in the basic knowledge of biology should be the major areas of investigation which were part of everyone's education. Just as in the designed as follows: time of Mondino (p. 643), the committee 1. Organisms living in their particular expressed concern about the extensive environments are the primary subjects vocabulary found in biology courses and of biology. stated "One of the shortcomings of text- 2. The diversity of organisms. books and courses is often that the student 3. Some essential chemistry. may become so impressed with need for 4. The organism as a dynamic open sys- learning a new vocabulary as to lose sight tem: introduction to the basic organ- of larger objectives. Moreover, much con- ismic functions. fusion has arisen in use of terms and units 5. Maintenance of the individual. in biology simply because of the way biol- 6. Maintenance of the species. ogy has grown. . . . Authors and teachers, 7. The organism in its ecological setting. meanwhile, have a special problem and a 8. Evolution of organisms and their envi- special responsibility in regard to termi- ronments. nology." A Subcommittee on Instructional Mate- Physiology was stressed over morphology, rials and Publications of this NAS-NRC with students learning to report observa- committee concerned itself with the role tions, experimental findings and interpre- of the laboratory in introductory biology tations as an important phase of laboratory and stated ". . . even in some colleges, the and fieldwork. Further, laboratory and field pressures of mounting enrollments and studies were to be integrated with reading, 630 WILLIAM V. MAYER discussion, consultation with resource per- should be pervasive in any biology course. sons, and evaluative procedures so that they These themes, as valid today as when they were perceived as equivalent learning pro- were elucidated in 1960, are as follows: cedures rather than isolated confirmatory events. 1. Change of living things through time, evolution. Still, the plethora of studies and recommendations went largely unheeded, pri- 2. Diversity of type and unity of pattern marily because they acted as sheets of among living things. instructions on which others were sup- 3. Genetic continuity of life. posed to take action. It became quite 4. Complementarity of organism and apparent that continuing to produce rec- environment. ommendations and expecting others to 5. Biological roots of behavior. implement them would be the same chance 6. Complementarity of structure and proposition as having a baby and leaving function. it on someone else's doorstep to raise 7. Regulation and homeostasis, the according to the desires of the natural par- maintenance of life in the face of ents. change. 8. Growth and development in the indi- The Biological Sciences Curriculum Study vidual's life. A turning point came in 1955 when the 9. Science as inquiry. American Institute of Biological Sciences 10. Intellectual history of biological con- appointed an Education and Professional cepts. Recruitment Committee which was The BSCS themes reemphasized the charged not with making recommenda- importance of form and function but tions but with the development of a pro- related both to broader goals. Diversity of gram of biological education at all levels. type and unity of pattern focused both on This was to be a comprehensive curricu- commonality of structure and adaptations lum project involved with course content, of it in diverse organisms. The comple- laboratory manuals and teacher aids. It mentarity of structure and function related would produce films, film strips, charts and form and function as an operating unit and models. It would study in-service training avoided morphology for morphology's sake of teachers and the possible production of and physiology solely as the interpretation pamphlets, booklets and other publications of experimental results. Regulation and to serve to increase the effectiveness of bio- homeostasis and change of living things logical education. Oswald Tippo was chair- through time also imply a knowledge of man of the AIBS Education Committee and form and function both in terms of geo- a Steering Committee, composed of logic time and within organisms facing research biologists, high school biology environmental changes in today's world. A teachers, educators and school administra- biology course organized to deal with form tors, was appointed under the chairman- and function in terms of principles of unity ship of H. Bentley Glass, then of Johns and diversity offered an alternative to rou- Hopkins University, and Arnold B. Grob- tinized memorization of structure and con- man of the Florida State Museum who firmational experimental work in physiol- served as Director of the Biological Sci- ogy (Mayer, 1986). ences Curriculum Study (BSCS) which It was never envisioned that these themes began in 1958. would become headings for chapters that The emphasis on production of mate- would encapsulate an idea which then rials rather than a specific course of study would never again appear in the text. This was a departure from the previous efforts was the case with the infamous chapter on primarily aimed at making recommenda- "the" scientific method which opened so tions. Early on, the Biological Sciences many textbooks for so many decades. It Curriculum Study developed themes that gave the student an apparent recipe for THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 631 scientific infallibility which never again was appreciated that cut and dried, routine referred to in the text. The very concept memorization neither reflected the world of themes implied that these major ideas as they saw it nor was it likely to be respon- were to be interwoven throughout the text sible for productive change. and emphasized wherever applicable so that Why was the BSCS successful? Why, the student would meet them again and practically from its inception, did it enter again and, by their ubiquitous nature, the curricula of 50% of American schools become familiar with them as basic recur- directly and almost 100% indirectly as its ring principles of biology with applicability works influenced curriculum content? throughout the living world. Although Sputnik convinced many that The time was right for a change. Biology U.S. science was falling behind that of the courses were woefully out of date and, Soviet Union, the primary answer has to through neglect, had become routine exer- be that BSCS was a concerted activist effort. cises in mediocrity. This was widely rec- The first that attempted to change, on a ognized but no alternatives had been made nationwide basis, the curriculum of sec- available. Except for those exceptional ondary schools. It capitalized on the studies instructors who, on their own, strove to and reports that had gone before and its remedy defects as they saw them, the biol- aim was to produce materials that reflected ogy courses of the 1950s were scarcely dis- the current state of the discipline of biol- tinguishable from those of the 1930s ogy within a matrix of teachable pedagogy. except, that in some cases, a biochemical It combined distinguished scientists with terminology had been substituted for one outstanding biology teachers. The need was dealing with gross morphology. considered so great that the BSCS attracted The BSCS produced materials focused many members of the National Academy on the secondary school because this was of Sciences, a Nobel Prize winner, and out- the first time most students encountered standing research biologists representing a biology as a discrete discipline. It was inter- broad variety of fields who were willing to esting to observe the effect new materials work to improve the biology curriculum. at the secondary level had on the entire Further, because BSCS was a national effort educational continuum. It would be it received national publicity not only in expected that elementary schools would journals devoted to science such as Biosci- respond to changes at the secondary level ence and those devoted to education such but, for the first time, the river began to as The American Biology Teacher, but also in flow backwards. Traditionally, high school the public press as well, including Time textbooks were simply watered down col- magazine. legiate ones. A simpler vocabulary sufficed This well publicized effort involved sci- to turn an introductory college text into entists and teachers from all over the one usable in a high school. In the case of United States in a task that sorely needed the BSCS, however, the secondary school to be done (Mayer, 1978). Funding from texts were so revolutionary that writers of the National Science Foundation made such collegiate texts had to take cognizance of an effort possible and the success of this them (BSCS Newsletter #42, 1971). Thus, project in inducing classroom change is well college textbooks began to be written that documented (Shymansky, 1984). reflected the changes instituted at the secondary level. It took a few years for BSCS The Commission on Undergraduate trained high school students to reach col- Education in the Biological Sciences lege and, when they did, they expressed (CUEBS) dissatisfaction with courses that had been This was also a time of general educa- unchanged for decades. Student unrest in tional ferment in the sciences, with curric- the 1960s and 70s has been almost exclusively ascribed as being political in nature ulum projects engaged in preparing mate- but, in part, it was also academic as students rials for chemistry, physics, earth sciences, and a variety of other disciplines at levels 632 WILLIAM V. MAYER from elementary through high school (K- of a specific organism used to attack cur- 12). In addition, the need was felt for rent research problems. For example, the change in the collegiate introductory squid might be discussed in terms of use of course. After all, the collegiate course had its giant nerve fiber in neurophysiological profoundly influenced courses offered at research. A few participants felt that cov- the secondary level and criticisms of sec- ering certain biological principles such as ondary courses were implicating college transport in both plant and animal forms courses as well. The Commission on simultaneously was a great mistake. Instead, Undergraduate Education in the Biologi- they felt it essential that such processes, cal Sciences (CUEBS) was established to initially at least, be treated on the level of look into the collegiate program. How- the whole organism. All participants agreed ever, during its seven year existence that subject matter should be included that CUEBS neither developed a textbook nor would give the student an understanding postulated specific content and emphasis. of biology as an investigative science and Because of the nature of education at the that such subject matter should make stu- college and university level more general dents aware of the vast scope of biology. recommendations were made with outlines Further, all participants were aware of of typical courses given as models. the changes taking place in biology. Some Biology in a liberal education. The Com- viewed emphasis on molecular biology as mission on Undergraduate Education in the posing a threat to content concerned with Biological Sciences produced a number of morphology, taxonomy, phylogeny, and so publications dealing with specific aspects of forth. Others, however, welcomed the college biology teaching. Publication #15, newer material. This skewed opinion about for example, edited by Jeffrey J. W. Baker, content was expressed by one participant dealt with biology in a liberal education as follows: and reported on a colloquium held at Stan- ford University 2-13 August 1965. This I think that the poor teaching of classical report is of particular significance in rela- biology by molecular biologists is worse tion to the introductory collegiate biology than the poor teaching of molecular course primarily designed as a contribu- biology by classically oriented biologists. tion to the liberal arts. It is interesting to As regards the perennial question note that no agreement could be reached whether there should be one introductory on topics so fundamental that they should course offered to majors and non-majors appear in any introductory biology course. alike, the initial attitude toward non-majors However, analysis of course outlines sub- was that they should receive an apprecia- mitted at the colloquium noted that vir- tion of the scope of biology, its history and tually all contained units on anatomy and philosophy, its current problems and prob- physiology, the nature of science, metab- able future. It follows that such insights are olism, photosynthesis, genetics, develop- probably even more important to the biol- mental biology, evolution and ecology. ogy major. Although this was not a primary With one or two notable exceptions, few topic of discussion it was generally agreed professors attending the colloquium indi- that the non-science major should not be cated satisfaction with the coverage of the exposed to the course traditionally given major plant and animal phyla. One solu- to the major but, rather, that both majors tion suggested was to eliminate the phyletic and non-majors should receive a newly survey. Another was to de-emphasize ana- designed course that would impart an over- tomical and morphological detail and, view of the field and its vast potential for instead, emphasize the experimental intellectual growth and achievement in aspects of biology, applying specific ana- order to provide continuing appreciation tomical detail only where relevant. If mate- of the discipline for the non-major and the rials on plant and animal phyla were enrichment of participation on the part of deemed pertinent and were to be included, the major. each phylum might be discussed in terms Core curriculum for biology majors. In addi- THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 633

TABLE 1. Form and function topics in the core curriculum of four universities (Purdue, Stanford, Dartmouth, and North Carolina State).

Amylase and starch digestion Iodine test for starch The nerve impulse Membrane permeability Sliding filament theory of muscle contraction Composition of DNA Cilia and flagella Structure of proteins Cell organelles Structure of ribosomal RNA Erythrocytes Structure of starch, cellulose, glycogen, fats, phos- Structure of prokaryotes pholipids and steroids Bacterial cell wall DNA replication (Meselson and Stahl experiments) Structure and composition of a phage RNA and protein synthesis (Nirenberg experiments) Structure and composition of the nucleus Amino acid activation and binding to sRNA Plasma membrane (Robertson's Unit Structure) mRNA binding to ribosome Growth and structure of the cell wall sRNA-AA complex binding to site on mRNA by base Structure and function of the Golgi apparatus pairing Endoplasmic reticulum Activation energy and enzymes Mitochondria Chlorophylls a and b Cytoplasm Light reaction of photosynthesis (Van Niel's hypoth- Role of the electron microscope in the study esis, Hill reaction) of cell structure Electron excitation and splitting of the water molecule Use and care of the compound microscope Oxidative phosphorylation Cyclosis Structure and reproduction of slime molds Electron transport Chromosomal aberrations Krebs cycle Cytokinesis Energy yield and AT? balance in respiration Mitosis Products of energy metabolism Problems of synapses Glycolytic pathway of Embden-Meyerof Heterospory in Selaginella and Equisetum Glucose metabolism Chiasma formation during meiosis Energy coupling of ATP synthesis Cytological analysis of meiosis Respiration rates Egg differentiation in oogenesis Neuron structure Angiosperm gametogenesis Muscle ultrastructure (the sarcomere) Life cycle of Neurospora Leaf and stem structure Nuclear role in egg development Structure and physiology of Paramecium Factors influencing growth Seed and root structure Growth as synthesis of protoplasm Fern gametophyte structure Cell division as an aspect of growth Diatom structure (Pinnularia) Bacterial growth phases Volvox structure tion to considering biology within the lib- appreciably lengthened. However, this eral arts, CUEBS also investigated, in would be a poor way to pick course content publication #18, the content of a core because of the way items were listed in the curriculum in biology for majors (1967). study. For example, Purdue and Dart- The core curricula of four universities mouth were listed as the only two institu- (Purdue, Stanford, North Carolina State, tions providing a definition of life, but and Dartmouth) were closely investigated. North Carolina included characteristics of Subject matter was broken down into cat- living matter and systems and Stanford egories, topics, and subtopics. Table 1 lists presented attributes and characteristics of those topics which primarily related to form the living organism. Perhaps all three top- and function and which all four universi- ics are saying the same thing in different ties included in their core. ways so that a detailed analysis depending Table 1 excludes many items relative to only on specific combinations of words, may genetics and to plants, but of the total num- conceal that the same topic is being cov- ber of topics listed in publication #18 only ered but simply being reported differently. a small fraction were included by all four A major recommendation concerning institutions surveyed. If one picks, instead, the content of the curriculum was coverage topics which three of the four institutions of fundamental biological concepts includ- included in their core, the list becomes ing, at all levels of biological complexity, 634 WILLIAM V. MAYER

structure-function relationships, growth ticularly those for teaching the art of and development, the nature of hereditary investigation within an institutional envi- transmission, the molecular basis of ener- ronment whose usual practices are not sup- getics, synthesis and metabolic control, the portive of this educational goal. relationship of organisms to one another The context of collegiate biological education. and to their environment, the behavior of The final CUEBS report, #34 (Cox and populations in space and time, and evolu- Davis, 1972) constituted a comprehensive tion. These generalized recommendations view of the then studied undergraduate show a great deal of similarity to those made biological education which could be sub- in earlier studies pertaining to the second- sumed in one word "paternalism." CUEBS ary school, such as the BSCS themes. The concluded that the instructor still holds his difference, however, is that the core cur- position as the knowledge authority know- riculum was designed to cover two years of ing that what is being done is best for the training for majors while the introductory student while, at the same time, choking course would be for no more than a year off student opportunities for academic and could well be for majors and non- maturity, educational self direction, and majors alike. intellectual growth. This report, entitled Modules in college biology teaching. CUEBS The Context of Biological Education: The Case also investigated the use of modules in col- for Change, included many recommenda- lege biology teaching (Creager and Mur- tions and suggestions all based on pro- ray, 1971). Modules can be considered tools grams actually in existence in identified of instruction. They are self contained, college biology departments. While these independent units with primary focus on a recommendations would be anathema to few well defined objectives. Modules pro- those who regard recall as the highest form vide opportunities for organizing experi- of intellectual achievement and the collec- ences meeting the needs and interest of tion of unrelated facts a the goal of edu- teachers and/or students. The modular cation, their announced goals of under- approach provides a way of assessing stu- graduate biology education challenge the dent's learning progress, reduces routine voice of authority as being valued more aspects of instruction, allows for easy than independent judgment and question updating of study material, relatively easily whether there is always a single unambig- can be developed by teachers and can be uous right answer to a question. exchanged between institutions. Among the most well known of the modular The Transient Nature of approaches to biology is the minicourse Reform Efforts program developed at Purdue University One of the positive features of the BSCS, by Sam N. Postlethwait. in contrast to CUEBS, is that it has The laboratory. CUEBS publication #33 remained in existence since its inception in (Thornton, 1972) was entitled The Labo- 1958. All other similar programs dis- ratory: A Place to Investigate. This work deals banded with the altruistic hope that they with laboratories in introductory courses, had done their work, made their impact, advanced courses, field stations, and two and further effort on their part was no year community colleges. It delineates the longer needed. The fates of these pro- laboratory curricula at Marquette Univer- grams have proven otherwise, for only ves- sity and at MIT. In the investigative lab- tiges of their work remains. Curriculum oratory, activities parallel lectures and text revision at any level is not a one time pro- simultaneously to unearth content. Some cess but, rather, one that requires contin- laboratory programs have been completely uous presence and effort. There is no way uncoupled from introductory lecture that a series of widely spaced, unrelated courses while others are closely integrated efforts at curriculum revision can produce with the lecture course. CUEBS deliber- desired changes during the decades ately set out to identify alternatives to tra- between such revisions. The gearing up for ditional undergraduate programs, par- such individual efforts is a costly and time THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 635

TABLE 2. The fifteen most important science topics as ranked by secondary teachers of biology in a 1982 study by Finley et al.

Photosynthesis 9. Digestion in animals Mitosis/meiosis 10. Hormonal control of reproduction Cell theory 11. Chemistry needed for biology Cellular respiration 12. Complementarity of structure/function „. Animal circulatory systems 13. Leaf structure and function 6. Mendelian genetics 14. Food chains and webs 7. Chromosome theory of heredity 15. Respiratory systems in animals 8. Gene concept consuming process which is not necessary cell theory by Schleiden and Schwann. if there is a continuing entity designed to Three of the important inclusions con- monitor content and pedagogy, and to cerned genetics (6, 7, and 8) with 6 con- change objectives in keeping with new centrating on the work of Mendel and the knowledge in order to meet the needs of other two presenting information at least a given population at a given time. That decades old. DNA, per se, does not make only one of the NSF's sponsored curricu- the list unless somehow it's hidden within lum studies remains intact from the num- items 7 and 8. Only two items relative to ber begun in the late 50s and early 60s is, plants are considered of importance (1 and to some extent, a testament to futility. Just 13) and here 13 is a rather pedestrian inclu- as one battle does not win a war, so one sion undoubtedly listed as necessary to pro- curriculum effort does not ensure imple- vide a place for photosynthesis to occur. mentation and change in subsequent time Despite all of the publicity about pollution periods. The BSCS was initially eminently and preservation of the environment only successful and continues to make contri- item 14 concerning food chains and webs, butions to the improvement of biological can be considered ecological. education, but a revival of the effort at the Form and function, however, constitute collegiate level begun by CUEBS would be at least a third of the items considered of a welcome contribution to the improve- importance. One deals with a generalized ment of introductory collegiate biology. topic of complementarity (12) and four are directly related to specific study of structure and function of systems (5, 9, 10, and Importance vs. difficulty 15). This gives evidence of the background Studies relative to biological education of teachers and their concern with the clas- still continue. Many are concerned with the sical. The coverage of structure and func- same issues on which this paper has already tion of specific organ systems indicates no reported. Those concerned with biological new synthesis of materials or its presenta- content are ones of import to this presen- tion around organizing principles. Circu- tation. In 1982, Finley, Stuart and Yarroch lation and respiration are not combined as polled 100 secondary teachers of biology, part of an overall transport system nor are chemistry, physics and earth science. They digestion and respiration presented in were asked to rate the 15 most important terms of energy. Hormonal control is dis- science topics and 15 topics most difficult cussed primarily in terms of reproduction, to teach. For biology, the 15 important but not as an overall part of a coordinating topics ranked as shown in Table 2. mechanism involving the nervous system. While the poll did not elicit answers in Information listed as of importance is still a way that could be easily quantified, three of the scrappy and uncoordinated nature of the top items of importance related to criticized by the Committee of Ten in 1893. the cell (2, 3, and 4) and of these mitosis/ Even a casual perusal of this list elicits con- meiosis and cell theory are classical inclu- cern about the items not regarded as sions traceable to the development of the important and gives an impression that a 636 WILLIAM V. MAYER

TABLE 3. The ranking of fifteen topics secondary teachers thought most difficult as shown in the 1982 study by Finley et al.

1. Cellular respiration 9. Chromosome theory of heredity 2. Protein synthesis 10. Probability in genetics 3. Mitosis/meiosis 11. Mendelian genetics 4. Chemistry necessary for biology 12. Taxonomy and classification 5. Enzyme structure and function 13. Dihybrid crosses 6. Photosynthesis 14. Homeostatic systems 7. Hormonal control of reproduction 15. Population genetics 8. Multiple alleles student of the 1930s would be very com- as being difficult to present. Hormonal fortable 50 years later in one of these class- control of reproduction is the only item rooms whose work apparently still parallels construed as physiological which appears the course outlines of half a century ago. on both lists. Apparently, then, teachers The 15 topics teachers thought most dif- find form and function topics important ficult are ranked in Table 3. It is interest- but not difficult. ing to compare what teachers thought was It must be remembered that difficulty important with what they thought was dif- also can be equated with degree of non- ficult and there seems to be a correlation familiarity. This was adequately dem- between difficulty and importance, almost onstrated by the molecular biological as if the interpretation were "if it's hard it approach introduced into secondary must be important." Almost half of the schools by the BSCS in 1960. Almost uni- items considered important were also formly teachers decried the interpolation considered difficult to present. Cellular of molecular biology because of its diffi- respiration, mitosis/meiosis, chemistry culty—difficult because they had no back- necessary for biology, photosynthesis, hor- ground or training in molecular biology. monal control of reproduction, the chro- While all things are supposedly new to the mosome theory of heredity, and Mende- student, what is new to the teacher becomes lian genetics appear on both lists. a learning experience that poses difficulty. Five items concerning physiology are However, because many of the topics listed considered difficult to present (1, 2, 5, 7, above as difficult are practically standards and 14). Six items concerned with genetics in the biological repertoire—dihybrid present difficulties (8, 9, 10, 11, 13, and crosses, taxonomy and classification, for 15). Only one item relative to plants (pho- example—these cannot be difficult because tosynthesis) seems both difficult and impor- the teacher is unfamiliar with them. From tant. Taxonomy and classification are pre- a perusal of the list it appears that modern sented as difficult when perhaps what is biological concepts (post-DNA) may not be really meant is they are dull or uninterest- part of the curriculum at all and therefore ing to students who have no motivation for escape categorization as either important their study. Difficult subjects are usually or difficult. considered to be dull or boring or unin- teresting either because they are not pre- Recent recommendations sented properly or because they are perceived as leading nowhere. The difficulty, Berkheimer et al. (1984) delineate four in short, may not be so much with the topic science objectives for the non-specialist as itself, but the way in which it is presented. follows: The implied criticism may not be so much 1. Overcoming the fear of science. due to the subject matter but the pedagogy 2. Developing capacity for critical think- used to present it. It is interesting that none ing. of the structure-function topics listed as 3. Finding and using reliable sources of important (4, 5, 8, 9, 12, and 15) are listed scientific data. THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 637

4. Gaining scientific and technical knowl- healthy body and an appreciation of the edge for professions and civic respon- great extent to which people are a part of, sibilities in an increasingly technologi- and dependent upon the natural environ- cal society. ment around them. Further, as in studies cited previously, the report notes: In different words, such recommendations have been made before and there is no It is important that non-biologists should indication that these will be accepted and be led to appreciate the methodology of implemented any more than have those science, its scope and limitations, and to previously made. Koballa, undated, pre- appreciate that science has a methodol- sents an analysis that reveals that emphasis ogy, which combines rational processes on discrete knowledge is characteristic of with intuition and ethical values in a all the programs investigated, indicating unique way. Science is a mainly logical little or no improvement in a situation process supported by repeatable, exper- deplored for almost a century. imental evidence, developed by rigid training and practice. Fortunately, there are attempts to modify traditional approaches to biology. Scientific methodology is envisioned as Flashpohler and Swords (1985) have devel- having applications beyond the realm of oped an introductory collegiate course that science. The report states "The method- deals with issues in social biology such as ology of science can and should be applied human reproduction, genetics, trans- to social administration, business, and other plants, immunology, hormones and drug public activities which require reasoned effects. Practicality and applicability char- decision making, taking into account all acterize this type of presentation. Moll and relevant constraints, but recognizing that Allen (1982) at West Virginia University in public affairs moral and aesthetic con- have organized a course around develop- siderations have to play an important role." ing critical thinking skills. Their introduc- This publication illustrates the apprecia- tory program emphasizes the application tion of global deficiencies in our approach of knowledge, the making of predictions to biological science and its applicability, and the drawing of conclusions. particularly in terms of the education of Concern for undergraduate collegiate those who are not destined to be scientists. biology courses is not confined to the Many modern investigations are empha- United States. The International Union of sizing cognitive research findings and Biological Sciences Commission for Bio- attempting to incorporate them into logical Education reflects global concerns instruction. For example, Linn (1986) in its A Strategy for Biology Courses for Under- emphasizes need for increase in quantity graduate Non-Biology Majors (1987). Using of science instruction and on deeper cov- a curriculum hypothesis that does not start erage of topics that then result in better from scientific subjects but, rather, from learning. Mestre (1987) deplores the lack life situations in which a student is likely of use of cognitive research data. He feels to become involved, the question is posed that, among the major obstacles to the as to what kind of knowledge a citizen needs changes that cognitive research can direct, in order to master the most important sit- are changes in textbook design affecting uations in life. It is maintained that these classroom performance by deemphasizing situations require a great variety of biolog- coverage and rote learning, and changes ical topics for their comprehension. The in tests to reduce measurement of factual major objective of this approach is "to and quantitative material, and to provide motivate non-biologists to appreciate the increasing opportunities for exercise of importance and usefulness of an under- cognitive ability. standing of biological sciences in their lives The applications of cognitive research and their roles in society." are recent additions to our concerns about Subsumed under this major objective is instructional improvement. As a relatively a comprehension of the functioning of a young addition, whose data and approaches 638 WILLIAM V. MAYER are still being debated, it shows promise. be learned but what needs to be unlearned. However, what data we have on cognition Objectives and content of our introductory are as unlikely to find immediate use in an course must take cognizance of the fact introductory biology program as have other that students come to classes with folk wis- recommendations. Without concerted dom and a variety of misunderstandings effort, and in the absence of motivation for garnered from folklore which may be rein- change, the introductory course is likely to forced by various media presentations. proceed in slow Darwinian steps rather than Sometimes the misrepresentations are to experience a saltational jump or one dic- made by groups with which the student tated by rapid movement in a period of may have had contact and whose presen- punctuation of equilibrium. tations they had uncritically internalized Once again, some colleges are engaged without recognizing them as special inter- in the exploration of innovative introduc- est pleadings designed to further a partic- tory biology programs. One example is ular dogma by thinly disguising it as having afforded by Stanford University. Sup- scientific merit. In many cases, the misla- ported by the Ford Foundation, Stanford, beled educational baggage a student brings in 1969, initiated its Department of Human to a course is ignored, creating conflicts as Biology and developed a highly popular a student is faced with new information at course in human biology at the introduc- variance with that already possessed, with- tory level. The course brings together out any mechanisms offered for the eval- studies on the human, previously scattered uation of what might, in the student's mind, throughout numbers of university depart- be polar positions. ments, into one focused on the biology of Kitcher (1984) takes cognizance of the humans broadly interpreted as involving knowledge a student may bring to the class- the social sciences, psychology, and other room as follows: "Our beliefs are a product pertinent disciplines. of processes in which our early training, References to studies and recommen- encounters with the world, and construc- dations regarding introductory biology: tive thinking all have parts to play. We Armacost and Klinge (*1956), Baker observe the lore of our community and (*1967), Beauchamp (1932), Berkheimer count ourselves justified as we modify the et al. (*1984), Bessey (1896), Bigelow things we are taught in the light of our (*1906), BSCS (1971), Breukelman and experience." It is these beliefs that are fre- Armacost (*1955), Caldwell (1920), quently challenged when students are CUEBS (*1967), Cox and Davis (*1972), exposed to knowledge of which they had Creager and Murray (1971), Dewey (1916), been previously ignorant. Unfortunately, Dexter (1906), Downing (1931), Finley et many times the student's preconceptions al. (1982), Fisher et al. (*1986), Flashpoh- are derided and dismissed without new ler and Swords (1985), Galloway (*1910), information sufficiently convincingly pre- Grobman (*1969), Hall (*1898), Havi- sented to take its place. This creates a ghurst et al. (1943), Hurd (*1961, 1978), quandary for the student as cherished IUBS/CBE (*1987), Koballa (undated), beliefs are cast aside but not effectively Linn (1986), Linville (* 1910), Maienschein replaced or modified by the data that chal- (*1986), Mayer (1978, *1986), Mestre lenge the preconception. In many cases the (•1987), Moll and Allen (1982), NEA student is cut loose from a comforting, if (•1893), Peabody (1915), Powers (*1932), inaccurate, view of the world without being Riddle (1906), Shymansky (1984). provided an adequate anchor for new con- ceptions that ultimately could prove even OBJECTIVES AND CONTENT OF AN more personally satisfying. INTRODUCTORY BIOLOGY COURSE The importance of unlearning Student misconceptions One of the first problems in dealing with Some student misconceptions result not any discipline involves not what needs to from prior knowledge, or lack thereof, but THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 639 from misunderstanding the presentation The nature of science of new material. In some cases it is safe to say that a student may acquire more mis- The sine qua non of the collegiate intro- information than information from an ductory biology course is to communicate introductory course. Fisher et al. (1986) the nature of science. The initial organi- dealt with problems of misconceptions of zation of a liberal arts college, or a college college students. Misunderstandings about of letters, arts and sciences, was episte- evolution frequently result from erro- mological. The objective was to acquaint neous prior knowledge as do misunder- students with the ways in which humans standings of the role played by heredity know about their world and the different and environment. For example, some stu- systems for obtaining data concerning it. dents when polled felt that heredity Students were to become acquainted with how such diverse disciplines as history, accounted for some 50 to 80% of physical social sciences, arts and the natural sci- characteristics but, when questioned about ences viewed the world. Unfortunately, the mental characteristics, only 0 to 15% felt liberal arts college strayed from this initial that these were determined by heredity. perspective of explicating ways of know- Sometimes the bugbear of vocabulary ing. Instead, it became enmeshed in detail transmits an unintended message. The and minutia in all of its divisions in much term "dominant" in relation to genes was the same way as the Laocoon group became interpreted by students as that the domi- enmeshed with serpents. Almost no liberal nant gene "turns off" the recessive which, arts college retains its focus on how knowl- in the student mind, was equated with its edge is organized, how various disciplines being submissive. The dominant genes collect their data, and how comparisons were also felt by students to increase in a between different systems of knowledge are population, indicating that the Hardy- made. Instead, college divisions and Weinberg principle had not been inter- departments have become more compart- nalized. mentalized and involved with internal soul Students were found also to have prob- searching that results in concentrating on lems with terms such as "chromosome" the data but not the discipline. It is under- which they applied to decondensed eukary- standable, therefore, why college gradu- otic chromatin, to prokaryotic genomes, ates cannot distinguish between data of the and to linkage maps. In the metaphase of social sciences and data derived from the mitosis the replicated and condensed chro- natural sciences. Nor can an average col- mosome was still referred to as being a lege graduate assign degrees of validity and "pair" of chromosomes. When questioned credibility to data derived through certain about DNA, students responded that DNA systems. It is no small wonder, then, that was made up of amino acids, or that amino local school boards, state boards of edu- acids were products of translocation. cation and state legislators show no ability Somehow the student, by being exposed to to distinguish between theological data, as DNA, amino acids and translocation, derived from biblical revelation, and sci- understood these terms to be related but entific data derived from observation and did not know how. experiment. Their inability to distinguish between different ways of knowing leads Such misunderstandings go unnoticed them, logically in their minds, to a struc- primarily because they are not sought. turally illogical conclusion that biblical rev- Objective examinations fail to reveal them elation has a place in the science classroom as the reasons why a student has missed a to "balance" the presentation of evolution. question. Instructors may perceive that This becomes particularly appealing as anti- their presentations have been internalized evolutionists have developed the pseudo- by the student without ever recognizing science of creationism whose basis is the that such reception may be faulty and the Genesis account of creation in the King message garbled to the point of unintelli- James version of the Bible. Anti-evolution- gibility. 640 WILLIAM V. MAYER

ists have dignified this biblical story by to which it cannot contribute, does stu- referring to it as "creation science" readily dents of the liberal arts no service. perceived as an oxymoron by those famil- We seem to be in an age of anti-intellec- iar with the data that support evolution tualism, and the National Science Foun- and the absolute lack of scientific data to dation has categorized us as a nation of support "creation science" (Kitcher, 1982). scientific illiterates. It would be too much This confusion is no trivial matter. In to expect that changes in the presentation states as diverse as California, Arkansas, of biology in an introductory course would Tennessee and Louisiana major court cases turn this situation around. An impact can have been initiated demanding the inclu- be made, however, on the population seg- sion of "creation science" in public school ment addressed if effort is made to orient classrooms wherever and whenever evo- the course to explicate the nature of sci- lution is discussed. In every court, at every ence and emphasize rational approaches to level, the anti-evolutionists have been problem solving. Many students have rebuffed and their position recognized by inherited from their cultures "anti" biases. the courts as a religious one fostered by It is rare to find that someone actively anti- hyperorthodox Christian fundamentalists. intellectual is enrolled in college, but anti- The latest of these cases was decided by scientism is relatively easy to find. The pop- the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 which ular image of a mad scientist creating ruled against Louisiana's "equal time" law. monsters has been replaced by the mad This decision, however, will not serve to scientist unleashing viruses or mutants upon terminate the efforts of the anti-evolution- an unsuspecting population. The fettering ists who prosper from preying on the sci- of scientific investigation by ignorance entifically naive or illiterate. This scientif- becomes more and more common. Nega- ically naive population is not an ignorant tive community reactions to genetically one and, while it contains relatively few engineered organisms is but one example. reputable biologists, it has attracted engi- Those who deprecate animal experimen- neers, educators and college graduates tation and march under the outmoded from non-science disciplines. banner of antivivisectionism have their own stereotype of science, but I know of no The fact that a purportedly educated scientist who has sadistic impulses toward population exists incapable of distinguish- animals that are played out in a research ing science from other ways of knowing laboratory. "Creation science" becomes the and able to confuse science and religion banner under which many anti-evolution- indicates that colleges and universities do ists march and rising interest in the occult a very poor job of delineating ways of is fostered by its presentation with a sci- knowing, defining science, clarifying its entific patina. boundaries and assigning credibility to its data. Any science course that does not do References to the nature of science: these things is failing to achieve the objec- Achinstein (*1968), Ayala and Dobzhan- tive for which science was made an under- sky (*1974), Blake et al. (*1960), Braith- graduate requirement in the first place. As waite (1953), Brody (1970), Gallie (* 1957), a humbling exercise, include a question on Harre (*1970), Kockelmans (1968), Kuhn the biology final examination asking the (*1970), Madden (*1960), Nash (1963), students to define science. Reading the Northrop (1947), Poincare (*1952), Stauf- answers, unless one is satisfied with a fer (* 1949), Suppe (1977), Suppes (* 1969), canned, meaningless definition such as Toulmin (*1953), Wiener (*1953), "Science is a body of organized knowl- Woodger (1937). edge," will give an insight as to whether the year has clarified in the student's mind Science and pseudoscience science as a way of knowing. Any course Confusion exists in the student mind not that does not give students an understand- only between science and religion—sup- ing of science as a discipline, including those posedly easily definable realms—but also things science can explicate well and those in relation to systems masquerading as sci- THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 641 ence. So many attempts are made to give whatever condition one seems to have. a degree of respectability to nonsense by Television ads hawk nostrums of all kinds. claiming a scientific base for it that it is no Magazines contain advertisements designed wonder students cannot clearly identify a to promote medication and mechanisms for scientific statement from a non-scientific weight loss, body building, retarding aging, one. An introductory course must clarify building breasts and enhancing romance. this distinction between science and pseu- Patrons of supermarkets are assailed by doscience. checkout counter magazines and newspa- Even college bookstores do not seem to pers, each outdoing the other in pushing be able to distinguish between science and unsubstantiated claims designed to provide pseudoscience. On the science shelves can easy solutions to complex problems. Quack be found such works as those by Velikovsky nostrums are touted as a panacea for every- and Tompkins and Bird, whose Secret Life thing from cancer to AIDS and charlatans of Plants indicated that conversation raises become rich because of gullibility enhanced plant spirits. On many shelves Von Danikin by desperation to try anything that prom- stands side by side with Sagan. What are ises relief. our introductory science courses doing to Markets and specialty stores offer expen- distinguish science from pseudoscience? sive foods and potions whose major con- How can a student evaluate the science in tribution to the unwary seems to be hope. a popular work such as The Double Helix Expensive and excessive vitamin prepara- and contrast it to the sheer speculation tions, foods high in calcium, low in sodium, present in The Chariot of the Gods} Science high in iron, or low in cholesterol dot the is not only a way of knowing but it is a way shelves. These are welcome, indeed, to of evaluating. The analytical and evalua- persons with such conditions as high blood tive capacities of students are seldom called pressure or osteoporosis on good medical upon in an average introductory program grounds. However, quack "nutritionists" in which cognizance should be taken not or "dietitians" take advantage of real find- only of what students do not know, but ings to improve their own fiscal well being. what they know in error. If all students Organic foods and dietary items are a were blank slates on which one could write favorite of charlatans as are vegetables and for the first time, education would be an fruit grown "organically" that supposedly easier endeavor. But seldom is attention will bring roses back to sallow cheeks. paid to the fact that education is not simply a matter of being exposed to something And what has this to do with the content new, but being exposed to something dif- of an introductory biology course and what ferent and many times contradictory to part does form and function play in rela- randomly accreted knowledge accumu- tion to what many would feel is consumer lated as a part of a student's cultural back- science and not real biology? The point is ground. simply this, the large number of gullible and naive individuals influenced by advertisements for items touted as the results of Health and nutrition scientific breakthroughs are themselves Among the varieties of folk wisdom products of ineffectual backgrounds in sci- brought to class by entering college stu- ence. Do students understand the term dents perhaps none is more common or "organic" in relation to nutritional insidious than folk prophecies concerning requirements of plants and do they have health and nutrition. Some of this infor- any comprehension that plants are unable mation is handed down through a family to distinguish sources of nitrogen, for oral tradition. It has tended to take on a example? To the plant, nitrogen is nitro- pseudoscientific patina, moving away gen, whether it comes from DOW Chem- from the sulfur, molasses and mustard plas- ical or horse manure. How does the way a ters of grandmothers to over-the-counter scientist use the term "organic" differ from pills and syrups coupled with exercise and the way in which the term is used by self behavior regimens designed to ameliorate styled nutritionists? What are the nutri- 642 WILLIAM V. MAYER tional consequences of an exclusively veg- may miss the main point that DNA bears etable diet or a macrobiotic one? How can the instructions for what an organism will all the varied nutritional patterns available look like and how it will function and, thus, in diet books be valid when they contradict constitutes a blue print for form and func- one another? What are the essentials of tion with the blue print, itself, conforming good nutrition and what are the conse- to a specific structural pattern that follows quences of following fads and fancies? Do functional principles. students in a biology course understand Form and function can be dealt with at enough about the functioning of the body a number of other levels as well. Recog- to ensure an intake of basic requirements nition of form, for example, seems almost and a rejection of advertising foolishness? an innate property of the natural world. At the very least, our presentations of form Chemical elements have form recognition and function should indicate performance of sorts as they bond with one another. limits and the inability of metabolism to Complex compounds, likewise, exhibit a profit by many of the recommendations form recognition as the structure of made in popular literature. enzymes fits specific portions of complex References to health and nutrition: molecules. Guanine fits cytosine, ade- Brown and Goldstein (1984), Eaton and nine—thiamine on the basis of form. In Konner (*1985), Goodhart and Shils the world of organisms, predators recog- (*1980), Kolata (1986), Monmaney (1986), nize prey by sight and some, such as bats, Rechcigl (*1977), Tver and Russell can even recognize their prey by echolo- (*1981). cation. Mimicry in certain organisms emu- lates the form of other species less likely Form and function to be preyed upon. Form, then, is a per- While the prime purpose of an intro- vasive element within our universe, exist- ductory science course at the collegiate level ing from the atomic to the organismal level is to impart an understanding of science, and pervading both organic and inorganic including both its strengths and weak- realms. nesses, the role of form and function in Both form and function display two very such a course may be less obvious. From contradictory principles. Systematic ar- the latter half of the 19th century to the rangement of organisms implies a unity of present we have accumulated a century of pattern among living things while, at the opinions on the role to be played by form same time, depending on diversity of type. and function. From its initial primacy, Aristotle (Moore, p. 489), for example, was occupying the majority of time and effort able to separate crustaceans from other within the introductory course, the empha- arthropods but, nonetheless, recognized sis on form and function has waxed and similarities between both groups. He was waned but it still occupies a position of also able to do so when separating cepha- importance in almost every introductory lopods from other mollusks while still rec- course. It would be inconceivable to ognizing similarities just as he did when he attempt to explain the living world without separated cetaceans from the other mam- reference to form and function which are mals while still recognizing them as mam- ubiquitous from the inorganic world mals. He recognized unity of pattern when through the organic and within the latter he noted that oviparity united fishes, from monerans through the most complex amphibians, reptiles and birds but he also of animals at the organ/system level. separated fishes from the other groups by One can deal with form and function at diversity of type noting that they had what the molecular level. In terms of informa- he called "imperfect" eggs. A unity of pat- tion transfer, one can speculate whether a tern was recognized when Aristotle com- cell is simply DNA's way of creating more bined both oviparous and viviparous ani- DNA in the same way that there used to mals because they had red blood. As more be speculation as to whether a hen is simply became known about structure and func- an egg's way of creating another egg. Such tion, principles of diversity of type and unity speculations constitute attractive asides but of pattern were reinforced. THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 643

Knowledge of form and function is Vocabulary essential to our understanding of the living world. However, too few organizing prin- Objectives to the contrary, however, the ciples incorporate form and function into fact remains that form and function, par- the average introductory course. Diversity ticularly morphology, are detail and vocab- of type and unity of pattern is just one ulary laden. After almost a century of rec- principle that can be used to synthesize what ommendations to the contrary, vocabulary is too frequently presented as a mass of still dominates the content of many courses. unrelated and disorganized data. Vocab- The number of italicized or bold face type ulary, a stumbling block for students of words on a typical textbook page bears this form, continues to be a pervasive element out. In just one 17 line paragraph dealing in teaching biology. The selection of with skeletal muscle a popular and widely organizing principles, however, is in part used collegiate text confronts the begin- conditioned byjust what it is that the intro- ning student with a dozen words in bold ductory course is designed to accomplish. face type. Guess which of the following Knowing this, content and areas of empha- twelve will be on the next examination? sis then can be chosen to further the goals Antagonistic pairs, flexor, triceps, exten- of the course. The content of an introduc- sor, adductors, abductors, levators, depres- tory course is ultimately always a compro- sors, pronators, supinators, sphincters, mise. With an almost infinite amount of dilators. Another seven line paragraph information to be covered in a finite considers the following five significant amount of time, a course outline can only enough to appear in bold face: epineph- be a selection of what is considered most rine, norepinephrine, tyrosine, chromaffin important at a given point. To the ancients cells, and neurotransmitter. (Moore, p. 500) the four humors were basic Vocabulary has been a stumbling block to the understanding of the living world in the study of form since the 14th century but today they are of only historical inter- when Mondino de 'Luzzi taught at Bologna. est. Mondino dissected both animals and human bodies primarily to verify the Latin What should be included in an intro- anatomical works that had been translated ductory course today? What are the big from the Arabic. In doing so, Mondino ideas of biology? What are those facets of came across a problem that continues to the discipline of greatest applicability to bedevil teachers and students of anatomy. the lives of all citizens? What concepts are The many terms for organs, structures or likely to be retained and prove useful? What processes made Mondino's students as subject matter is most likely to develop an unhappy as they make students today. understanding of and a sympathy for the Despite the fact that the terminology saves biological sciences? What is the role of form time and space, the proliferation of words, and function within the chosen objectives? words, words frequently focuses attention The answers to these questions form a on the name rather than the object and matrix within which overall objectives of saddles students with the burden of mem- education are subsumed. Never have I orizing a vast vocabulary of form and func- heard it expressed that the objective of tion without the necessity of understand- education is to cram a student with the ing either. As Mondino was reintroducing greatest number of isolated factual details the study of the form and function of the body to the Western world he needed new that can be transmitted in a given period words and these he took mostly from Ara- of time. Instead, the objectives most likely bic and Hebrew, transmuting the names correspond to high blown platitudes such into Latin forms. Thus, the students of as teaching the skills of analysis, synthesis form and function in the 13th and 14th and evaluation, developing a critical think- centuries faced vocabulary as a demanding ing capacity, demonstrating to students how ritual of memory, as is still sadly the case to learn on their own, and inculcating a in many anatomy and physiology courses sense of the value of knowledge, both today. abstract and applied. 644 WILLIAM V. MAYER

Mondino's terminology, however, was If this trend continues we may some day much more complicated than that of today, see a return to the type of warfare waged suffering not only from involved construc- in the past on behalf of Latin and Greek tion, but debased Latin combined with against Arabic anatomical terms during the confusing nomenclature which makes his 16th century. Then words became symbols book extremely hard to read. For many of two cultures, the Arabist and the parts he has several names. The sacrum, Humanist. As the Humanists were gaining for example, is variously called alchatim, the upper hand, new experimental anat- allannis, and alhavius. Conversely, the same omy was being developed and the expo- name is often used for several parts. Anchae, nents of this new science exhibited the same for example, could mean the hips or the virulence against the Humanists as the pelvic skeleton or the acetabulum or even Humanists had shown against the Arabists. the corpora quadrigemina. Although the furor over anatomical ter- Many of the Arabic terms employed by minology can well be regarded as a tempest Mondino were in common usage until the in a teapot, there are those who regard it revival of the Greek language in the 15th as a sine qua non of anatomy. Historically, and 16th centuries. Mondino's now obso- however, without the Arabists Western sci- lete terms included such as mirach for the ence would not have been preserved anterior abdominal wall, siphac for the throughout the Dark Ages. Without the anterior layer of peritoneum, and zirbus for Humanists, 16th century anatomists would the great omentum. In his works Mondino have had to start from ground zero, or at also included terms of classical origin that least a much lower level than that at which had been in use through the Dark and early they were able to begin. Middle Ages, such as longaon for rectum. Anatomical vocabulary still has not been For many of these classical words Mondino fully purged of Arabic terms. Numbers of supplied false etymologies. He attributes them still exist but so Latinized or Grae- colon, for example, to the medieval Latin cized as to be hardly recognizable. Singer word cola (cellule) when, in fact, it was a (1957) considered this a case of protective Greek word meaning primarily an organ, mimicry in the world of words. Basilica, although both Aristotle and Pliny used it cephalica, retina, saphena and sesamoid (the in its present meaning. open sesame of the Ali Baba story) are such Fortunately, today we are spared the bat- Arabic words still extant in our anatomical tle of vocabularies and our anatomical syn- vocabulary. To the Arabs we must also onyms are mercifully few. Specific names credit clavicle, true and false ribs, iris, pia for specific structures or parts of structures mater, dura mater, matrix and mesentery. have become codified and simplified and Tracing the words employed in the study have practically universal comprehension of form can be an illuminating experience among students of form, except in those showing relationships of Greek, Latin, and countries where nationalism has so affected Arabic vocabularies that have formed the their language that special words are coined body of today's anatomical nomenclature. with no prior meaning within the country Single, specific words now exist for single of use and no applicability beyond its bor- specific structures. The beginning student ders. The creation of scientific terms in may perceive this nomenclature as nothing Hindi and in Tagalog, a major source of more than a plethora of detail. But it is the manufactured language of the Philip- simplicity itself when compared to the pines, are examples of this trend. In France murky, indefinite applications of vocabu- a Secretary of State for Francophone affairs lary from a variety of" sources applied in a and a General Association for the Users of quixotic fashion that characterized early the French Language are concerned with morphology. Several names for a single the linguistic purity of the French lan- structure or worse, a single name for sev- guage. In the fields of science, commerce, eral structures are no longer the problems and high technology new French words are they were. The present-day problem is not created to replace terms that are not French precision of nomenclature but, rather, the in derivation. plethora of detailed terminology whose THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 645 memorization occasionally passes for com- should know. In terms of the skeletal sys- prehension of anatomical concepts. tem, for example, the names of the major It has been estimated that toward the bones of the body would seem appropriate end of the 19th century about 50,000 ana- as it makes a difference whether one is talk- tomical names were in use for some 5,000 ing about a fractured humerus or a frac- structures in the human body. Such a tured femur, but it would be difficult to vocabulary load retarded the study of anat- rationalize, in dealing with the femur, that omy. But, by 1895, a list of about 4,500 a student should also be familiar with such terms was accepted at the Basle Confer- terms as greater trochanter, lesser tro- ence. This system of nomenclature is known chanter and intertrochanteric crest. Simi- as the Basle Nomina Anatomica, usually larly, location and function of major mus- abbreviated B.N.A. and is in Latin. Sub- cle groups might provide both valuable and sequent revisions have occurred, with that useful knowledge to understand how the undertaken in Britain as the Birmingham body moves in terms of extensors and flex- Revision or B.R. in 1933 being the best ors, adductors and abductors. But, here source of translations of Latin terms into again, mindless learning of origin, inser- English. In Paris, in 1955, international tion and action of each muscle in the human agreement was reached on a Latin system body is such a pedantic exercise that even of nomenclature based largely on the those whose field is myology are sometimes B.N.A. This Nomina Anatomica, was sub- caught referring to reference works to sequently amended in New York in 1960 refresh their own memories prior to the and translated into English. The principles day's lecture on muscles. involved in the new N.A. are (1) that, with Centuries have been devoted to descrip- very few exceptions, each structure shall tive morphology, from the time of Neo- be designated by one term only, (2) that lithic observations of gross external and every term in the official list shall be in internal anatomy. Closer and closer obser- Latin with the option that each country is vation with magnifying lens and micro- at liberty to translate the official Latin terms scope revealed more structural detail from into its own vernacular for teaching pur- organs to tissues to cells and intracellular poses (an option that has resulted in prob- content. Each new discovery was worthy of lems of intercountry communication), (3) being named. It is understandable in terms that the terms shall be primarily memory of discoveries of structure that the names, signs with preferably some informative or themselves, should become an end rather descriptive value and (4) that eponyms shall than simply a means of communicating not be used. This latter principle removes information. the use of personal names for structures. They are used quite haphazardly and give Only in the last few decades has there no clue as to the type of structure involved. been a noticeable deemphasis on vocabu- In addition, they are frequently misleading lary and more emphasis on concept and historically because, in many instances, the principle. We have come full circle to ask- person commemorated was, by no means, ing larger, rather than smaller, caliber the first to describe the structure. For questions as Moore (p. 493) has noted was example, what was called Wirsung's duct something Aristotle did—seek answers to was referred to by Mondino some 300 years big questions. before Wirsung. If there were persistence For those of us who have had to go in the use of eponyms, red blood corpuscles through life with a head cluttered with use- would be called Swammerdam cells; the less terminology, one wishes this vocabu- collecting tubules of the kidney—Bellini lary deemphasis had started earlier. As a tubules, mast cells—Ehrlich cells, and so professional biologist for more than 40 on. years I've never had one occasion in my entire career to use such a term as "adam- The question may well be asked con- bulacral ossicles" (the bumps on the upper cerning the amount of vocabulary that the surface of starfish) in any substantive way, average student not destined for medical although it may have currency among those school or for further study of structure who study echinoderms. Similarly, the only 646 WILLIAM V. MAYER use I've ever had for protopodite, endopo- basic elements that should be common to dite, and exopodite has been to show off all. The following pages present types of at a lobster dinner at a seafood restaurant. coverage that emphasize basic ideas and Somehow, Huxley's serial homology and serve to tie seemingly unrelated data into the differentiation of a simple biramous a meaningful whole. By no means are these appendage became lost in a welter of detail to be taken as a course outline. They are that sometimes included, not only the to serve merely as examples of how form names of the three basic parts of the appen- and function topics can be made more dage, but the names applied to each jointed meaningful to an introductory student by segment of each appendage. grouping data into related clusters under Unfortunately, this is not an extreme or a unifying concept. unusual example, and it accurately exemplifies the loss of the forest among the trees. Prokaryotes I eukaryotes Mercifully, physiology has been spared The primary organismic dichotomy, much of the climate of minutia so common prokaryotes vs. eukaryotes (Fig. 1), is based to morphology due, in part, to its being a on observation of structure and function. more experimental discipline in contrast to Both in structure and in biochemistry the observational nature which, initially at eukaryotes and prokaryotes differ by far least, characterized morphology. In phys- more than the presence or absence of a iology an experimental result is the desid- membrane bounded nucleus. Table 4, from eratum, in contrast to locating and nam- Margulis and Schwartz (1982), presents the ing a particular line, eminence, duct or structural and functional features of this pore. Descriptive morphology relied on division which has been characterized by names, experimental physiology on results. Stanier et al. (1963) as "this basic diver- As Moore (p. 567) has pointed out, form gence in cellular structure which separates and function developed as contemporaries. the bacteria and the blue green algae from Once an organ was identified, questioning all other cellular organisms, probably rep- became focused on its function and its place resents the greatest single evolutionary dis- among other organs. Form did not exist continuity to be found in the present day without function nor, obviously, function world." Although the division was pro- without form, but both became obscured posed in 1937 by Edouard Chatton, a by a fog of verbiage. French marine biologist, this dichotomy has References to vocabulary: Effler (1935), yet to find its way into some introductory Field and Harrison (* 1957), Nomina ana- biology programs. There are still some for tomica (*1961), Singer (1957), Skinner whom the primary division of organisms is (*1961), Wain (*1958). into plants and animals as when one played the game Animal, Vegetable or Mineral, DIVERSITY OF TYPE/UNITY OF in which all the planet's objects could be PATTERN AS AN ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE categorized under one of these three head- OF AN INTRODUCTORY BIOLOGY COURSE ings. The Margulis (1982) use of five king- This paper has discussed themes, objec- doms is today scarcely enough. Margulis tives, principles and content recommended recognized only a single kingdom of pro- for inclusion in an introductory biology karyotes, the Monera, with the other four course. Just as the entire course needs major kingdoms (the Protoctista, Fungi, Plants objectives that permeate all of its aspects, and Animals) comprising the eukaryote so subtopics need organizing principles. For kingdoms. Current researches will form and function, diversity of type and undoubtedly lead to the creation of other unity of pattern tie seemingly unrelated kingdoms. Current researches will un- observations and conclusions together and doubtedly lead to the creation of other can serve as an organizing principle. terms much in the same fashion as the kingdoms of eukaryotes are defined. Such tax- In organizing a presentation of form and onomy exemplifies diversity of type and function there are many pathways that can unity of pattern at a basic level and uses be followed. However, there appear to be THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 647

Mitochondria Plastid Golgi body / Jhylakoids

/—i

Plastid inner membrane Noncellulosic cell wall Plastid outer membrane Cell membrane !f*',"; >• Nucleus Nucleoid- Nucleolus Small ribosomes^ Nuclear membrane

Cell membrane

Cell wall Flagellum- Chromatin^ Kmetochores (cellulose or chitin)

Kinelosome Undulipodium

Cell membrane

PROKARYOTE

EUKARYOTE

FIG. 1. The primary dichotomy of living organisms is represented by their division into prokaryotes (left) and eukaryotes (right). These cell drawings are based on electron microscopy. Every prokaryotic or eukaryotic cell does not display all the features shown here. Unity of pattern and diversity of type is represented at the cellular level in this very early separation of organisms based on cell type. (Margulis, 1982, p. 9.) knowledge of both form and function to from a single cell. Just as Huxley used the account for organismic similarities and dif- crayfish as a model animal, one can use the ferences. cell to illustrate biological principles. If one considers the cell as a basic unit of structure and function and as an exam- The cell ple of diversity of type (Fig. 2), one must Basic structure and function permeate also consider unity of pattern exemplified biology. Every student should understand at the cellular level. If there is such a thing Virchow's doctrine that cells come from as a standard cell, its ability to exist in a preexisting cells. The cell theory of Schlei- myriad of forms and to specialize for all den and Schwann provides a diversity of living functions demonstrates the plasticity type pervading the organic world. To of living material. Too frequently students understand a cell is to understand an think in terms of fixity of form and func- organism and to understand a single cell is tion and ascribe an unchanging structure to understand trillions of cells. The cell to an epithelial or to a muscle cell, for theory is basic to biology and practically example. The ability to clone an entire all biological phenomena can be elucidated organism from one of these "fixed" epi- 648 WILLIAM V. MAYER

TABLE 4. Major differences between prokaryotes and eukaryotes (Margulis, 1982, p. 7).

Prokaryotes Eukaryotes Mostly small cells (1-10 /mi). All are microbes. Mostly large cells (10-100 jim). Some are microbes; most are large organisms. DNA in nucleoid, not membrane-bounded. No Membrane-bounded nucleus containing chromo- chromosomes. somes made of DNA, RNA, and proteins. Cell division direct, mostly by binary fission. No Cell division by various forms of mitosis; mitotic centrioles, mitotic spindle, or microtubules. spindles (or at least some arrangement of microtubules). Sexual systems rare; when sex does take place, Sexual systems common; equal participation of both genetic material is transferred from donor to partners (male and female) in fertilization. Alter- recipient. nation of diploid and haploid forms by meiosis and fertilization. Multicellular forms rare. No tissue development. Multicellular organisms show extensive development of tissues. Many strict anaerobes (which are killed by oxy- Almost all are aerobic (they need oxygen to live); gen), facultatively anaerobic, microaerophilic, exceptions are clearly secondary modifications. and aerobic forms. Enormous variations in the metabolic patterns of Same metabolic patterns of oxidation within the the group as a whole. group (Embden-Meyerhof glucose metabolism, Krebs-cycle oxidations, cytochrome electron transport chains). Mitochondria absent; enzymes for oxidation of Enzymes for oxidation of 3-carbon organic acids are organic molecules bound to cell membranes (not packaged within mitochondria. packaged separately). Simple bacterial Hagella, composed of flagellin Complex 9 + 2 undulipodia composed of tubulin protein. and many other proteins. In photosynthetic species, enzymes for photosyn- In photosynthetic species, enzymes for photosynthe- thesis are bound as chromatophores to cell sis are packaged in membrane-bounded plastids. membrane, not packaged separately. Various All photosynthetic species have oxygen-eliminating patterns of anaerobic and aerobic photosynthe- photosynthesis. sis, including the formation of end products such as sulfur, sulfate and oxygen. thelial cells, however, adequately demon- Cell Biology International Reports—Aca- strates their potential. The plasticity of cells demic Press (London) Ltd., High Street, is reflected in entire organisms. For a stu- Foots Cray, Sidcup, Kent DA 145HP, dent to be able to watch an aquatic, gilled, England. legless herbivore turn into a terrestrial, Cell Differentiation—Elsevier Scientific lung breathing, four legged carnivore as Publishers Ireland Ltd., P.O. Box 85, happens when a tadpole turns into a frog, Limerick, Ireland. provides a simulated window through Cell Structure and Function—dist. by which one can observe changes in form and Elsevier Scientific Publishers, P.O. Box function as a characteristic of the living 211, 1000AE, Amsterdam, The Neth- world. erlands. References to the cell: The field of cel- Cell and Tissue Kinetics (bimonthly)— lular biology is advancing so rapidly that Blackwell Publications Ltd., Osney Mead, any book over one year old is out-of-date Oxford OX2 0EL, England. in terms of recent advances. While stan- Cell and Tissue Research—Springer-Ver- dard texts cover the basic cell adequately, lag, 44 Hartz Way, Secaucus, NJ 07094. only journals can keep up with day-to-day advances. Among the journals covering the Analogy I homology various cell studies are: The concept of analogy and homology Cell (biweekly)—Cell Editorial Offices, 50 is pervasive in the study of form. The Church St.', Cambridge, MA 02138. beginning biology student is, by and large, THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 649

Animal cell Plant cell

Cell wall Cell membrane Centrosome with centriole Nucleus Nucleoli Nuclear membrane Golgi bodies Mitochondria

Vacuole Chloroplasts

FIG. 2. Eukaryotic cells demonstrate a unity of pattern by means of the many structures they hold in common, but among cells, diversity of type is demonstrable. In the above illustration plant cells display cell walls, a central vacuole, and chloroplasts not seen in the animal cell. In contrast, the animal cell has a centriole in its centrosome, neither of which appears in the plant cell. Beyond these simple diagrams one develops diversity of type during examination of specialized cells such as those of striated muscle and neurons. (BSCS, 1963, p. 58.) incapable of differentiating between struc- that bird wings and insect wings have little tures that have a superficial resemblance structural commonality. The support sys- and those displaying more meaningful tem of both is different. They are moved relationships. In this view of the world, a differently. A chicken wing, for example, fish and a porpoise appear far more closely demonstrates some intrinsic musculature. related than a porpoise and a buffalo. Legs The musculature of a butterfly wing is basi- are legs. The leg of an insect and that of cally extrinsic. One is covered by feathers, a cat are locomotor appendages that can the other by scales. Continuing these com- be seen to perform the same function for parisons results in a conclusion that this is both organisms. Butterflies, bats and birds a relationship of function but not of struc- all have wings and, here again, in the stu- ture. Similarly, an analysis of an insect leg dent mind, there must be some relation- and a vertebrate one leads to the same con- ship among them. It is an interesting clusion. Exoskeleton versus endoskeleton assignment to have students pursue these and muscular placement in relationship to lines of thought. Have them list all the parts of the body are differences that show organisms with wings that they can and list variations in structure even though the all those with legs but without wings on a locomotor function is common to both. separate sheet. Other than wings or legs, The student can be led to an under- what do these organisms have in common? standing of functional similarities—an Do they form natural groups or do they understanding that selection has operated only possess one prominent characteristic several times to produce legs or wings in common? designed for the function of walking or From such an assignment concepts of flying—which have come superficially to homology and analogy can be developed. resemble one another simply because of It becomes readily apparent, for example, their selection for a similar function. 650 WILLIAM V. MAYER

FIG. 3. Unity of pattern is indicated through this series of forelimbs of seven vertebrates. From left to right, frog, whale, horse, lion, man, bat and bird. Despite differences of function, each limb has the same basic skeletal structure. The diversity of type arises through the differences in proportion of the skeletal elements in each. Forelimbs, compared to hindlimbs of the same vertebrates, show a serial homology in which the same basic skeletal elements are displayed. (BSCS, 1963, p. 363.)

Among invertebrates, insects display a portion. This is followed by two distal ele- variety of wing types. Among vertebrates, ments, again of varying size but, nonethe- fossil reptiles, birds and mammals dem- less, readily apparent. Further distally onstrate flight by means of wings that have comparable bones may be absent or more in common with one another than reduced, compacted, as in the whale flip- they do with the wings of insects. The prin- per, or greatly elongated, as in the bat wing. ciple of analogy involves superficial struc- There is, therefore, a basic endoskeletal tural similarities in organs performing a resemblance in which numbers resulting similar function. A student who might have from fusions and deletions may change as begun thinking that a wing is a wing or a well as proportions, but in which there is leg a leg wherever it is found, begins to see a basic structural similarity. This basic how natural selection operates to result in structural similarity, coupled with com- the provision of legs as prime terrestrial mon embryological origin and similar rela- locomotor organs or wings as a basis for tionship to the parts of the body, as the flight through structures that are func- forelimbs of all vertebrates demonstrate by tionally but not structurally similar. their relationship to the pectoral girdle, It is unlikely that students will select wings constitutes homology which has been used of bats, birds and extinct reptiles as being as an indicator of relationship. It is the closely related in terms of their structure. study of these homologues that is a central When presented with a panoply of verte- principle within comparative anatomy. The brate appendages including the flipper of basic patterns demonstrated by homo- a whale, the leg of a horse, a wing of a bat, logues illustrate that structures of similar and a human arm (Fig. 3), students are, at origin may be radically modified to per- first, normally incapable of delineating any form special functions. Huxley demon- basic relationships among them. However, strated this with the crayfish, showing the closer examination of skeletal elements modifications possible to a simple, single leads to an appreciation of a basic pattern biramous appendage. The existence of of resemblance. Students see the same 1:2 serial homology, resemblance among pattern in all of the vertebrate limbs they appendages on adjacent segments, shows examine. The basic proximal element may on one organism what takes many to dem- be elongated, as in the horse, or com- onstrate using different classes and orders. pacted, as in the whale, but nonetheless, it A study of homologous structures leads is a single element varying primarily in pro- to the conclusion that evolution is a con- THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 651

servative process modifying what already encapsulated in Dollo's Law which has exists by changing proportions and posi- become, unfortunately, misunderstood. tions of previously existing elements in a When we derive from Dollo's Law either process of adaptation to a new function. the inevitability of progress or a violation Structures that are greatly reduced are of the Second Law of Thermodynamics we considered vestigial as are the "splint have derived nonsense. Dollo's Law is pri- bones" of the leg of the horse. Others have marily a statement about the statistical been selected to perform different func- improbability of following an identical evo- tions than those originally undertaken. The lutionary pathway again in either direc- modification of salivary glands into poison tion. While it is easy to understand the glands in some reptiles, the reorganization reversal of a single mutation, difficulties and migration of elements of the jaw to are multiplied for larger numbers of muta- form bones of the middle ear, the trans- tions, and probabilities become increas- formation of sweat glands into milk glands, ingly unlikely for exact repetition of a given and the complex relocation of functions of evolutionary pathway as the number of the blood vessels in the transition from gills genes in a sequence becomes larger. Whales to lungs are examples of such selection. may again return to land, but not by revers- Thus, basic structural plans demonstrate ing the gene path that led them into the an adaptability that allows them to be mod- sea in the first place. Their form and func- ified by a process of selection to perform tion might still be demonstrating unity of functions as diverse as swimming or flying, pattern, but the diversity of type will follow mastication or hearing. The concept of a different path than that initially taken homology and analogy is a basic principle from land to sea. for a comprehension of form and function as altered by adaptation. The comparative approach Morphology presented through the Convergence structure of a single organism, even while Study of homologous structures leads one concentrating on it as an example of unity to begin with a diversity of type and extend of pattern, does not well explicate diversity it though unity of pattern as organisms of type. The study of human anatomy, for become specialized to life in air or water example, concerned primarily with the or land. The tendency is to emphasize this detailed structure of one organism, may divergence but not that the processes of offer only a casual sentence or two con- adaptation result in many instances of concerning the derivation of a structure or its vergence, in which diversities are reduced. comparison with similar structures in other The structural and functional parallelism organisms. The malleus, incus, and stapes between families of marsupials and orders of the middle ear are frequently consid- of placentals well demonstrates this con- ered as if they were de novo mammalian vergence. Students need understand that structures without reference to their der- the past history of an organism both deter- ivation from jaw bones of lower forms mines and limits its future directions of (SAAWOK—I, pp. 32-33). To under- structural and functional change. Histori- stand diversity of type and unity of pattern cal analysis of form is based on the assump- a comparative approach is necessary. tion that organisms possess features capa- The tendency to select a type organism ble of being ordered into nested sets (a exemplifying the characteristics of a phy- cladogram or phylogenetic tree), and that lum (hydra, starfish, planarian, clam, cray- this pattern reflects a historical process of fish, etc.) tends to emphasize unity, when descent with modification (Fig. 4). each organism is considered in isolation, and to ignore diversity. In order that unity of pattern and diversity of type can be Dollo's Law incorporated to further an understanding Correlated with this assumption is the of form and function, animals need be stud- statement that evolution is irreversible, as ied as related both in structure and func- 652 WILLIAM V. MAYER

the nervous system need be covered that its location as an example of unity of pattern is frequently ignored. I c_ The pharyngeal breathing device (gills or lungs) characteristic of chordates is often misinterpreted. There is ample evidence that this region performs no respiratory function in protochordates where its purpose is filter feeding. Properly gills are found only in vertebrates. Frequently it is stated that presence of gill "slits" sometime in the individual's life history is a chordate characteristic. While pharyngeal pouches or furrows do appear in embryonic development, in birds and mammals they are quite rudimentary, existing only tempo- rarily and normally not perforating to form FIG. 4. In order to test hypotheses about the trans- formation of design, nested sets of similarities (A) are an actual slit. The presence of a notochord, ordered into the most parsimonious cladogram (B). dorsal hollow nerve cord, and pharyngeal Congruent characters c and d are recognized as hom- breathing device is a unifying concept ologues for the taxa they define, "b" is the incon- describing a chordate pattern. The modi- gruent character and represents a convergence. (C) fications of these structures provide ample represents a corroborated cladogram, that is a hypothesis of the phylogenetic relationships of taxa evidence of diversity of type. To emphasize A and D. HT represents transformational hypotheses, one without the other is to conceal a basic HR relational hypotheses involving correlations conceptual pattern that should rather between aspects of the primitive network (Z) and mor- reveal relationships and adaptations. This phological diversity. (Hildebrand et al., 1985, p. 371.) unity of pattern and diversity of type is revealed only through employing a comparative approach to form and function. tion. To speak of chordates, for example, without emphasis on the three character- Aortic arches istics that they have in common (Fig. 5), is Structure sometimes seems unduly com- to fail to appreciate the unifying structures plex and inefficient as in the complex tan- that relate the members of this phylum gle of veins and arteries immediately enter- (SAAWOK—I, p. 36). While the noto- ing or leaving the heart. To explain to a chord may be a prominent part of the student what is there does not clarify why exposition of the structure of amphioxus, the vessel pattern is as observed. The evo- there is doubt that it is homologous to the lution of the aortic arches shows unity of notochords of vertebrates. Morphological pattern and diversity of type from the studies of the cat or human may make no primitive condition of six aortic arches mention of the notochord unless embryo- through a successive series of losses in an logical development is included, at which anterior-posterior gradient to mammals time its relation to the vertebral column (Fig. 6). The first aortic arch is missing in may be pointed out. But all chordates have fish. In urodeles, the first and second arches a notochord. Even if only fragments may are not present, the fifth is variable. In remain in the adult, it nonetheless forms reptiles, the fourth aortic arch is symetri- an embryological focus for vertebral col- cal. In birds, it persists on the right side umn development. only and in mammals it persists on the left The significance of the presence of a side only. SAAWOK—I (pp. 33-35) illu- dorsal hollow nerve cord is lost if one stud- minates these relationships in more detail. ies only human anatomy. Because of the The aortic arches illustrate that a compar- upright human posture and a bipedal ative approach shows evolution as a basi- stance, the dorsal position of the nerve cord cally conservative process, saving from the is obscured, and so many other features of past what can be used in the present and THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 653

B | Endostyle Brain" vesicle Gill basket

Nerve ganglion J. Neural gland —fr/--

FIG. 5. The free swimming larva (A) of a solitary tunicate displays the notochord, the dorsal hollow nerve cord, and the pharyngeal breathing device characteristic of all chordates. The plasticity of living tissue is illustrated in the metamorphosis of this free swimming larva, which attaches itself to a substrate (B) after which the tail degenerates and most "somatic" structures, except for a notochord remnant, also disappear. In this methamorphosed form (C) the student seldom recognizes that a tunicate is an animal, let alone that it is a chordate. The connection between tunicate and vertebrate through the larva's possession of the three basic chordate characteristics illustrates unity of pattern. The adult demonstrates diversity of type. (Romer, 1962, p. 19.) modifying a pattern initially designed to mammals. The aortic arches constitute a supply venous blood to gills. The vessel basic unity of pattern capable of being pattern in an adult mammal is made expli- modified into a diversity of types. cable through knowing the vessel pattern It is not lost on students that the appear- in a fish. Presented as independent systems ance of the subclavian and iliac arteries is they seem so at variance, one from another, correlated with the appearance of paired that no unity of pattern is even looked for. fins. They remain the limb supply through Once a pathway of relationship is shown, the tetrapod series up to, and including, however, there is created a unifying pat- man whose arms and legs are supplied with tern to the arterial circulation among blood through subclavian and iliac vessels. organisms as diverse as fish, reptiles, and Puimonary arteries make their debut in 654 WILLIAM V. MAYER

FIG. 6. Unity of pattern and diversity of type, as illustrated by aortic arches and their derived vessels, viewed laterally. A, hypothetical ancestor of jawed vertebrates with six unspecialized aortic arches; B, the typical fish condition illustrated by the shark; C, Protoplerus, the lung fish; D, a teleost; E, terrestrial salamander; F, lizard; G, bird; H, mammal. The aortic arches are numbered in Roman numerals, the gill slits in Arabic numerals. s, spiracle, cd, carotid duct, da, ductus arteriosus. ec, external carotid artery, ic, internal carotid artery. L, lung. Diversity of type is illustrated by the carotid duct shown in the lizard, which is absent in other reptiles. In turtles, the carotids arise from a separate stem directly from the heart. In the mammal, the embryonic arterial duct, that bypasses the lung, is shown by a broken line. The essentially conservative nature of the evolutionary process is well illustrated by both the ontogeny and phylogeny of the aortic arches. (Romer, 1962, p. 427.) recent animals in the Dipnoi as branches support for the larynx. Three of the aortic of the sixth pair of aortic arches. They sup- arches persist and the pharyngeal deriva- ply the new lungs emerging from air blad- tives of the gill pouches include such endo- ders. This connection of the pulmonary crine glands as the thyroid, parathyroid, arteries with lungs persists throughout the thymus and the ultimobranchial bodies vertebrate series. (Fig. 7). From the second pair of pharyn- The presence of five pharyngeal pouches geal pouches come the palatine tonsils, an and six visceral arches alternating with example of diversity of type most children them in humans reinforces unity of pattern would prefer not to have to contend with. and diversity of type that finds its only rea- sonable explanation in evolutionary the- The eye ory. From the pharyngeal region of fish, The eye is frequently cited as an organ skeletal elements have been converted into so complex that the mind boggles when ear bones, attachment for the tongue and asked to accept that evolutionary processes THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 655

infinitesimally small Darwinian improvements?" To amplify his case, Hitching gives as examples that if the cornea is fuzzy (sic), or the pupil fails to dilate, or the lens becomes opaque, or the focusing goes wrong, then a recognizable image is not formed and, therefore, the eye is useless. It is obvious that a fuzzy image is better than no image at all. An image that is too dim, or clouded, or not properly focused, nonetheless, conveys to its possessor an advantage over an organism incapable of FIG. 7. The gill pouches of the left side of the phar- ynx in A, shark; B, urodele; C, lizard; D, mammal; perceiving light. Further, Hitching asks s = spiracle, the remaining pouches are numbered. "What survival value can there be in an The broken outline indicates variable thymus deriv- eye that doesn't see?" In the country of the atives; vertical hatching, the thymus; horizontal blind, the one-eyed man is king and, among hatching, the parathyroid; the solid black, the ulti- organisms that lack any visual perception, mobrachial body. Again, unity of pattern and diversity of type are exemplified, together with the con- so is an organism that has the ability to servative nature of evolution and the plasticity of living distinguish light from dark, or movement, tissue. (Romer, 1962, p. 339.) or the fuzzy outlines of a predator. Such an eye, while admittedly not perfect, offers have led to its present state. By discrediting decided survival value. the ability of complex structures to arise Hitching makes a case for visual perfec- through evolution, anti-evolutionists feel tion, but almost 50% of the European that they are strengthening their case for human population wears glasses or contact a designer. The 18th century theologian lenses. When they are removed, a recog- William Paley first published his Natural nizable image may not form. About one in Theology—or Evidences of the Existence and twelve males is color blind, others are Attributes of the Deity Collected From the astigmatic. No one with these various visual Appearances of Nature in 1802. It is a classic imperfections would agree that the eye exposition of the argument from design. functions either in a state of complete per- In it, Paley compares the eye with a tele- fection or not at all. Further, the rationale scope and concludes that the eye must have for the all-or-none eye seems to be based had a designer just as had the telescope. If on the forging of an absolutely random one were to assume that the eye appeared chain of events, each step apparently start- through natural causes de novo, Paley might ing from ground zero. Instead, evolution have a point or even if it developed through is a sequence of gradual step by step a series of smaller steps by random pro- changes, each one building on the one cesses. However, the de novo eye from nat- before. Any change that improves survival ural causes would be as unsubstantiated as chances is quite likely to be beneficial. Thus, is the concept that the eye was created de an animal with an eye spot capable of dis- novo by supernatural ones. tinguishing between light and dark has an One hundred eighty years later, how- advantage over one that does not possess ever, Paley's argument appears in the Neck that ability. of the Giraffe (Hitching, 1982). Except that In protists, and throughout the animal his book has received a degree of credi- kingdom, one finds that sensitivity to light bility by being published and distributed is widespread. An ameba, for example, will by a reputable publishing firm, Hitching's not enter strong light. Sea anemones react thesis is on a par with that in religious tracts to light although they have no specialized of the anti-evolutionists. Hitching makes photoreceptors. All phototropic flagellates the error so frequently made by propo- have a red pigment spot like that of euglena. nents of design when he says "The eye In multicellular animals, only those cells either functions as a whole, or not at all. respond to light which contain some such So how did it come to evolve by slow, steady, pigment as visual purple capable of being 656 WILLIAM V. MAYER

FIG. 8. Median sections through the eyes of a vertebrate and a cuttlefish. In many basics the two eyes resemble one another. However, the retina of the vertebrate eye is inverted, while that of the cuttlefish has the light sensitive cells facing the lens. Light sensitive organs are found throughout the animal kingdom but this parallelism between an invertebrate and vertebrate eye is unique. (Neal and Rand, 1936, p. 581.) altered by light. The eye spots of coelen- lium. Other mollusks have eyes that are terates are pigment cells which respond to similar to those of vertebrates, particularly changes in light intensity. Many medusae Sepia and Loligo. If anything, the cephalo- have light sensitive cells on the margin of pod eye represents an advancement over the umbrella and the jellyfish Nausithoe has that of humans as the retina is not inverted, a lens associated with each of its pigment as in vertebrates, but rather the light sen- spots. The pigment spots of many flat- sitive cells face toward the source of light worms are light sensitive and, in some (Fig. 8). species, clusters of pigmented cells sur- In chordates the retina is derived from round terminations of sensory nerves. the ependymal layer of the neurocoel. Even if we regard true vision as limited Ependymal cells are light sensitive in all to animals in which photoreceptors are chordates from amphioxus to mammals, aggregated into eyes capable of forming providing a unity of function within a vari- an image on a retina, one still sees the for- ety of morphological settings. The paired mation of eyes independently in a variety eyes of all vertebrates are essentially sim- of organisms. Some free swimming anne- ilar. Unity of pattern with little diversity lids have "beaker" eyes, so named from of type. The cyclostome eye and that of a their shape, with spherical lenses and a layer mammal, except for size, are basically the of retinal cells connected by nerve fibers same. The human eye serves as a model with the brain. In some, the beaker-like for all vertebrate eyes. It is not fair to say eyes are associated with the epidermis. In that there exists a graded series of light others, the eye sinks below the skin level. sensitive structures from ameba to man, Nereis worms have a liquid-filled cavity nor is the claim made for eye spots of around which photoreceptors are arranged euglena and those of planaria being phy- to form a vesicular eye. In mollusks, there letic precursors of the human eye. How- are sometimes beaker eyes, sometimes ever, perception of light is a common char- vesicular eyes with a lens. On the edge of acteristic of living matter and the variety the mantle of the pecten are found com- of light sensitive cells and the functions plex vesicular eyes, each partly surrounded they perform show a wide diversity of type. by a layer of opaque pigmented epithelium What unity there may be is functional which, in front of the eye, becomes a trans- rather than morphological. The ability of lucent cornea. Beneath the cornea and an ameba to detect light gives it an advan- adherent to it is a biconvex lens. The eye tage. The ability of the human eye to form of pecten has a retina consisting of two an image gives it a far greater advantage. layers of photoreceptors, each connected But between these two extremes are a vari- with a nerve fiber, and the retina is backed ety of light sensitive structures which, while with an inner layer of pigmented epithe- they do not form an integrated phyletic THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 657 sequence, nonetheless serve to illustrate a vide a surface less likely to slip. From the unity of function if not of structure. epidermis also are derived the horny scales or scutes of reptiles which are not homol- Integumentary system ogous with the bony dermal scales of fishes (Fig. 9). It should be noted that epidermal Practically every organ and system has derivatives are a product of reciprocal phylogenetic antecedents that illuminate induction. The dermal papilla is a neces- its structure and function. Perhaps one of sary adjunct to structures originating from the most neglected in the classroom is the epidermal cells. Scales persist on the legs integumentary system. The integument of birds and the legs and tails of a variety provides many examples of unity of pat- of mammals such as rodents, insectivores, tern and diversity of type. Its position allows and marsupials. The Old World pangolin it to be observed closely without dissection is a mammal that has redeveloped a com- and on intact, live organisms. Just as one plete body covering of large horny scales. can trace light sensitivity throughout Bills or beaks are also epidermal structures organisms from protists to vertebrates, a present in those amniotes in which teeth covering, separating cytoplasm from the environment, exists in unicellular organ- are reduced or absent. The skin on the jaw isms. A multicellular covering appears in margins cornifies to form bills or beaks in sponges and coelenterates, the latter exem- birds as well as in turtles and a few mam- plified by the ectodermal layer of the hydra. mals such as the monotremes. Even in such a simple epithelium there is Hoofs, nails and claws are other exam- some differentiation. One can see the epi- ples of the diversity of type of keratinized thelial covering cells among which are epidermal structures (Fig. 10). They tip the gland cells and some of these, in turn, digits of amniotes. Horns and horn-like secrete lime salts. Among other inverte- structures are widespread in distribution, brates the epidermis may be ciliated and particularly among mammals, but many the cells also may be involved in secreting horn-like structures, such as the antlers of an external cuticle. From a simple epithe- deer, are not homologous to the keratin lium to a stratified one, so characteristic of covered bony cores of cattle so that these terrestrial organisms, the difference seems are functional analogues rather than struc- to be a change in direction of cleavage tures with a unity of pattern. An investi- planes during cell multiplication. gation of the so-called "horns" of mammals shows a wide variety of structures and There are gland cells in a simple epi- patterns of shedding from the prong buck, dermis, but in mammals we find a great which sheds the horny sheath covering its variety of integumentary glands—sweat bony core, to the giraffe whose "horns" glands, sebaceous glands, the lacrimal are simply bony ossicles permanently cov- glands of the eye, the meibomian glands of the eyelids, the wax glands of the audi- ered by skin and hair, or the horn of the tory meatus, and a variety of others includ- rhinoceros, which is but a fused mass of ing preputial, vaginal, anal and mammary long, modified hairs. The feathers of birds glands. The luminous organs or photo- are homologues of epidermal, reptilian phores of some deep sea fishes are also scales with a mesodermal component seen glandular derivatives complete with con- during development. Hair is purely epi- densing lens and a reflecting membrane. dermal, however. Hairs are not modifica- Their light is produced by the oxidation tions of horny scales and hairs can be con- of luciferin secreted by the gland with no sidered a mammalian analogue to the avian carbonic acid and little heat evolved in the feather because of their service as an insu- process. lating device. In mammals with scales, frequently hairs are found growing between The presence of finger prints on the the scales, indicative of the fact that one is palms and soles of all primates are readily not derivative of the other. Integumentary observable and well known as sources of chromatophores account for the varied identification. The function of these fric- colors and patterns of animals and play an tion ridges is supposedly adhesion—to pro- 658 WILLIAM V. MAYER

STRATUM CCRMIMkTIVUM

B. EVOU/TION OF HORNY SCALE

A. EVOLUTION OF PLACOID C. EVOLUTION Of EVOLUTION OF SCALE FEATHER HAIR FIG. 9. Hypothetical stages in the phylogenesis of integumentary appendages of vertebrates derived from an undifferentiated epidermis. Unity of type of the placoid scale (A); epidermal (horny) scale (B); feather (C); and hair (D) illustrate the relationships of structures whose functions vary from protection to thermoregulation. (Neal and Rand, 1936, p. 177.) important role in camouflage, warning, adaptive structures and performs a multi- mating and attraction. The color of hair tude of functions. Both its structure and and feathers are mainly responsible for function are readily observable. It serves surface coloration in birds and most mam- to demonstrate unity of pattern and diver- mals but in lower vertebrates it is the chro- sity of type and offers both homologous matophores that give the skin its special and analogous structures for study. color. The wide variety of dermal and epidermal integumentary derivatives provides The digestive system ample evidence for unity of pattern and Unity of pattern and diversity of type is diversity of type within the integumentary clearly delineated in the study of the diges- system. In addition, the integument may tive system. First, one may divide the func- play an active physiological role by absorp- tions of the gut as (1) transportation, (2) tion or elimination of materials through physical treatment, (3) chemical treatment, moist skin membranes or glandular struc- and (4) absorption. In organisms above the tures. The integument functions for flatworm level the gut is essentially a hol- breathing in many forms and may also serve low tube from mouth to anus. Food is as an accessory excretory organ. Embryo- moved along by the muscular contractions logically, the nervous system still arises in of peristalsis which, in turn, may be affected conjunction with the ectoderm and the skin by the autonomic nervous system or by retains abundant sensory structures, hormones even though the gut muscles although the vertebrate nervous tissues operate independently of central control have primarily withdrawn from the sur- through being stimulated by the contrac- face. tion of adjacent fibers or through a local Too little attention has been given the nerve net. integumentary system in studies of form Physical treatment. Some animals reduce and function. It offers a wide variety of the size of food taken in through the mouth THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 659

FIG. 10. Epidermal derivatives. (A) nail; (B) claw; (C) hoof; e, unmodified epidermis; u, unguis; s, subunguis. Claws first appear in urodele amphibia and are found in reptiles, birds and mammals. In mammals claws and nails form an integrated series. Hoofs develop on those mammals that run on their toes but the hoof constitutes merely an enlarged and modified claw. In attempting to divide mammals as to whether they are hoofed or clawed, one encounters Hyrax, which has both. (Neal and Rand, 1936, p. 172.) by chewing it into smaller and smaller intestine in the form of the pylorus (Fig. pieces. Examining the structures for this 11). In those fish in which the pylorus is purpose, the teeth, gives the ability to the poorly marked, the bile duct from the liver biologist who understands Cuvier's dictum aids in establishing a line of demarcation. of correlation of parts to appear like Sher- A stomach is absent in amphioxus, cyclo- lock Holmes deducing from meager evi- stomes and in certain elasmobranchs and dences. From a single fossil tooth, for teleosts. When present, the stomach serves example, the food preferences of an organ- as a place for storage of food and for its ism can be deduced and from this, in turn, physical treatment as well as its initial the type of digestive system, feet, habitat, chemical treatment, particularly of pro- and behavioral pattern can be correlated tein. The absence of a stomach is explic- with that of a prototype herbivore. Here, able in the so-called "food strainers" in unity is brought into play due to the basic which food particles are small and col- patterns held in common by all herbivores. lected more or less continuously. They can Physical breakdown of food increases the be passed directly to the intestine without surface to volume ratio and thus facilitates the necessity of either storage or prelimi- subsequent chemical breakdown. In organ- nary treatment. This differs from the sit- isms without the ability to comminute food uation in a shark, for example, in which in the oral cavity, organs such as the giz- food intake is only periodic, at which time zard of birds serve as an alternative to mas- a large quantity may be taken in so that tication. Ingested pebbles serve within the storage is a necessity until the food can be gizzard to facilitate the breaking of food passed to the intestine. The stomach varies particles into smaller and smaller bits. greatly in shape and size among animals Chemical treatment. Water, vitamins, and and dissection rarely reveals its actual shape necessary salts are readily absorbed through after preservation. Incidentally, it needs to the gut wall. Larger molecules such as poly- be noted that while students are perfectly saccharids, fat and proteins require chem- willing to accept external variation in a ical breakdown facilitated by digestive species from their own observations, they enzymes and accessory secretions that are frequently incapable of recognizing that reduce organic materials to molecules that similar variations occur internally. The can pass through the cells lining the intes- number of times that a laboratory dissec- tine and enter the circulation. tion elicits from students that something is "wrong" with their frog or shark because Absorption. Absorption is a function of it does not match the pictures and direc- time and surface. While in amphioxus and tions in the laboratory manual, confirms cyclostomes the post-pharyngeal gut is pri- that diversity of type as a biological concept marily a single tube, most vertebrates have has not been internalized. The variety of a demarcation between the stomach and 660 WILLIAM V. MAYER

Rectal glond Nosol opting EsoOwjus Stomxn

Perca FIG. 11. Digestive tracts of A, lamprey; B, shark; C, chimaera; D, lung fish; E, sturgeon; and F, perch showing diversity of type within unity of pattern. The digestive tract of the lamprey is essentially a straight and only slightly differentiated tube. The spiral valve of the shark greatly increases absorptive surface and a spiral valve is found in the chimaera, lung fish and sturgeon. In the perch, the spiral valve is absent and compensated for by increased intestinal length. The absence of a stomach in chimaera and lung fish is made possible by the feeding habits of both, wherein the food is cut into bits before swallowing, making the need for a stomach as storage area less necessary. (Romer, 1962, p. 347.) stomachs from non-existent to the special- "small" and "large" intestine as applied to ization of that of the ruminants illustrates mammals and, particularly, to man. The unity of pattern and diversity of type while long intestine of herbivores can be con- recognizing that the function remains trasted to the relatively short intestine of essentially the same regardless of struc- carnivores. The large functional caecum in tural adaptation (Fig. 12). such a form as the guinea pig is in contrast The intestine functions chiefly for ab- to the reduced caecum in such a form as sorption which, in turn, is a function of the cat. Accessory organs such as liver and surface area and time. The spiral valve in pancreas also vary but functionally they are the intestine of a shark increases surface similar in organisms in which they appear. and slows passage to maximize absorptive One may approach the presentation of capacity and makes meaningless the terms the digestive system in terms of its function THE COLLEGIATE BIOLOGY CURRICULUM 661

and show the various patterns designed to facilitate the treatment and absorption of the molecules necessary for continued metabolism. An alternative is to emphasize unity of pattern and diversity of type as

facilitating the basic four functions of the A,Squolus B.Anguilk) C,Triton D.Tholassochelys E,Povo digestive system through a series of adaptive patterns that can be utilized to interpret the life style of the organism whose digestive system is being investigated. A simple exercise designed to measure understanding of these correlations is to F, Homo G,Lepus H.Spermophilus I, Hyrox present students with various gut patterns and ask them to describe structure, habitat and behavior of the organisms in which they would be mostly likely to be found. References: unity of type/diversity of pattern: Ballard (*1964), Eaton (1960), Hildebrand et al. (*1985), Montagna K, Macropus L, Bos (1959), Murray (1936), Polyak (*1957), FIG. 12. Stomachs, which serve for storage and Prince (1956), Prosser (*1973), Radinsky digestion, vary greatly among vertebrates. A, shark; (*1987), Romer (*1962), Russell (*1982), B, teleost; C, salamander; D, turtle; E, bird; F, man; G, hare; H, ground squirrel; I, coney; J, whale; K, Shipman and Bichell (*1985), Wake kangaroo; and L, cow. 1, esophageal epithelium (cil- (*1979). iated in C) which may extend into the stomach particularly in mammals; 2, cardiac epithelium found only in some mammals; 3, fundus epithelium; and 4, pyloric CONCLUSIONS epithelium. The darkened area in the bird represents the thickened wall of the gizzard. Unity of pattern Content of an introductory collegiate and diversity of type varies throughout the vertebrate biology course constitutes an ad hoc deter- series with many specialized mammalian stomach types mination by the individual instructor. Even (F-L). Variation in stomach structure is difficult to ascertain through the dissection of preserved speci- in rare cases where a course outline has mens. (Romer, 1962, p. 351.) been provided by the department, its degree of implementation is erratic and unsupervised. In general, college courses recommendations by prestigious commit- are immune from study and data based rec- tees and commissions the fundamental ommendations. Prior to 1920 biology pro- concepts on which collegiate biology programs in secondary schools and introduc- grams can be based are yet to be identified tory courses at the collegiate level were and agreed upon. Few action programs roughly parallel in content and emphasis have been implemented and fewer still so that a study of the secondary school of adopted beyond the boundaries of a single this period is, by inference, a study of the institution. The need for more studies is collegiate introductory program. Subse- not indicated, but rather, a need for action quent to 1920 secondary school programs relative to already initiated investigations. began to be designed to meet the needs of The study of form and function has been students and collegiate programs designed an integral part of introductory biology to meet the desires of the faculty, even since its identification as a discipline. Tra- though it is common to find secondary pro- ditionally, heavy emphasis has been placed grams still aping those at the collegiate on morphological detail and the vocabu- level. Some changes at the secondary lary attendant thereunto. The data inci- school, particularly those of the BSCS, have dent to form and function are usually pre- affected presentations of biology at the col- sented as isolated, unrelated pieces of legiate level. factual information. The need is for a Despite almost a century of studies and meaningful synthesis based on unifying 662 WILLIAM V. MAYER principles. The chief of these is unity of of Zoologists 1906. College entrance option in pattern and diversity of type, which serves zoology. School Science and Mathematics 6:63- 66. to explicate both relationship and adap- Biological Sciences Curriculum Study. 1971. The tation. Use of the comparative approach impact of BSCS biology on college curricula. BSCS and stress on such concepts as analogy and Newsletter #42:1-8. February. homology, convergence and divergence, Blake, Ralph M., C. J. Ducasse, and E. Madden. 1960. and the use of specific systems and struc- Theories of scientific method. University of Wash- ington Press, Seattle, Wash. tures in such a manner as to illuminate the Braithwaite, Richard B. 1953. Scientific explanation. common threads of structure and function Harper Torchbooks, New York. and ways in which they have been modi- Breukelmman, J. and R. Armacost (co-chairmen) fied, serve to make the study of form and 1955. Publications committee 1955. Report of function more comprehensible and mean- the Southeastern Conference on biology teaching. The American Biology Teacher 17:4-55. ingful. Brody, Baruch A. 1970. Readings in the philosophy of Improvements in introductory biology science. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. courses are not made by the simple substi- Brown, M. S. andj. L. Goldstein. 1984. How LDL receptors influence cholesterol and atheroscle- tution of a biochemical terminology for a rosis. Scientific American 251:58-66. morphological one to "bring the subject BSCS. 1963. Biological science: An inquiry into life. Har- up to date." Rather improvement entails court, Brace and World, New York. a difference in emphasis, switching from Caldwell, O. W. (chairman) 1920. Reorganization of detail to inculcating the ability to analyze, science in secondary schools. Commission on Reorganization of Secondary Education Bull. synthesize and evaluate data by use of prin- 1920, No. 26. Department of Interior, Bureau ciples designed to provide a coherent pre- of Education, Washington, D.C. sentation of structure and function. Hurd Commission on Undergraduate Education in the Bio- (1978) looked at future courses for biolog- logical Sciences. 1967. Content of core curriculum ical education and emphasized the neces- in biology. Report oj the panel on undergraduate major curricula. Publ. #18. Amer. Inst. Biol. Sci., Wash- sity for change. Choices for improvement ington, D.C. abound. What is now needed is implemen- Conference on Biological Education. 10 March 1953. tation of selected recommendations within National Academy of Sciences-National Research the current framework of courses in col- Council, (mimeo) Division of Biology and Agri- leges. culture, Washington, D.C. Cox, Donald D. and L. V. Davis. 1972. The context of biological education: The case for change. CUEBS REFERENCES Publ. #34. Amer. Inst. Biol. Sci., Washington, D.C. Achinstein, Peter. 1968. 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