Course description

An introductory physiology course intended for first-year and sophomore biological sciences majors and other students majoring in life sciences. The course integrates physiology from the cell to the organism with comparisons among animals, plants and microbes. Emphasis is on understanding of basic physiological concepts, stressing structure-function relationships and underlying physio-chemical mechanisms.

Outcome 1: Students will be able to understand the principles of how organisms work at the molecular, cellular, and systems levels, how these principles are based on the rules of physics and chemistry, and how the processes of physiology at one level emerge from processes at the lower levels.

Outcome 2: Students will be able to think like a physiologist. This involves understanding how the properties of cells determine function at all higher levels of biological organization including how cellular membranes create selective barriers and how substances cross these barriers, how biological processes are regulated, and how cells and organisms exchange energy and matter with the environment, respond to their environment (including stimulus transduction, intercellular communication, and information processing), and generate mechanical forces and movement.

Outcome 3: Students will be able to appreciate the similarities and differences between the physiologies of humans and other organisms, and so to appreciate how the study of comparative physiology is relevant to understanding your own life, and to understanding how evolution explains both the unity and diversity of life.

Biological sciences majors must take course for a letter grade. Students may not receive credit for both BIOG 1440 and BIOG 1445.

Summer 2025: Ithaca campus

Rebecca Brady
Rebecca Brady
Visiting Assistant Professor, Biology

Summer 2025: Ithaca campus

Rebecca Brady
Rebecca Brady
Visiting Assistant Professor, Biology