Biological Sciences

A bachelor’s degree in Biology from Le Moyne College provides the opportunity to pursue any number of career paths built on the understanding of life and its interactions with the environment. Our program continues to successfully prepare students for careers in the health professions, field and laboratory research, as well as the pharmaceutical and biotechnology fields. Our curriculum offers a comprehensive list of both traditional as well as one-of-a-kind courses, all of which promote critical thinking and scientific inquiry.

Students within the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences have the opportunity to travel abroad by enrolling in departmental travel courses, conduct original research with a faculty mentor, and present their work at regional and national conferences. At Le Moyne, both students and faculty benefit from the close interaction afforded by the relatively small class sizes.

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Courses and Requirements for Biological Sciences

If you would like to learn more about the courses offered within the biological sciences curriculum, please visit the Le Moyne College catalog. Alternatively, you may also visit faculty pages to see the courses taught by each instructor.

The Health Professions Advisory Committee helps you get there.

The mission of the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences is to provide majors with a broad scientific background to make them competitive for advanced degree programs and professions in a variety of biological or environmental fields. In providing course offerings that span the level of organization from the cell to the ecosystem, we strive to give our graduates the tools to meet the challenges of today’s human health and environmental issues. Throughout the educational process, the department emphasizes the importance of clear, effective, and factual communication, and the students’ roles in the future enhancement of scientific knowledge.

Students who major in something other than the natural sciences will learn the scientific process, and the excitement that can come from answering a previously unanswered question. Specifically, we seek to use biology and environmental science as examples of how science can provide answers to a variety of questions with implications for present and future environmental, medical, physical, and social issues.

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Learning Goals for Biological Sciences

We believe that all students who graduate with a degree in biological sciences, regardless of their specialization, should be able to demonstrate the following competencies:

Goal 1. An ability to use the scientific method and exhibit scientific communication skills.

• Demonstrate use of the scientific method as well as the function and use of hypotheses, observations, experimental controls, and data analysis.
• Search, critically read, and interpret the scientific literature.
• Demonstrate scientific writing skills.
• Develop laboratory and field skills appropriate to the discipline.

Goal 2. An understanding of cells, organisms, and ecosystems.

• Demonstrate an understanding of the diversity of life that exists on this planet, its classification, and general evolutionary path.
• Demonstrate an understanding of basic biological chemistry.
• Demonstrate an understanding of cells, including subcellular structure, function, and biochemistry.
• Demonstrate an understanding of basic Mendelian and molecular genetics.
• Demonstrate a broad understanding of the developmental, physiological, and morphological adaptations of organisms, their similarities and differences, and why these adaptations are thought to occur.
• Demonstrate a basic understanding of the ecological principles that govern the interaction between organisms and their physical environment as well as the interactions between various life forms themselves.

Goal 3. An understanding of how humans affect and are affected by interactions with other humans, other species, and our shared environment.

• Demonstrate an understanding of how science both influences and is at the same time affected by society.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the impact that humans have had on our planet and the implications for the future.

Presentations by invited guests and Le Moyne faculty and students

Join us to learn about the active science research programs at Le Moyne and beyond. Speakers include Le Moyne faculty members and students, as well as researchers and scientists from other colleges and universities and the private sector.

Sponsored by the natural science departments. For more information, contact Dr. Emily Ledgerwood.
Seminars are held on Friday afternoons in the Science Center Addition, Room 100, 3:30-4:30pm

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Friday, September 8

Effects of Helicobacter pylori Infection on the Risk of Childhood Anemia: An Epidemiological Research Using Ethiopian Birth Cohort
Bineyam Taye, M.P.H., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Colgate University

Friday, September 22

Costa Rica – Oasis of Peace: Its History and Sustainable Development
Ronald Calvo, Naturalist and Adventure Tour Guide

Friday, October 13

Patterns of Mutation in Cancer
Michael Lawrence, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School

Friday, October 20

Science Policy: Where the Bench Meets Capitol Hill
Sesquile Ramon, Ph.D., Director, Science and Regulatory Affairs, Biotechnology Innovation Organization

Friday, October 27

Physiological Responses to Light Isoflurane Anesthesia
Ashley Loeven ’18 (pattern of breathing), Le Moyne College
Haley Buchholz ’19 (blood pressure), Le Moyne College
Rebecca Purdy ’20 (body temperature), Le Moyne College

Friday, November 3

Synthesis and Characterization of Alkali and Alkaline Earth Metal-NNN Pincer Complexes
Devon Haugh ’18, Le Moyne College

Syracuse University REU: Studies Toward the Lewis Acid-Mediated Synthesis of α-Methylene-γ-butyrolactones
Shania Hayward ’18, Le Moyne College

Friday, November 10

Internships and Research Experiences for Undergraduates
Faculty Members, Natural Science Departments

Friday, November 17

Linking Cellular Stress to Reovirus Oncolysis
Megan Worth ’18, Le Moyne College

Understanding Instrumentation for Standardizing Lab Procedures: A Study of Vapor Sorption Isotherms
Rosario Guifre ’18, Le Moyne College

Friday, December 1

Synthesis of α α-helical Inhibitors of Protein-Protein Interactions
Francine Yanchik ’18, Le Moyne College

Study Abroad in Costa Rica: Research, Culture, and Networking
Steven Ferguson ’17, Le Moyne College

The Biology Club

The Biology Club is an organization whose purposes are to promote student interest and participation in the life sciences and to provide a social venue through which students may explore shared interests and make new acquaintances. The Biology Club sponsors a variety of events and activities throughout the year and helps freshman biology students adjust to college life.

Beta Beta Beta

The Beta Beta Beta Biological Honor Society is a society for students, particularly undergraduates. It seeks to encourage scholarly attainment in this field of learning by reserving its active membership for those who achieve superior academic records and who indicate special aptitude for and major interest in the life sciences. It desires to cultivate intellectual interest in the natural sciences and to promote a better appreciation of the value of biological study. It thus welcomes into associate membership other students who are interested in biology.

Beta Beta Beta also endeavors to extend the boundaries of human knowledge of nature by encouraging new discoveries through scientific investigation and to this end encourages undergraduate students to begin research work and report their findings in the society’s journal, BIOS. It emphasizes, therefore, a three-fold program: stimulation of scholarship, dissemination of scientific knowledge and promotion of biological research.