Durable Skills
Durable skills are professional skills that allow you to grow and adapt to an ever changing workforce. Transferable skills are those skills you acquire during any activity in your life that can be applied in other situations. You can acquire skills through various activities such as course work, internships, employment, projects, volunteer work, hobbies, and athletics.
The Department of Biological Sciences excels at helping students strengthen their durable skills by focusing on the development of; 1) the most important transferable skills and 2) foundational and applied knowledge in the biological sciences. These knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) are desired by most scientific employers and can be transferred to a variety of other roles and workplaces. Our department also provides paths to real-world experience by offering project-based learning in our VIP courses and Career Path Internships within many research and support laboratories. These opportunities blend work and learning in a model of continuous skill development.
The Knowledge & Skills We Expect Students to Develop
All Students:
- Interpersonal – negotiation, diplomacy, flexibility, adaptability, leadership, collaboration, teamwork as well as independent work, delegation, and self-motivation.
- Intellectual – comprehension, metacognition, critical reasoning, analytical, evaluation, planning and information-gathering, problem-solving, creativity, curiosity.
- Communication – effective communication, clarity of writing, layout, and presentation of oral and written material, report writing, referencing, use of appendices, bibliographies, glossaries, indexes, and figures/tables.
- Organizational – prepare for exams, organize and complete assignments, time management, working under pressure.
Biology Students:
- Foundational knowledge – structure/anatomy, function, physiology, reproduction, growth/development, origin, ecology, evolution, and distribution of organisms.
- Applied knowledge:
- Research – use primary sources (read, understand, and cite scientific literature) to develop questions that are innovative, novel, and creative; use the scientific method to answer these questions by constructing hypotheses and predictions, design experiments to test the hypotheses and predictions; monitor, record, and manage data; statistical analysis of the results; and conduct a critical analysis of the results.
- Numeracy – mathematical ability is necessary in most fields, and all students must maintain at least a rudimentary comprehension of numeracy.
- Computer literacy – typing speed and accuracy, text formatting, spreadsheet use, formal presentation construction, academic and professional use of search engines, email, and many other types of software and web applications that continuously change.
Bengal Survival Skills
BE PREPARED AND RESPONSIBLE
EMBRACE POSITIVE CHOICES
NURTURE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE
GIVE RESPECT TO SELF AND OTHERS
ACT ON TIME AND ON TASK
LABOR FOR SUCCESS