facebook pixel Skip to Main Content
Idaho State University home
Apply
Give

Biolab > Student Behavior

Transferable Skills

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 all sorts of activities: employment, projects, volunteer work, hobbies, sports, virtually anything. The knowledge you will develop in biology is marketable within many scientific fields. You will also gain skills that are transferable to a variety of other roles and workplaces and are of interest to a wide variety of employers.

Four types of skills that all undergraduates (regardless of major) are expected to develop:

  • Intellectual – comprehension, critical reasoning, analytical, evaluation, planning and information-gathering, report writing.
  • Communication – clarity of writing, layout and presentation of oral and written material, referencing, use of appendices, bibliographies, glossaries, indexes, and figures/tables.
  • Organizational – prepare for exams, organize and complete assignments, time management, working under pressure.
  • Interpersonal – negotiation, diplomacy, flexibility, adaptability, teamwork as well as independent work, delegation, and self-motivation.

The knowledge that all biology students are expected to develop:

  • Foundational knowledge – structure/anatomy, function, physiology, reproduction, growth/development, origin, ecology, evolution, and distribution of organisms.
  • Applied knowledges
    • 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 it is important that all students 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 other types of software and web applications.

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