- - - Course Goal - - - Since our ancestors evolved the capability to walk on two legs, and walked out of Africa, humankind has been trying to understand the natural world -- the real world, and the planet housing this world. We interact with the natural world -- we observe it, we ask questions about it, scientists test answers and come up with conclusions about it, we use resources from it, and we misuse it. The natural world is like a gigantic puzzle, and the more we learn about it -- the more pieces of the puzzle we fit together, the bigger and more complex the puzzle gets. This class will provide you with knowledge about biological principles of the internal and external environment, integrating information from various disciplines of the natural, cultural, and technological worlds -- as related to ourselves and the real world we are living in, instilling a responsibility to get involved and try to do something about the problems we have created. This class will challenge you to use critical and reflective thinking about the problems humankind is facing because of our interaction with the natural world, to come up with your own opinion -- your own understanding of the puzzle -- based on facts about the real world. You will be able to participate more effectively in a democracy, not walk away from the problems, if you have gained knowledge about the natural world, the puzzle, so that you can make better judgments, speak out, and vote intelligently on questions that involve the real world, including biological principles and human welfare. Dr. Nilsson