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Report to APICS Council, Fall 2008
The APICS Biology Committee met in Truro, NS on 7-8 November. Representatives from Acadia, Cape Breton University,
Dalhousie, Memorial, Mount St. Vincent, NSAC, St. Francis Xavier, St. Mary’s, Université du Moncton, UNB (Fredericton),
UNB (St. John) and UPEI were in attendance.
After introducing new and returning members, we conducted Friday’s business meeting, having short discussions on a
number of issues including (a) the website (what kinds of information should we include, should it be used for
graduate opportunities, job postings, etc.?), (b) the final report on last year’s AUBC at Memorial, and (c)
the upcoming AUBC to be held at NSAC in Truro.
Saturday’s meeting provided each organization a chance to discuss requirements for a Biology degree at respective
institutes. The objective was to compare and contrast the selection of biology courses and other requirements
(mainly other science courses) that each university was requiring for a B.Sc. in Biology. In many cases,
representatives reported that their departments were undergoing minor or major changes in their course
curricula. Obvious differences between institutes with respect to current programs included the number
of required core biology courses (from 3 - 9), the chemistry requirements (biochemistry and organic chemistry),
physics, and calculus. There was general frustration voiced by a number of members concerning the lack of statistical
background students have going into upper year biology courses, despite having taken statistics through their
math departments. In most cases, biology departments also offered some type of biostatistics course that they
felt more useful.
Over the next couple of weeks, I plan to summarize the major requirements of each university - highlighting the
similarities and differences, and upload them onto the Biology Website. It was agreed that such information
might be valuable both to students and faculty from the different universities. I also plan to upload
information on (a) first year courses and (b) honours programs that had been discussed at previous workshops.
Unfortunately, although we had also wanted to revisit the possibility of setting up an
Atlantic Field Course Consortium, time ran out. It was decided that I would pursue this further over the
coming months and report back to the committee at the March meeting.
Committee Membership
Kirk Hillier , Acadia Unversity
Zhan Yang , Atlantic Baptist University
Michael Tanchak *, Cape Breton University
Timothy Rawlings **, Cape Breton University
Nancy McAllister-Irwin , Dalhousie University
Jim Cornall, Huntsman Marine Science Centre
Bob Hooper , Memorial University
Jennifer Baltzer , Mount Allison University
Ron MacKay, Mount St. Vincent University
Kelly Soanes , National Research Council
Bruce Gray, Nova Scotia Agricultural College
Christine Campbell, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College
David Garbary, St. Francis Xavier
Thomas Rand, St. Mary’s University
Alyre Chiasson *, University of Moncton
Gilles Miron **, University of Moncton
Cheryl Patten , University of New Brunswick (Fredericton)
Heather Hunt *, University of New Brunswick (Saint John)
Karen Kidd **, University of New Brunswick (Saint John)
Kevin Teather, University of Prince Edward Island
* currently on sabbatical
** sabbatical replacements
Submitted by Kevin Teather
(UPEI), Chair
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