This small group, service-learning course is customized to meet the needs of first-year Terps pursuing careers in the life sciences.  The curriculum is designed to build relationships between ILSers to create an encouraging and motivating environment, and orient students to the myriad campus resources that support student success. Components include student engagement, academic support, student wellness, diversity and inclusion, and social determinants of health.  Students participate in a service experience of their choosing with a variety of community partners on and off campus to fit their interests and schedules. (Students entering ILS as rising second-year students may substitute other UNIV 100 courses to satisfy this requirement). This course satisfies the first-year seminar requirement for most majors.

This course is designed for entering students enrolled in the Honors College Integrated Life Sciences (ILS) program and uses an active learning approach to emphasize inquiry, critical thinking, quantitative reasoning, and hands-on data analysis. This course will cover a variety of bioinformatic related topics, including genome assembly and scaffolding, sequence alignment algorithms, epigenetics, a bioinformatic examination of the central dogma in molecular biology, gene finding, proteomic analysis, the evolution of molecules, cells and organisms, molecular switches, and biological networks.

If an incoming student has not received credit for these courses, they will register for BSCI170/171 during their first semester and MUST complete HLSC280 during the first semester of their sophomore year

This course starts with an overview of basic Mendelian and molecular genetics, then focuses on the understanding and application of genomics to contemporary research, medicine, biotechnology, and societal issues. This course is equivalent to BSCI 222.

Service has been an ILS tradition since 2012 and was initiated by our students, who wanted service incorporated as part of the ILS mission and values.  Students complete 25 hours of service with a community partner of their choice, study service-learning as an experiential tool, and earn a credit toward their citation. These service experiences are directly relevant to their future careers as life scientists because they contribute to improved access for all people to quality healthcare, engaging STEM education, and/or to sustainable environments. The service-learning experience is introduced in the fall semester of the first year of ILS in HLSC100, and completed with this 1-credit course in the spring.

This course provides students the opportunity to learn skills essential for becoming successful student researchers, such as strategies for negotiating the research process, locating a faculty mentor, ethics in science, and critical analysis of research papers and proposals. Note: this course is not required but is strongly recommended for all first-year students. This course is only offered to first-year students. 

This course covers the properties of cells, which make life possible, and mechanisms by which cells provide energy, reproduce, regulate and integrate with each other and their environment. This course is a blended learning course that involves a combination of face-to-face and online interactions. The online component focuses on content while the in-class portion focuses on application of the content to problems in cell biology. This course is equivalent to BSCI330. 

Computational methods for the study of biological sequence data in comparative biology and evolution. Analysis of genome content and organization. Database searching, pairwise and multiple sequence alignment, phylogenetic, methods, pattern recognition, and functional inference. Functional and comparative genomics approaches.

Specifically designed for students interested in further study in the physical and biological sciences. Exposes students to the conventions of scientific prose in the genres of research articles and proposals. Students learn to accommodate scientific information to general audiences. Note: ENGL390H double counts for ILS and your graduation requirement. As it is a very popular course, it is not always possible to get in as a sophomore, and many students have waited until junior year to take the course. That is fine; those student then simply earn their citation in fall of senior year instead of fall of junior year at the conclusion of all coursework.

(must contact Dr. Kramer to get permission from departmental schedulers to register for this course). Using a global perspective, this course teaches students to be critical consumers of current and historical health communication interventions. It also provides students with the skills to develop media interventions that target specific and general populations. Students will discover the array of diverse media messages that influence the health and well-being of individuals and communities.

(must contact Dr. Kramer to get permission from departmental schedulers to register for this course). Examines the current and potential use of digital health and social media to influence public health. Provides an overview of knowledge, skills and terminology necessary to optimize the effectiveness of these technologies to contribute to the enhancement of individual and community health.

Specifically designed for students interested in further study in the physical and biological sciences. Exposes students to the conventions of scientific prose in the genres of research articles and proposals. Students learn to accommodate scientific information to general audiences. Note: ENGL390H double counts for ILS and your graduation requirement. As it is a very popular course, it is not always possible to get in as a sophomore, and many students have waited until junior year to take the course. That is fine; those student then simply earn their citation in fall of senior year instead of fall of junior year at the conclusion of all coursework.

(must contact Dr. Kramer to get permission from departmental schedulers to register for this course). Examines the current and potential use of digital health and social media to influence public health. Provides an overview of knowledge, skills and terminology necessary to optimize the effectiveness of these technologies to contribute to the enhancement of individual and community health.

Taught by ILS Director Dr. Najib El-Sayed and Associate Director Dr. Sabrina Kramer, this course looks at ethical issues related to scientific research and integrity as well as issue surrounding medical ethics such as use of limited resources, euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide. This is a topics class, so we won't be going into detail of philosophical arguments, but we may bring them up as relevant. Moreover, especially as applied to medical ethics, there may be no "right" answer. Instead, we would like you to be able to think critically about the issue, and make a moral argument (as opposed to a logistical argument).