- Undergraduates are exposed to a broader range of science early on, which allows them to make more informed choices about where their academic interests may lie.
- Students gain a contextual basis for learning the fundamentals of the life sciences and draw meaningful connections between fields. Interdisciplinary teaching will stimulate broader creative thinking and a deeper synthesis of knowledge.
- These courses help foster students who are not intellectually constrained by the traditional boundaries of scientific disciplines. Such interdisciplinarity will help encourage tomorrow's scientists to make exciting breakthroughs at the interface of different fields. Moreover, the courses help tomorrow's citizens to engage scientific issues from multiple perspectives and make better informed decisions.
- We hope that students who come to Harvard with an interest in science will be more likely to continue in a related field following their experience of in the introductory Life Sciences courses. Our goal is to engage the life sciences in the freshman year in a manner that builds on students' high school experiences rather than simply reiterating them with more details to memorize.
- A common integrative foundation for all students in the life sciences has helped revolutionize the level of sophistication possible in our upper level science courses.
