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 I am not very familiar with the new Intro Bio class offered at Bryn Mawr this semester. I assume it was discussed in class last Monday. From what I gather from the on-line forum, it seems like an atypical intro bio class in that it incorporates literature instead of the usual dense bio textbook. It looks like most of our senior seminar supported it, however, I don’t think I like the idea of it. Yes, the basis of introductory science is memorizing core facts. That's the bottom line. Why are we manipulating this? To attract humanities majors by not forcing them to only memorize facts and allow them to stray from this by not giving them a standard biology test and instead grading them on work that lets them incorporate what they prefer, and feel they are “better at”, or more interested in using, their writing skills? I don't think this is fair or right. I can’t go to my Middle East anthropology class and tell my professor that I’d rather give her my punnett squares that I had to write out for my genetics homework during intro bio because I’m better at them than I am at writing a 7 page paper on (the lack of) women’s rights in Iran. It’s a requirement that I take classes outside of Bio. I have to follow the humanities department rules. Non-Bio people should have to follow our rules, too. Plus humanities people DO get the opportunity to write during intro bio, already. Lab reports, Peter's unusual writing assignments, Wil's writing assignments on that Darwin book.... Let's stick to important core biology where we can. Learn the facts and recall them on tests. It's intro science. Deal with it.