QBIC Overview

HISTORY

According to renowned and respected groups such as the National Research Council, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the National Institues of Health, undergraduate programs in the Biological Sciences need to be re-formatted and improved.

Interdisciplinary thinking could produce significant advances in biological knowledge if undergraduate biology curricula in the United States are updated to incorporate mathematics, the physical sciences, statistics, and informational sciences. American undergraduates need to learn the importance of non-biological tools, and how to use them.

To this end, the Biological Sciences Department at FIU has introduced an innovative new program for its undergraduates: QBIC. QBIC has been developed via a collaboration of FIU faculty in the biological sciences, mathematics, chemistry, statistics, physics, computer sciences, and biomedical engineering.

CURRICULUM

QBIC Professors and Instructors design and teach small classes of QBIC scholars, providing our students a personalized, unique undergraduate education while still benefitting from the recources and low cost of a large state university.

QBIC teaching plans incorporate presentations, cooperative learning techniques, and problem-based instruction. QBIC Scholars will graduate able to analyze biological problems with conceptual, analytical, and mathematical tools- they will be scientists, and able to apply their knowledge before they begin graduate work.

As QBIC courses are integrated, the faculty have arranged them sequentially in a four-year block format. QBIC courses such as the Journal Club, in which QBIC scholars learn to read and analyze scientific literature, are entirely new. Other core classes, such as calculus, are modified to include labs in which QBIC scholars solve biological problems.

The QBIC curriculum fulfills all university requirements to graduate with a BSc in Biology. As most QBIC Scholars are in the Honors College, it also fulfills all honors requirements.

Our curriculum is composed of two parts:

• Part I (Freshman and Sophomore years) integrates required foundational courses such as Biology, Calculus, Chemistry, Ecology, Genetics, and Statistics
  
  A capstone summer simulation and modeling workshop consolidates the components of Part I
• Part II (Junior and Senior years) offers a more flexible schedule of upper-division courses and funded research opportunities. Please see Curriculum for more details

Our funded research offers QBIC Scholars a rare opportunity to gain laboratory and field experience while undergraduates. They are able to develop educated post-graduate goals while building their resumes.

PLEASE INQUIRE ABOUT:

• Our affiliation with the Honors College
• Our AP, IB, and Dual-Enrollment policies
• Majors, Dual-Majors, and Minors
• FIU graduation requirements
• Our wonderful Faculty members

SCHOLARS

QBIC Scholars form close bonds while in the program. Please see Community or the QBIC Facebook group for more information.

FACULTY

Please See QBIC Contacts