Biology for philosophers

In the teaching of integrative biology, we propose a path that goes from practice to theory, metaphorically, as one would use an inverted funnel, from the small opening to the large one.

We start the course with laboratory practises in plant biology. This is typically a practical supervised laboratory exercise that is a hands-on experience and provides guidance. This serves as a grounding to represent and understand the reality we want to grasp.

The second step in the progression aims at an extension of the first and consists of supervised exercises from scientific papers. The exercises are worked in groups, and the results are presented by each group to all students. Indeed, the possibilities of laboratory work are always limited, because they are time-consuming and expensive. This is why they must be extended by paper's analysis in the same spirit and with the same objective, i.e. to grasp the object in a concrete way.

The third step aims at the maximum extension which is the theoretical course which is in any case online and available for consultation. It aims to ensure that students take into account the entire landscape from the foundations acquired through the previous practices and this in a cooperative learning context.