TCNJ

38 The College of New Jersey Magazine biological studies that ignored non- white populations — there was much ground to cover. Turns out, the biology department already had a vehicle that neatly accommodated addressing the issues: the introductory course for biology majors, Bio 201: Foundations of Biological Inquiry, which had been redesigned several years earlier by two professors in the department, Wendy Clement and Tracy Kress. "We wanted to be inclusive about the diversity of learning styles," Clement says. "There's definitely a lot of work to be done, but I do think there is the framework to incorporate diversity now." In the Foundations class, professors guide students through questions and lead them toward answers, rather than providing the answers first in lectures. The texts include primary research articles, many by scientists who are neither white nor male. "It's that inquiry-based approach that they're using to build those new activities and awareness, so I think it definitely gave a model to use to tackle that," Kress says. All four sections of the class use the same set of slides, and among the new ones added this year, in a discussion about the scientific method, is this: "How does one determine race? There There is no genetic basis for race; it is a social construct. Biology professor Donald Lovett

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