Introductory Bio vs "general biology"

[Vince411]

My CC offers both a "BIO 101" called "Gen Biology" and a "BIO 151" called "Intro to Cells, Molocules, and Genes." The BIO 151 recommends having first taken the BIO 101 but it is not required. I know that the BIO 151 is the first of the 2 BIO pre-req sequence; however, I was wondering if I should take "Gen Bio" before the BIO 151 course considering my background of virtually no science? Can one do well without it? Any input is much appreciated!

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[kraskadva]

What are Bio/science majors required to take? Because those are the ones you want. Should be 2 semesters at the 100 level: one semester with the general theme of ecology & evolution and the other cells, molecules and genes (which sounds like your 151).

Typically the course numbers for these are not too far apart, so I'm thinking your 101 is a non-majors human bio type of course, which is probably not what you want (unless you just want to start with an easy intro). There should be another intro bio class in the 140-160 range that mentions ecology and evolution in the title/description.

 

[FutureDrB]

My CC offers both a "BIO 101" called "Gen Biology" and a "BIO 151" called "Intro to Cells, Molocules, and Genes." The BIO 151 recommends having first taken the BIO 101 but it is not required. I know that the BIO 151 is the first of the 2 BIO pre-req sequence; however, I was wondering if I should take "Gen Bio" before the BIO 151 course considering my background of virtually no science? Can one do well without it? Any input is much appreciated!

That's strange. I would double-check just to be sure.
Usually it's General Biology I & II or Introductory Biology I & II. I've never heard of the basic biology sequence with a title like the BIO 151 course you mentioned, but who knows.
I don't know your academic prowess, but personally, I found Biology to be fairly easy. It's certainly easier than Chem and Physics.

 

[kraskadva]

That's strange. I would double-check just to be sure.
Usually it's General Biology I & II or Introductory Biology I & II. I've never heard of the basic biology sequence with a title like the BIO 151 course you mentioned, but who knows.
I don't know your academic prowess, but personally, I found Biology to be fairly easy. It's certainly easier than Chem and Physics.

My school just changed the names last year to something similar to this. I think it's going around...

 

[danielterrones]

My school has a similar "naming and numbering" system as OP mentioned.
Intro to Bio (They call it General Biology) is Bio-101
Then they have Bio-151 and Bio-152 (these are the GEN BIO classes).

Bio-101 is not needed for Bio-151. The topics might overlap a little bit, but not enough to warrant taking the extra semester. I would recommend taking the Bio-151 even if you do not have any science background. Just stay on top of your reading/assignments .

 

[FutureDrB]

My school just changed the names last year to something similar to this. I think it's going around...

Well, disregard what I said then.

 

[heartsink]

What are Bio/science majors required to take? Because those are the ones you want. Should be 2 semesters at the 100 level: one semester with the general theme of ecology & evolution and the other cells, molecules and genes (which sounds like your 151).

Typically the course numbers for these are not too far apart, so I'm thinking your 101 is a non-majors human bio type of course, which is probably not what you want (unless you just want to start with an easy intro). There should be another intro bio class in the 140-160 range that mentions ecology and evolution in the title/description.

Bolded not necessarily true. At my university, for example, there are several course sequences (biology, physics, biochem) that differentiate between levels of the same material and some of them explicitly state the less intensive version is intended for students interested in medicine, and the more in-depth versions are meant for their respective majors who either go off towards biology phds, biochem phds, or become engineers (physics), etc. That said, my school has fairly rigorous science courses so even the "intro to bio" weeds out a lot of people.

If you really want to know, you should call up and ask which class is intended for which demographic. Usually the course descriptions will hint at it but if they don't it should be information you can still gather.

 

[kraskadva]

Bolded not necessarily true. At my university, for example, there are several course sequences (biology, physics, biochem) that differentiate between levels of the same material and some of them explicitly state the less intensive version is intended for students interested in medicine, and the more in-depth versions are meant for their respective majors who either go off towards biology phds, biochem phds, or become engineers (physics), etc. That said, my school has fairly rigorous science courses so even the "intro to bio" weeds out a lot of people.

If you really want to know, you should call up and ask which class is intended for which demographic. Usually the course descriptions will hint at it but if they don't it should be information you can still gather.

Only at massive universities. Typically it is the same courses for all science majors. Also, OP specifically stated that they are at a community college.
So, yes... whatever the bio/science majors are taking is probably the one that OP should take.

 

[wholeheartedly]

At the schools I've been at the intro bio or and intro chem courses are for the non majors and the general biology and general chemistry courses are for the science majors.

Since the nomenclature seems to differ by school based on responses here, you'll have to ask some at you school which one is more the more in depth one recommended for science majors.