Hello and welcome to Mr. Westerman's Biology Page.
This website should be useful throughout the year for assignments, grades, handy weblinks, and study tips. Visit often to get the most of your learning experience at the International School of Islamabad.
Biology, the study of life, is rooted in the human spirit. People keep pets, nurture houseplants, invite avian visitors with backyard birdhouses, and visit zoos and nature parks. This behavior expresses what Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson calls biophilia, an innate attraction to life in its diverse forms. Biology is the scientific extension of this human tendency to feel connected to and curious about all forms of life. It is a science for adventurous minds. It takes us, personally or vicariously, into jungles, deserts, seas, and other environments, where a variety of living forms and their physical surroundings are interwoven into complex webs called ecosystems. Studying life leads us into laboratories to examine more closely how living things, which biologists call organisms, work. Biology draws us into the microscopic world of the fundamental units of organisms known as cells, and into the submicroscopic realm of the molecules that make up those cells. Our intellectual journey also takes us back in time, for biology encompasses not only contemporary life, but also a history of ancestral forms stretching nearly four billion years into the past. The scope of biology is immense. The purpose of my courses is to introduce the student to this multifaceted science.
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