A common complaint among instructors of introductory biology is that the courses cover too much material. Without a national consensus specifying which topics are essential, instructors are leery of excluding material. A survey was administered to two-year college and four-year college and university section members of the National Association of Biology Teachers to identify the topics and skills that college and university biology instructors believe students completing introductory biology should know and comprehend. Analysis identified a strong consensus for 20 topics and seven skills that should be included in all year-long introductory college biology course sequences for majors.
