Science as a way of knowing and understanding our contemporary world is the most profound and powerful intellectual and practical tool the human species has developed. Science has allowed us to understand our physical place in the universe as well as our origin as a species on Earth. Science in our globalized modern world can seem increasingly complex, but most scientific understandings are based on relatively few conceptual paradigms or accepted ideas. Many of these major paradigms will be covered in this course, including the origin of life, the molecular and cellular theories of life, human origins, genetics, evolutionary theory and biodiversity. The underlying pedagogy of the course is to examine what we know about an accepted paradigm, how we know these scientific facts and theories, and what are the contemporary applications of the accepted paradigms. The course also provides the primary scientific tools required to explore scientific, ethical and sociological concerns that arise from our understanding of the origin, evolution and diversity of life including that of our own species. Four credit hours total: two hours lecture; two hours lab.