This second course in the General Biology series for majors in the biological sciences and related fields, takes organismal approach to studying bacterial, plant and animal diversity, and relates how various morphological features function. A discussion of the scientific method, logical (deductive) reasoning, hypothesis testing and some common fallacies and misconceptions that cloud scientific explanations of the natural world are included. Students discuss Darwinian natural selection as a mechanism for evolutionary change with emphasis on systematics in order to understand evolutionary relationships between the major classes of plants and animals. Laboratory work, an integral and required part of the course, includes a variety of dissections and hypothesis testing exercises.