Undergraduate Course Offerings

Make an appointment to consult about your program/courses by email to bioadvising@wlu.ca.

In order to provide you with help, you must include your Laurier student ID number.

Courses will fill quickly. Sometimes a course will have a waitlist but if it has a lab or tutorial it will not have a waitlist. If a course you want to take is full, check LORIS regularly, right up until the end of the first two weeks of classes, to see if a space has come available for you.

If you are in 3rd or 4th year and have completed your required 200 level BI courses then keep in mind that you can choose senior BI (HN or WASC) courses at any year level (200, 300 and 400) as long as you have completed the prerequisites. If you aren’t able to enrol in a certain course this year, then you likely will next year.

Full Courses

We cannot give overrides for courses once they are full and at capacity. However, we are interested in knowing when demand exceeds capacity. Please write to bioadvising@wlu.ca and include the course details. In the subject line of your email include the words “course full” and the course number. We can’t promise solutions.

Enrolling in HN Courses

HN210, HN220 and HN320 are counted towards your senior BI credits but they are the responsibility of the Health Sciences Department. HN210 and HN220 are cross-listed with KP course and are taught by the Kinesiology Department. Therefore the Biology Department has relatively little influence over enrolment issues. HN courses are restricted to HE and KP majors only and this restriction is held for extra time (restrictions are not lifted when other major restrictions are lifted). Often the KP side of the course will have empty seats when the HN side is full and so you will not be able to enrol even though it shows seats are available.

You must complete the prerequisite(s) in order to enrol in a course. If you feel you have complete the equivalent of a prerequisite (for example at another university) and it is not recognized in LORIS then you may request an override by writing to bioadvising@wlu.ca. Include the course title, course code, CRN, details of your rationale, the error messages you receive when you try to enrol and any other relevant information. Merely having an interest in the subject matter and a willingness to work hard is not a rationale for an override.

Overrides will not be given for classes that are full and are at capacity.

• BI110: Unifying Life Processes
• BI226: Genetics
• BI266: Life on Earth: Plants
• BI276: Life on Earth: Microbes
• BI300: Environmental Toxicology
• BI302: Evolution
• BI305: Life and Endosymbiotic Theory
• BI330: Fundamentals of Histology
• BI349: Embryology
• BI358: Animals: Form and Function
• BI363: Plant Ecology
• BI368: Plants: Form and Function
• BI376: Microbial Physiology
• BI393: Biostatistics
• BI416/HE431: Pathophysiology
• BI426: Genome Dynamics
• BI451: Fish Physiological Adaptations
• BI459: Endocrinology
• BI463: Environmental Stress Biology of Plants
• BI470/HE432: Biomedical Virology
• BI475: Microbial Ecology
• BI484: Fundamentals of Parasitology
• BI488: Invertebrate Biodiversity and Conservation
• BI496D: From Genetics to Genomics
• BI499: Thesis
  • To apply for our BI499: Thesis course, you will have to complete the BI499 Intent to Register Application Form and attach a letter of motivation.
• WASC302: Limnology
• WASC303: Field Methods in Applied Water Science
• WASC403: Lab Techniques in Water Science

• BI111: Biological Diversity and Evolution
• BI196: Practical Skill for Biologists
• BI206: Ecology
• BI236: Cell Biology
• BI256: Life on Earth: Animals
• BI306: Biogeography and Conservation Biology
• BI308: Animal Behaviour
• BI309: Population Ecology
• BI317/HE303:Introduction to Immunology
• BI326/CH454: Bioinformatics
• BI338: Molecular Cell Biology
• BI369: Plant Physiology
• BI374: Physiological Applications of Microbiology
• BI396Z: Animal Physiology in Anthropocene
• BI400: Topics in Environmental Toxicology
• BI405: Community Ecology
• BI416/HE431: Pathophysiology
• BI441: Recombinant DNA Technology
• BI449: Developmental Biology
• BI456: Environmental Physiology of Animals
• BI458: Vertebrate Biodiversity and Conservation 
• BI464: Plants and People
• BI468: Plant Biodiversity and Conservation
• BI470/HE432: Biomedical Virology
• BI476: Microbial Disease
• BI496C: Science Communication
• BI499: Thesis 
  • To apply for our BI499: Thesis course, you will have to complete the BI499 Intent to Register Application Form and attach a letter of motivation.
• WASC304:  Wetland Science
• WASC401:  Water Policy and Legislation Water Science

• BI110: Unifying Life Processes (Summer)
• BI111: Biological Diversity Evolution (Intersession)
• BI206: Ecology (Summer)
• BI226: Genetics (Intersession and fully online)
• BI236: Cell & Molecular Biology (Intersession)
• BI256: Life on Earth: Animals (Intersession) with lab component
• BI266  Life on Earth: Plants (Intersession) with lab component
• BI276: Microbes (Intersession) with lab component
• BI306: Biogeography & Conservation Biology (Summer)
• BI338: Cells: Form and Function (Intersession) with lab component
• WASC101OC – Issues in Water and Environmental Health (fully online)

The following courses contain a laboratory component

Previous Special Topics Courses Offered Since 2010

Some special topics courses become "regularized" as senior BI or WASC courses and details are provided below. When a special topics course is regularized then you cannot hold credit for both the special topic course and the regular course (they are exclusions so you can only get credit for the special topics course or the regular course it became).

Field courses have been cancelled for 2021 due to COVID-19.

The Department of Biology usually offers one or more field courses to get you out doing science in the real world. There will be an information session at the end of the Fall 2021 term to provide information on the 2022 field courses and the special procedures for registering.  Watch your @mylaurier.ca email and MyLS for details. 

Ontario Universities Program in Field Biology

The Ontario Universities Program in Field Biology (OUPFB) provides students from participating universities with a tremendously broad and varied selection of field courses. If you are interested in the natural world and keen on gaining the experience and perspective uniquely offered through field-based learning and research, this is your opportunity.

Application Process

There is a unique application process for all OUPFB courses. Please note that you cannot apply online.

1. Download and fill out the OUPFB Application Form (pdf).
2. Apply for the course at the Laurier Biology Office (Bricker Academic Building, Room BA401, Waterloo Campus) once registration has opened.
3. In addition to the regular 0.5-credit tuition fee, you will be required to pay a deposit of $350 to Laurier at the time of application, and later, the balance of the course fee to the host university prior to departure. Attach a cheque made out to Wilfrid Laurier University to your application.

Descriptions of all field courses, including costs and prerequisites, are available on the OUPFB website.

Enrolment in each course is limited. Each university receives only a small number of guaranteed spots in certain courses. However, after the first round of applications, remaining available spots can be filled by students from any university. This is why it is important to have several course options on your application. Courses may be cancelled if there are too few early applications.

The $350 deposit will be refunded if a student does not get into the course of his/her choosing. However, students who drop a field course should not expect a refund of any field course-related costs.