TABLE 1. Learning categories in the phage course
| Learning category | Purpose |
| Organizing content | Students learn the language and content of biology and see relationships, similarities, and differences |
| Writing to learn | Students are given low risk opportunities to practice using the language of biology |
| Group involvement | Students are challenged to express ideas to each other, to examine, refine, modify, and expand their own and others’ ideas |
| Application | Students apply what they know to a variety of multidimensional, often self-directed, questions |