Most courses are half courses (3.0 credit units) which are offered either in the fall or winter term if there is sufficient student interest. Some 900 level courses listed are 1.5 credit units. BIOL 899 and BIOL 999 are 6.0 credit units. Detailed outlines of course content are available during the summer of each year. Most courses are offered in alternate years.

The Biology Department is located in the BioSciences Complex, a large building with offices, teaching laboratories, lecture rooms and extensive research facilities. The Department also maintains the Queen's University Biological Station: more than 3000 ha of woodland, fields and shoreline on both Lake Opinicon and Elbow Lake, 50 km north of Kingston. This station has extensive laboratory and teaching facilities and can provide accommodation for 75 or more researchers and students interested in population and community ecology, limnology, behavioural ecology, and conservation biology.