Principles of Biology (Biol 101): Spring 2013

Dr. Kelly Hogan

MWF 9:00 – 9:50 AM (Section 001); Genome Science Bldg Rm100

Instructor:Dr. Kelly Hogan

Office Hrs: Wed3-4:30 & Fri 10:30-12:00 in Wilson Hall 104B

Supplemental Instruction TAs:

  • Chelsea
  • Megan
  • Abe Sterling

*SI times/locations: TBA (see Sakai for information)

REQUIRED TEXT AND REQUIRED ONLINE MASTERING BIOLOGY ACCESS:

Campbell Biology, Concepts and Connections, 7th Edition by Reece, Taylor, Simon, Dickey

Feel free to choose a physical book or the ebook. The ebook is the cheaper option if you do not plan to keep your book. See Sakai with more information.

**Required access to Mastering Biology the online activity and homework tool. This comes included with a NEW physical textbook or ebook, but can purchased separately if you buy a used book. If you have a used physical book, you can buy the Mastering Biology access card at the bookstore. Why this extra tool? Students in previous semesters evaluated it with high marks and felt it kept them on schedule with their learning.

Required reading: Particular chapters are required (see course outline for “Guided Reading” details) and you will be expected to have read them BEFORE completing Mastering Biologyhomework assignments and the exams.

HOMEWORK VIA MASTERING BIOLOGY.COM: (10% of your grade) Homeworks will be due every Sunday and Thursday night by 11:55 PM. It is expected that you do Guided Readings before completing the Mastering Biology assignment. Some assignments will take you as little as 15 minutes and others will take over an hour with the animations and short tutorials interspersed in the homework. It is your responsibility to start it in a timely fashion, so that you finish it by 11:55 PM. To be safe, assume your clock is 5 minutes slower than the official Mastering Biology time. Late homeworks will receive zero credit, even though you can still do them for practice. Do not count on the Mastering program to give an accurate account of how long an assignment will take. These estimates can be wildly off! There will be numerous graded at-home assignments. See my Goal #1 below and realize that I am trying to help you to succeed by giving you these regular assessments. Note: Three specific assignments will be TIMED, that is once you start you have set amount of time to finish them. These are meant to help you prepare for the exam. These are the review assignments.

See Sakai for how to register for Mastering Biology.com

SAKAI SITE (you will need your onyen to log on)

This site will have postings from my lectures such as outlines, power point slides, old exams, and supplemental material I mention in lecture. I will also post announcements regarding student concerns on this site. It is your responsibility to check it regularly.

PARTICIPATIONvia POLL EVERYWHERE (6 % of your final grade): Are you required to come to class? Are you required to pay attention? Are you required to discuss biology with your classmates during class? Nope, I cannot make you do any this. But, since this is your education and you want that 4.0 this semester, it behooves you to do all of these things that make you a successful student. I enjoy Facebook too, but put it away and participate in your education!As an incentive, 6% of your grade will come from a program called PollEverywhere.com that you use through your laptop or smart phone. See Sakai for the required registration and troubleshooting and grading policy information. If you do not register correctly, you do not have the opportunity for these points.Please read the Poll Everywhere grading policy, and please do not email me to tell me you were absent. Note: our classroom very spotty/poor cell phone access, so don’t rely texting your answers—you will likely end up losing points with failed technology. Plan on having a smartphone, ipad, or laptop with a charged battery with wi-fi access for class everyday. Problems getting on wi-fi with this device? Ask IT-HELP. You are expected to continually check your poll everywhere account to see that your answers are being received by the program. If you can’t see them, I can’t see them!

SUPPLEMENTAL INSTRUCTION (SI): Your SI sessions will be offered at least 3 times a week. Each session will be scheduled for 1 hour. The times and location of these sessions will be posted on Sakai during the first week of class. You are not required to attend SI, but it is highly recommended, since this is your opportunity to get more “one-on-one” attention for this course. I suggest you fit one into your schedule early in the semester and attend weekly as if it is a required class. Your SI instructor contact information is listed above.

EXAMS: There will be three exams given during the regular semester.

The format will be multiple choice, so bring two #2 pencils to the exam. These are not cumulative exams and will only cover the material specified on the course schedule. To see exam scores, log into student central and follow link for “results of machine scored exams”. There will be a final exam given, and it will be cumulative. For all exams, you will need your PID number as identification on your exam sheet. Additionally, you may be asked to verify your identity, so it is required that you bring your one-card to each exam. Failure to produce a one-card if asked may result in a zero on that exam. Test material to study: chapter reading outlines/homeworks, lecture activities, and power point slides. Therefore, to succeed in this class, it behooves you to take each reading/homework seriously and actively engage in all class discussions. Also, see the last page of this syllabus.

NO MAKE-UP EXAMS! NO EXAMS GIVEN EARLY!

(Your grade will be adjusted based on how many exams you take (see below how grade is determined)

WHAT YOU SHOULD BRING TO CLASS EVERY DAY:

1. Outlines from Sakai (either printed or on laptop). Many successful students have recommended bringing these printed to avoid laptop distraction and to be able to draw freely.

2. Extra blank paper for drawings, notes, activities etc. (or tablet computer for drawing)

3. 3 x 5 index cards (with or without lines, preferably white).

4. Poll everywhere Wi-Fi device: Laptop/ipad/itouch/smartphone for internetWi-Fi access


And, this brings me to the goals of the course…

1. This course should prepare you to succeed in future science courses. You should learn how to be an active learner in the lecture hall and you should learn how to actively study.There is no magic formula that works for each student. Some students find they learn best when they write and re-write notes, others need to record the lectureand re-listen, others like to make models and “act out” biological processes. And what if you don’t plan to take any more science classes? Active learning and studying is a skill that is needed for any discipline! You can achieve these goals by attending a “how to study biology workshop”see date below on schedule, attending SI regularly (see below), using practice exams, and reading the book. And maybe most important: you should be thoroughly evaluating their exams to see what kinds of questions you are missing (remembering, understanding, applying). I take a special interest in students improving their skills and my office hours are always open (no appointment necessary) to discuss this. Many former students can attest to this.

Amended Bloom’s Taxonomy: developed as a method of classifying educational goals for student performance evaluation. You should think about this as you study for exams and ask yourself, am I using different kinds of thinking?

2.This course should provide you with the basic language and principles of biology.For those of you continuing in biology, this is just the tip of the iceberg. For others, this might be your only biology course! You can achieve this goal by practicing vocabulary and learning the latin/greek roots of words. You can draw slides and label the components. You can find common themes in the chapters we cover, such as how the theory of evolution applies to chapters not specifically about evolution. Thoroughly learning the principles is about making connections between material learned at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester!Repetition is key to building a foundation of knowledge (and that is why you have lecture, a textbook, SI, etc.).

Specifically, by the end of the semester you should be able to:

  • Evaluate a scientific study and determine if its design is sound.
  • Describe what life is and hierarchy of life from small organic molecules through ecosystems.
  • Explain what “food” is and compare and contrast animals and plants in how they obtain and use energy from “food”.
  • Explain when/how/why cells make identical copies of themselves and when/how/why cells “mix up” genetic content before dividing.
  • Describe how genes relate to proteins and how genes are inherited.
  • Explain how genetic variation and natural selection lead to adaptations and how adaptations relate to survival, reproduction, and intra- and inter-specific interactions.
  • Detail anatomical and physiological examples of adaptations in the animal body in which “structure fits function” at the cellular and whole body level.

3. This course should excite you about biology. Throughout the semester I hope you will ask yourself and me, why is this relevant to me? Some lessons will be obvious. Other lessons are less obvious to you. Early in the semester you will also learn how science is performed. I encourage you think about the content you learn through the semester and continually realize that each sentence in the textbook may represent years of rigorous testing and data collection. I hope that the biology that we learn this semester will cause you to ask more questions. You might even leave with more questions than answers!

Many students like to complain that this is a “weed out” course. Of course this is not true, but why does it have this reputation? Fact: the average grade in this class is in the C range; C is not bad it is average. Yet, many students also earn D’s and F’s in this class. This is absolutely shocking to first year students who have, in the past, received A’s in their high school classes. You are wondering…is there a pre-determined number of students that receive a C, D, or F? Nope. See below to see what grade you need to earn. In theory, if the whole class earns A’s, then the whole class is given A’s. So why don’t all students do as well as they think they will when they walk into class on the first day? My experience tells me that:

1) Some students do not have the active learning and studying skills that they should already have at the college level (It often takes these students an exam or two for them to recognize this.)

2) Some students do not actually put in the effort that is necessary (even though they may think they are putting in a big effort).

HOW IS YOUR GRADE DETERMINED?(Note: there will be no changes to HOW your final average is calculated at the end of the semester…so please don’t ask!) Your final average is calculated:

If you take all three semester examinations:

The lowest examination grade is dropped and the total for the semester =

(0.28 x exam) + (0.28x exam) + (0.28 x final exam) + (0.10 homework average) + (0.06 participation score)

If you take any two semester examinations:

Both the exams you took will count and the total for the semester =

(0.28 x exam) + (0.28 x exam) + (0.28 x final exam) + (0.10 homework average) + (0.06 participation score)

If you take one semester examination:

The total for the semester =

(0.28 x exam) + (0.56 x final exam) + (0.10 homework average) + (0.06 participation score)

If you take zero semester examinations: (This rarely results in a passing grade—so, don’t plan to do this.)

The total for the semester =

(0.84 x final exam) + (0.10 homework average) + (0.06 participation score)

Here are the guidelines as to how I will convert your average to a letter grade:
A = or greater than: 93C+ = or greater than: 74
A- = or greater than: 90C = or greater than: 69
B+ = or greater than: 86C- = or greater than: 60
B = or greater than: 83D = or greater than: 55

B- = or greater than: 79F is less than: 55

As with any course, the professor reserves to right to make changes to the syllabus, (excluding the officially scheduled final examination), when unforeseen circumstances occur. These changes will be announced as early as possible so that students can adjust their schedules.

HONOR CODE: For this class, what can I collaborate on with my classmates and not break the Honor Code? You may do Guided Readings together. This isa learning tool to see what YOU do and do not know. I believe it is best done independently and then reviewed collaboratively. Poll Everywhere questions are also usually meant to be collaborative, unless I instruct you otherwise. Homework (Mastering) is to be done independently. Exams are never collaborative. On any exam, you may be asked for ID and if “wandering eyes” are observed, you will be moved to a seat in front of the room.

Also note that any copyright violation of Mastering Biology content is also an honor code/academic integrity violation.

Date / Unit / Topic / Broad objectives
W Jan 9 / Introduction / Describe course components and make introductions.
Due Thursday 1/10 by 11:55 PM: Guided Reading Qs (GRQs) + Two Mastering assignments:
1) Introduction to Mastering and
2) Exploring Life and the Process of Science
F Jan 11 / Process of Science / Distinguish science from unjustified claims and explain how science is iterative.
Differentiate uses for line, bar, and scatter plot graphs.
Describe elements of research design and how they impact scientific findings/conclusions (e.g. identify strengths and weaknesses in research related to bias, sample size, randomization, experimental control)
Formulate a testable hypothesis and design a controlled experiment.
Unit 1
Cell Biology / Due Sunday 1/13 (by 11:55 PM): GRQs + Macromolecules
M Jan 14 / Macromolecules / Classify polysaccharides based on function in plants and animals and describe how monomers join to form them.
Define lipids and explain their functions and properties in polar or non-polar solvents.
W Jan 16 / Macromolecules / Draw protein structure and depict the consequence of mutations on normal structure and function.
Explain the molecular forces that hold protein structure together and how they can be disrupted.
Identify how the human body uses macromolecules from food.
Identify macromolecules in food labels and make calculations about these macromolecules relative to the label.
Explain the effects of varying the amounts of the different macromolecules in your diet (such as saturated fats, proteins, simple/complex carbohydrates).
Due Thursday 1/17: GRQs + Cells
F Jan 18 / Cells / Predict structures of the prokaryotic cell that would be antibiotic targets.
Describe how a protein is synthesized and exported from a cell how disease can be caused when this process goes awry.
Due Sunday 1/20 HW: GRQs+ Membrane Structure and Function
M Jan 21 / NO CLASS: MLK DAY
W Jan 23 / Cells / Explain how insulin-producing cells are like dysfunctional factories when a person is diabetic.
Interpret experiments about protein production and make conclusions about why protein production is impaired.
Due Thursday 1/24: GRQs+ Enzymes and Energy
F Jan 25 / Membranes, Enzymes, Energy / Discriminate why certain molecules cross membranes with different methods.
Predict how water will move via osmosis and explain why this is central to osmoregulation.
Describe how membrane components move around cells.
Explain the importance of enzymes in metabolism and how they are inhibited.
Explain how ATP does work
Sunday 1/27 HW: GRQs+ Cellular Respiration
M Jan 28 / Cellular Respiration / Diagram the major stages of aerobic respiration, noting the location in the cell and the inputs and outputs of each stage.
Explain how coenzymes are reduced during respiration and how this contributes to ATP formation.
W Jan 30 / Cellular Respiration / Explain how a H+ gradient and oxygen are both necessary for oxidative phosphorylation.
Describe anaerobic respiration pathways and differentiate them from aerobic pathways.
Due Thursday 1/31: GRQs+ Photosynthesis
F Feb 1 / Photosynthesis / Describe the two parts of photosynthesis and the inputs and outputs of both parts.
Explain what kind of sunlight is used by the plant and why sunlight is necessary.
Explain photophosphorylation in the light reactions of photosynthesis, and describe how photophosphorylation is similar and different from the oxidative phosphorylation in aerobic respiration.
Explain how trees are carbon sinks.
Describe where the mass of a tree comes from. and explain how the “mass” is made.
Due Sunday 2/3 Unit 1 Review Qs
M Feb 4 / Unit 2
Genetics / Mitosis/Cancer / Recognize/draw the stages of mitosis, contrasting animal and plant cells.
Explain the consequences of specific stages of mitosis failing.
Explain how cells know when it is time to divide.
Contrast asexual and sexual reproduction in outcome and types of organisms/cells that use each.
Explain how cancer cells disobey the rules that normal cells follow in the cell cycle and in cell growth.
W Feb 6 / EXAM 1 / All material from Jan 9- Feb 1; Bring scantron
Due Thursday 2/7: GRQs + (be sure to read two articles on Sakai too), + Mitosis, Cancer and Meiosis
F Feb 8 / Cancer cont./Meiosis / Explain the significance of a mutated BRCA-1 gene in terms of risks and consequences and the “utility” of a gene test for actionable genes.
Define haploid, diploid, and homologous chromosomes and be able to calculate the diploid and haploid number when given an illustration of a cell