Bio 100: Biological Principles and the Human Environment
Course Schedule:
Class:
Room #: TNR 170
Day/Time: 11:00-11:50 T R (Tuesday/Thursday)
Laboratory:
Room
#: TNR 258
Day/Time:
Section 1 3.0: 8:00-10:50
R (Thursday)
Section 2 3.0: 8:00-10:50 F
(Friday)
Section 3 3.0: 13:00-15:50 R
(Thursday)
Texts:
1. Biology: Concepts and Connections, by Campbell, Reece, Taylor, and Simon (rental)
2. Discover Biology, 3rd edition by Cain, Damman, Lue, and Yoon (on reserve at the library—no need to buy this one. Another alternative is to buy each of the chapters we will read from this book—about 8 total—for the price of $1 each from http://www.nortonebooks.com )
Week-by-week **tentative** schedule of topics we will
cover:
Week 1
Tuesday: Introduction to the course and the topic. What are living things? What is Science?
Thursday: Some components of living things: biological molecules and cells, multicellular organisms
Reading: (Concepts & Connections, chapters 3, 4, 5)
Laboratory 1: unicellular and simple multicellular living things
Week 2
Tuesday: living things and ecology: species and populations, exponential growth
Thursday: logistic population growth, small populations, extinctions
Laboratory 2: mitosis and bacterial growth experiment, week I.
Week 3
Tuesday: Species interactions1: predation, parasitism, and mutualism
Thursday: Species interactions2: competition
Laboratory 3: bacterial growth II and species interactions and the Schmeeckle Reserve
Week 4
Tuesday:
Natural Selection—introduction
Thursday: (no class!)
Laboratory 3 continued: species interactions and the Schmeeckle Reserve
Week 5
Tuesday: Natural Selection—evidence and implications (case studies)
Reading: (Concepts and Connections chapter 13)
Thursday: Midterm Exam 1
Reading: NONE
Laboratory 4: Natural Selection
Week 6
Tuesday: Inheritance1: Mendel and basic genetic ideas
Reading: (Concepts and Connections, chapter 9, and first half of chapter 10)
Thursday: Inheritance2: information carrying molecules
Reading: (Concepts and Connections, chapter 8, pages 136-149, chapter 10, second half)
Laboratory 5: Meiosis and Genetics
Week 7
Tuesday: Replication and mutation
Thursday: the genetic code—basics and implications
Reading: (same chapters)
Lab: DNA Fingerprinting
Week 8
Tuesday: genetics and the environment: influences of both on organisms (modern example: antibiotic resistance)
Thursday: Diseases, evolution, and ecology
Lab: Disease Spread and Antibiotic Resistance I
Week 9
Tuesday: more examples from agriculture and natural systems—coevolution and “evolutionary arms races”???
Thursday: the bigger ecological picture 1: communities and species diversity
Lab: Plant adaptations, coevolutionary adaptations and fossil organisms
and Antibiotic Resistance II
Week 10
Tuesday: Human interactions with the environment part 1: Small populations and
introduced species
Thursday: Midterm Exam II
Lab: Introduced species
Week 11
Tuesday: the bigger evolutionary picture 1: how new species evolve
Thursday: the bigger evolutionary picture 2: the tree of life
Lab: Phylogeny
Week 12
Tuesday: Events in the evolution of life that changed the ecology of the planet, symbioses and symbiogenesis
Thursday:
basics of photosynthesis
Lab: Photosynthesis
Week 13
Tuesday: basics of respiration
Thursday: (Thanksgiving Day Off!!!)
Week 14
Tuesday: the bigger ecological picture 2: ecosystems and the biosphere
Thursday: The carbon cycle
Lab: The carbon cycle/nutrient cycling/climate change
Week 15
Tuesday: Human interactions with the environment part 2: habitat alteration
Thursday: Human interactions with the environment part 3: climate change. What happens next?
Lab: Review for final exam