BIO 33 SYLLABUS
AUGUST, 2001
EDITION 9.0
Dear Student:
Biology 33, Introduction to Modern Concepts of Biology,
is a one-semester course that emphasizes major biological topics and how they
directly influence you and other members of society. This course is highly
recommended for non-science major students who expect to transfer to upper
level colleges and universities.
Various
faculty members have actively prepared the topics, laboratories, and other
experiences for what we hope will be a dynamic and important course. For some
of you, it may be the only course you ever take in the biological sciences
while you are at college. For others, because of this course and your new
interest in biology, you might decide to take other courses in the biological
sciences. You might even perhaps, decide to become a biology major or prepare
for a career in the biological sciences.
The
faculty wants you to succeed and it offers you a number of suggestions that
will help you. Make every effort to do the required readings while the topic is
being considered in class lectures and discussions. Come prepared for each
laboratory experience by reading the introduction for the assigned laboratory.
When you are unsure of something, arrange to see the instructor so that he/she
can make recommendations or clarify the topic. Prepare to satisfy the objectives
that have been given to you for each unit. Be active in your efforts,
recognizing that a good portion of the responsibility for learning is yours.
Much learning
takes place well beyond the classroom. Check local newspaper listings for
television programs that are directly related to your efforts in this course. The Nova Series and television
specials that focus on nature and biological issues are informative, up to
date, and for the most part, well done. Articles in local newspapers (The New York Times on Tuesdays, Science Times) and magazines (Scientific American) provide up-dated
writings that will give you more details on many topics that directly affect
your life. Visits to the college library and your community library can expose
you to many historical writings and readings in the sciences. Once again, you
must be an active participant in your learning.
We hope that
you are as excited about taking this course as we are in offering it. We
believe that as a result of this course, you will experience changes in your
thinking and actions, and these changes are what education is all about. If you
have any difficulty, be sure to communicate with your instructor. If you have
any suggestions as to how this course can be improved even more, please convey
them to your instructor, or to me.
Best wishes in
this course.
Sincerely,
Gary
Sarinsky
Coordinator
for Biology 33
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TEXTBOOK AND GRADING
POLICIES
. 1
TEXTBOOK
... 1
LAB
MANUAL
.. 1
GRADING
POLICIES
.. 1
EXTRA CREDIT
.. 1
STUDENT
RESPONSIBILITIES
2
ABSENCES
2
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS
. 2
LECTURE
SYLLABUS...................................
3
ORGANIZING CONCEPTS OF BIOLOGY AND
THE
NATURE OF BIOLOGICAL INQUIRY...
.
3
BIOETHICS................................
. 5
PRINCIPLES
OF EVOLUTION - MACROEVOLUTION..
9
HUMAN
EVOLUTION...........................
.
9
POPULATION
ECOLOGY........................
.
11
COMMUNITY
INTERACTIONS....................
.
11
ECOSYSTEMS................................
13
HUMAN
IMPACT ON THE BIOSPHERE.............
.
15
CELL
STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION..............
17
CELL
DIVISION AND MITOSIS................
.
18
MEIOSIS...................................
18
PRINCIPLES
OF INHERITANCE.................
.. 20
CHROMOSOME
VARIATIONS AND HUMAN GENETICS
. 21
THE
MOLECULAR BASIS OF INHERITANCE........
23
GENETIC
INFLUENCES ON EVOLUTIONARY
PRINCIPLES
MICROEVOLUTION...
.. 24
WEEKLY LECTURE
SCHEDULE............................
.. 26
WEEKLY LABORATORY
SCHEDULE.........................
. 27
TEXTBOOK AND GRADING POLICIES
TEXTBOOK: Pruit,
Nancy, Underwood, Larry S., Surver, William. BioInquiry: Making Connections
in Biology. John Wiley & Sons. 2000
LAB MANUAL: Laboratory Manual for
Biology 33/ Introduction to Modern Concepts of Biology. Harcourt College
Publishers. 2000.
GRADING POLICIES
LECTURE:
2 Lecture Exams @ 15% = 30%
Final Exam = 20%
50%
LABORATORY:
Laboratory Reports = 25%
Laboratory Quizzes = 25%
50%
100%
*Students must return all graded laboratory reports at the
end of the semester. Failure to
comply will result in an incomplete (I) grade.
EXTRA CREDIT MAY BE EARNED IN THE FOLLOWING WAYS:
Term Paper------up to 5
additional points added on to lecture average.
Term Project and Report------up
to 5 additional points added on to laboratory average.
Information about the
term paper:
1.
5 type written -
double spaced pages or equivalent if printed or written.
2. Topic selected
with the approval of the instructor.
3. Use bibliographic format and at least three
(3) sources.
4. The term paper that you submit must be your original
work. Presenting someone else's work, ideas or words as your own is
plagiarism. When writing a term paper, you must give credit to those authors,
researchers, and others whose ideas, words and research you are using.
5. The term paper
will not be accepted after the end of the 9th semester week.
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES
Absences
The
Student Attendance Policy is fully explained in the Kingsborough Community
College Catalogue.
The
absent student must take the initiative for remaining up to date in the course
and is responsible for all covered material and assigned work. It may be
possible to make up missed laboratory activities. The student must discuss
absences from laboratory activities with his or her professor. This should be
done prior to an anticipated absence or immediately following a missed activity
session.
WRITTEN
ASSIGNMENTS
You
will be given laboratory reports to complete each week. The questions and
problems will be based on the observations and experiments that you perform.
While you may be performing these experiments in groups, your reports must reflect your independent observations, interpretations,
and conclusions.
LECTURE SYLLABUS BIOLOGY
33
ORGANIZING CONCEPTS OF BIOLOGY
AND THE
NATURE OF BIOLOGICAL INQUIRY
1. The scientific methods
2. Limitations on science
3. Technology - applying scientific principles
4. Biology
- The study of life
5. Major Theories of
Biology
6. Shared Characteristics of life
7. Life's diversity
a)
Six kingdoms
b)
An evolutionary view of diversity
READING
ASSIGNMENT: TEXT - pages 1 15; 209 222; 231 - 242
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
I. You should be able to use and define or
describe the following words:
science biology
hypothesis experiment
control group experimental group
theory organelle
cell tissue
organ organ system
photosynthesis cellular respiration
kingdom species
organism metabolism
homeostasis reproduction
mutation inheritance
adaptation evolution
genus technology
II. You should be
able to:
1. List the steps in the scientific method, and apply them to
investigating a sample scientific problem.
2. State the
differences between science and technology.
3. State why scientific knowledge and technology has assumed a
position of enormous importance in modern society, and the role that citizens
should try to follow concerning this knowledge and its applications.
4. Identify the
limitations that are imposed on science and scientists.
5. List the
characteristics of living things, and state why it is difficult to define life.
6. Arrange in
order, from smallest to largest, the levels of organization that occur in
nature. Define each as you list it.
7. Although organisms share many characteristics of life, different
life forms present a great diversity of characteristics as well. Explain what is meant by the term diversity
and discuss its significance.
FOCUS
ON BIOETHICS
Should
researchers insist on scientific accuracy by designing long-term trials and
withholding unproven drugs from patients on the grounds that untested therapies
could do more harm than good? Or,
should they heed compassion and release drugs as soon as they show any hint of
effectiveness, running the risk that in the absence of carefully controlled
trials, it may never be possible to tell which drugs are actually more
effective?
BIOETHICS
OVERVIEW FOR STUDENTS
"Ethics"
is the study of voluntary human actions and whether they are right or
wrong. "Bioethics" is that
study as it relates to the life and medical sciences. As biology students, it is important for you to recognize and
analyze bioethical issues, and to use your intelligence to determine what is
right and wrong. As citizens, long
after you have completed your formal education, you will face and deal with
bioethical issues for the rest of your life.
Recent developments in biology research
and biotechnology enables man to interfere with or control life. Although
society has the capacity to achieve certain results, the question often is
whether it should do so.
1. We may be able to
clone humans to achieve various objectives, e.g., to establish an embryo bank
from which prospective parents could choose a child with genetic
characteristics they desire, or to produce a society of superwomen and
supermen. Should we do so?
2. We have a limited amount of resources for
health care. Should we deny health care to persons over the age of 55 years if
there is a younger person requiring the same treatment?
3.
Should everyone be compelled to undergo compulsory drug testing?
4. Should smoking be banned entirely because of
the reported effect of "second hand smoke"?
5. Should health care professionals be required
to make public the names of all persons
with diseases which are or are suspected to be contagious?
6. Should trained
biologists, particularly genetic engineers, who have demonstrated practical
applications of recombinant DNA technology, such as the production of human
growth hormone and insulin in microbes, and who have produced an FDA approved
genetically altered tomato now being marketed, be limited in their activities
because of the concern that the formation of new plant and microbial organisms
might some day lead to the creation of new kinds of human beings?
7. Does the insertion of genes from higher
organisms to lower organisms by recombinant DNA technology itself represent
interference in evolution?
8. Do we have the right to interfere with
natural selection when we do not know where it will lead?
9. Recent advances in human genetics provide
new methods for diagnosing and treating diseases, and promoting human
health. Walter Eckhart, Ph.D. of The Salk Institute, raises the following
bioethical issues:
".....the new knowledge poses questions about who
should have access to information about an individual's genetic makeup, how the
information should be used, and what genetic manipulations should be permitted
in an attempt to prevent or cure genetic diseases."
Dealing with
bioethical issues requires a step-by-step approach.
1. To recognize the existence of
bioethical issues, because not all biological facts involve bioethical issues.
2. Where a bioethical issue
exists, you must be able to define or describe the biological facts and
principles related to the issue.
3. To think about the issue and
to decide which course of action appears to be right. In doing so, keep in mind
that society and other individuals may make an opposite choice, that the
outcome of your choice is uncertain, and that it may turn out that in the long
run your choice may prove to be unwise or perhaps even disastrous.
*****************************
STUDENT OBJECTIVES FOR BIOETHICS
BIOETHICAL TOPICS AND READING ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED
BY THE INSTRUCTOR AT APPROPRIATE TIMES DURING THE COURSE
I. You should be
able to use and define or describe the following words:
ethics drug
morals pharmaceutical
bioethics eugenics
euthanasia diagnosis
death cloning
genetic
engineering fetology
abortion genetic
screening
health - good and
poor handicapped
experimentation suicide
II.
You should be able to:
1. Identify major
issues for the individual and the society that are considered bioethical.
2. Cite biological facts that do not
involve bioethical issues.
2a. Use the
following model when considering bioethical issues:
A. BIOETHICAL FACTS
B. BIOETHICAL ISSUE
C.
POSSIBLE ACTIONS. D.
ETHICAL DECISIONS
WHY RIGHT?
WHY WRONG?
1..........
2..........
3..........
etc.
2b. Example 1 uses
the model above to demonstrate how to make your own bioethical decisions. Select a bioethical issue, state the biological facts involved
and possible
opposing courses of action that might
be taken to resolve the issue, and discuss why each course of action might be
right or wrong. While you are looking
at the format of Example 1, complete Section D by making your own ethical
decisions and explaining your reasons for them.
Example 1
A. BIOLOGICAL FACT. Nicotine damages the organs of the respiratory system. In addition, recent research suggests that
cigarette smoke harms the health of
persons near the smoker.
B. BIOETHICAL ISSUE. Should smokers be
prevented from smoking near others in order to protect the health of
non-smokers nearby?
C. POSSIBLE ACTIONS.
ACTION 1. Prohibit
smoking in the presence of non-smokers.
ACTION 2. Require
smokers to warn non-smokers that the smoker intends to smoke, so that the
smoker can move away.
Action 3. Allow smokers to smoke where they wish.
Action 4. Ban smoking under all conditions.
Action 5. ??????????????????????
D. ETHICAL DECISIONS RIGHT WRONG
Action 1 ?????? ??????
Action 2 ?????? ??????
Action 3 ?????? ??????
Action 4 ?????? ??????
Action 5 ?????? ??????
3. Identify a single issue that you believe our society will be
confronting in the twenty-first century and how the society could resolve it.
4. Discuss the relationship between
science and morality.
5. Contrast the view of human responsibility for the
stewardship of "life's continuity on earth", by Stephen Jay Gould
with the belief that humans have a right to enjoy and use as much of the
world's resources as they want.
PRICIPLES OF EVOLUTION
MACROEVOLUTION
HUMAN EVOLUTION
1. Emergence of Evolutionary Thought
a)
Lamark - Theory of Acquired Characteristics
b)
Darwin and Wallace - Theory of Evolution through Natural Selection
2. Evidence of Macroevolution
a)
The fossil record
b)
Dating fossils
c)
Comparative morphology
d)
Comparative biochemistry
e)
Branchings, extinctions, and adaptive radiations
3. Origin of Life
a)
Early earth and its atmosphere
b)
Synthesis of biological molecules
c)
Self replicating systems
d)
The first plasma membrane
4. Human Evolution
a)
The primates - Origins and evolutionary trends
b)
The hominids
READING
ASSIGNMENT: TEXT - pages 17 54; 222
230;
supplement for human evolution
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
I. You should be able
to use and define or describe the following words:
fossils evolution
macroevolution comparative
morphology
comparative biochemistry homologous
structures
morphological divergence analogous
structures
morphological convergence reducing
atmosphere
ozone heterotroph
autotroph chemosynthetic
bipedal stereoscopic
vision
primate
hominid
Australopith Homo
erectus
Homo sapiens evolutionary
tree
extinction adaptive
radiation
II.
You should be able to:
1. Describe Lamark's
Theory of Acquired Characteristics and its significance to the study of
evolution.
2. Outline the Darwin - Wallace theory of evolution by natural
selection.
3. Define macroevolution and explain the
value of fossil evidence.
4. Define comparative morphology and distinguish between
homologous and analogous structures; relate these terms to morphological
divergence and morphological convergence.
5. Describe the role of comparative biochemistry in establishing
evolutionary relationships and cite examples.
6. Outline the steps that could account for the origin of life
from non-living matter and state what evidence exists to show that these steps
occurred.
7. Compare and contrast the early and
current atmosphere.
8. State how the earliest organisms changed their environments.
How did this lead to the evolution of modern organisms?
POPULATION ECOLOGY
COMMUNITY
INTERACTIONS
1. Ecology Defined
2. Population Dynamics
a)
Population size and patterns of growth
b)
Checks on population growth
3. Human Population Growth
a)
How we began sidestepping controls
b)
Present and future growth
c)
Controlling population growth
d)
Zero population growth
4. Characteristics of Communities
a)
The concepts of niche and habitat
b)
Types of species interactions
READING ASSIGNMENT: TEXT - pages 445 - 476
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
I. You should be
able to use and define or describe the following words:
ecology population
habitat community
ecosystem biosphere
zero population growth J-shaped
curve
exponential growth arithmetic
growth
biotic potential carrying
capacity
limiting factor logistic
growth
S-shaped curve density-dependent
controls
niche density-independent
controls
community commensalism
interspecific competition predation
parasitism
II.
You should be able to:
1.
Describe the factors that affect population density, distribution, and
dynamics.
2.
Explain the meanings of population curves on graphs that take the shape
of J
and S.
3. Describe the difference between
density-dependent and density-independent factors; give and explain examples of
both.
4. Indicate how the
principles of ecology can influence human social, economic, and political
considerations.
5. Explain how the kinds of
interactions among species can shape the structure of a biological community.
6. Describe the human population
explosion, its causes and probable fate.
7. Describe the characteristics of a
community.
8. Define and distinguish between habitat
and niche.
9. List and distinguish among the several
types of species interactions.
ECOSYSTEMS
1. Characteristics of Ecosystems
2. Structure of Ecosystems
a)
Tropic levels
b)
Food webs
3. Energy Flow Through Ecosystems
a)
The laws of energy
b)
Photosynthesis
c)
Cellular respiration
d)
Primary productivity
e)
Major pathways of energy flow
f)
Ecological pyramids
4. Biogeological Cycles
a) Hydrologic cycle
b)
Carbon cycle
c)
Nitrogen cycle