Biology in Society

Fall 2000

Biology 003

Credits: 3

Instructor: Dr. Maureen K. Krause

Office: Room 130 Gittleson

Phone (for now): 3-5518 or 3-5516

Email: TBA

Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 11:15 - 12:00 and by appointment (please don't hesitate to ask!). If I'm not in 130, please look in lab room Gittleson 318

Lectures Monday & Wednesday 10:10 - 11:05, Breslin 105

Lab Room: Gittleson 226; Instructor: Jill Olin

Section 6: Friday 9:05 - 11:05

Section 7: Tuesday 2:45 - 4:55

Text Biology, 7^th ed., Sylvia Mader, The McGraw Hill Companies, Inc., NY.

Lab Manual Problem Solving in Biology, Kaplan (buy in lab)

Optional How to Study Science, 3^rd ed, by Drewes and Milligan

Books can be purchased at the bookstore or: http://people.hofstra.edu/faculty/dorothy_e_pumo/BioDept/books/Varsity_books

Course definition: This lecture and laboratory course is designed to introduce you to the tenets of modern biology and provide scientific background for current issues involving biology in society.

Biology in Society Objectives:

To provide an opportunity for students to gain a better appreciation for and understanding of the world around them and their relation to it.
To explore the some of the major biological theories, their development, and the data which support them.
To investigate the scientific method of problem solving and use this system of critical thinking in carrying out laboratory exercises.
To grasp the fundamental principles of genetics and heredity and understand some of their importance.
To explore modern evolutionary biology and ecology and appreciate their roles and relevance in today's world.

Grading

	# given	Points each	Total points	%
Lecture tests	2	100	200	20
Final exam	1	130	130	13
Lab quizzes	variable	150	150	15
Lab reports	3	60-70?	200	20
Article summaries	3+	50	150	15
Paper	1	170	170	17
Total			1000	100

Important dates to remember:

Exam I: Wednesday, October 4^th

Exam II: Wednesday, November 8^th

Final Exam: Monday, December 18^th, 10:30 - 12:30

Paper due: Wednesday, October 25^th

Holidays (no classes): Sept. 30^th, Oct. 9^th, Nov. 22-24

December 12^th & 13^th are snow / study / reading days

Please note:

You're adults and I expect you to be responsible, present for class, and ON TIME.
Exams I and II will cover lecture material and, if missed, will can only be made up in the extreme cases involving documented medical or other emergencies. You must make every effort to contact me in the event of such an emergency if at all possible
The final exam is cumulative.
Class participation sure won't hurt you or your grade.

Lecture schedule (day-to-day expectations will be provided during class)

Section	Topic	Content	Readings
	Introduction	What is science, really? What is life? The scientific method and experimentation; a bit o' bioethics	1
		An introduction to natural selection and evolution, the foundations of biology; Observations, mutations, environmental variation, differential survival and reproductive success; The evidence for evolution.	18
1	DNA as Information; DNA technology	What is required of genetic material and how's it work? 1) information encoding: structure and shape; 2) replication, and the importance of complementarity; 3) gene expression: the roles of mRNA, ribosomes, from gene to protein (so why is a liver cell a liver cell and neuron a neuron?); 4) mutation: causes and consequences, junk DNA, somatic and germline cells. Recombinant DNA technology: cloning and its many definitions, how to clone a gene and why you'd want to (DNA sequencing, protein factories, transgenic organisms)	14 15 16 (258-262) 12 (196-197) 17, handout
2	Reproduction & Genetics	Asexual vs. sexual reproduction: it's not as straightforward as you think! 1) Evolutionary perspective of reproductive modes differences in cell division rates among organisms 2) Cell cycle (and cancer!) 3) chromosome structure, unwinding, and sorting in mitosis 4) Sexual reproduction: diploidy vs haploidy, two divisions, and differences Basic genetics: the paradox of similarity and variation 1) historical perspective 2) Mendel and his work 3) alleles, dominance, genotype & phenotype 4) Punnett squares, 5) homozygotes and heterozygotes. Extensions of Mendelian genetics: codominance, incomplete dominance, pleiotropy, gene interactions, multiple alleles, environmental effects, polygenic inheritance, linkage Human genetics 1) genetic diseases (causes & types: recessive alleles, consanguineous matings, specific population groups, X-linked, dominant alleles and why rare, chromosomal abnormalities and nondisjunction) 2) testing for genetic diseases	9 10 11 12 13
3	Closer look at Natural Selection	Types of Natural Selection 1) directional 2) stabilizing 3) disruptive Other causes of evolutionary change 1) drift and founder events 2) pleiotropy 3) sexual selection Evolution of infectious agents (nature of, definition of virulence, role of variation, selection pressures for hosts and agent, relationship between symptoms and transmission) using colds, HIV, malaria, and Ebola as examples	19 (305-309; 366-374) handouts 24 (416) 29 (507-518)
4	Ecology	Population defined 1) Patterns of growth and regulation in populations 2) Carrying capacity 3) Human population growth Energy and the environment 1) laws of thermodynamics really do matter 2) food webs and trophic levels 3) the 10% rule - well sort of Nutrients 1) Water cycle (and this year's wacky weather) 2) deforestation and ecological effects on rainfall, nutrient retention 3) Carbon cycle, photosynthesis, CO₂ increases and global warming, C trading 4) Nitrogen forms, importance of, role of bacteria in cycling and fixing, and the ecological impacts of fertilizers use and overuse Other human impacts on the Earth and why we should care: ozone holes, CFC, habitat fragmentation, biodiversity	23 (377-383, 393-396) 24 (406-407) 27 25 6 (98-99) lab 8 27