Biology 102 Course Syllabus for Spring 2012

Course Description

This course is a continuation of BIO 101. Topics include evolution, biological diversity, plant structure and function, animal systems, and development and reproduction, and introductory concepts of ecology. The laboratory reinforces concepts discussed in lecture emphasizing evolution, plant and animal diversity, and anatomy and physiology of selected plants and animals. There are three hours of lecture and two hours of laboratory per week.

Credit Hours: 4; Contact Hours: 5

Instructor

Dr. Michael Gregory

Office: 219T, Phone: 562-4336  

Office Hours: M, W, F 10:00-11:00; T 10:00-12:00

E-mail:

Course Requirements

Textbook ? Biology, Campbell and Reece 7th or  8th, edition or Campbell 9th edition

Splash-Proof Goggles

Access to the Internet. 

The Biology Web contains much of the required reading material. To get to this web site, go to the college web page (http://www.clinton.edu/) and select Faculty Websites. It may be convenient to add this site to your bookmark (favorites) list. You should print the chapters in The Biology Web before reading them.

Students will be required to use the Angel online course management system for some of the assignments in this course.

Corequisite: ENG 101 or equivalent is a corequisite.

Lecture Topics and Reading Assignments

Textbook reading assignments are given below. In addition, students are expected to read or review the corresponding chapter in The Biology Web.

Laboratory Topics

Grading

Grading Scale

A	90 - 100%	C	70 - 73%
A-	87 - 89%	C-	67 - 69%
B+	84 - 86%	D+	64 - 66%
B	80 - 83%	D	60 - 63%
B-	77 - 79%	F	< 60%
C+	74 - 76%

Final Grade

Exam and Quiz Schedule

Lecture Exam Dates

Exam	Date
Exam 1*	2/17
Exam 2*	3/21
Exam 3*	4/18
Exam 4 and   Final Exam	Finals Week

*Dates for the first three exams may change. All changes will be announced in class.

Finals Week Schedule

Classes do not meet at their normally scheduled times during finals week (May 14 through 18). BIO 102 will meet two times for 2.5 hours each time. The dates and times for these classes are listed below.

Section 1 - Last lab: Monday, May 14, 12:40 - 3:10, Room 223T
               - Exam 4 and Final Exam: Wednesday, May 16, 12:40-3:10, Room 223T

Section 2 - Exam 4 and Final Exam: Monday, May 14, 7:20 - 9:50, Room 223T
               - Last lab: Friday, May 18, 7:20-9:50, Room 223T

Laboratory Quizzes

There will be approximately 14 laboratory quizzes. Laboratory quizzes will be taken at the start of each new laboratory topic. The quiz will cover material from the previous lab topic.

Make-Up Exams

If an exam cannot be taken during the regularly scheduled time, a make-up exam can be taken later. Make-up exams contain mostly essay and short-answer questions.

Laboratory quizzes cannot be made up. Students that miss a laboratory should study the missed material and be prepared for the next quiz the following week.

Assignments

Students are required to keep backup copies of all assignments until the end of the semester.

All assignments should be completed using whole sentences. Abbreviated words are not acceptable.  

All submitted work must be in your own words. If you work with a partner on an assignment that requires individual submission, you must submit your own document using your own words. You may obtain or discuss answers to the exercises from any source that is applicable, but you must use your own words to answer the questions or write the reports. Documents that appear to have been copied from others will not receive a grade (grade = 0).

Late Assignments

All assignments are due at the beginning of class on the due date. Assignments that are turned in after class has started on the due date will be considered 1 day late. Assignments submitted online must be submitted before midnight on the due date.

Scores on late assignments will be reduced by 10% of their total possible point value if they are one day late and 20% if they are two days late. They will not be accepted after two days. All assignments must be completed by the end of the last day of classes.

Attendance

The instructor reserves the right to withdraw students that miss more than 8 classes (including labs).

The laboratory class is designed to provide hands-on learning experiences. Students will learn basic laboratory skills while reinforcing concepts learned in lecture. To a large extent, grades in the laboratory will reflect participation and laboratory skills acquired, so it is important that students do not miss laboratory exercises.

Students are required to attend lecture and laboratory classes for the entire period. Students that arrive late or leave early will be marked as absent. Similarly, students that sleep during class or do not participate in class activities will be marked as absent.

Extra Credit

Extra credit is not available in this course. Extra credit assignments often distract students because they take time away from that which should be spent on the regular assignments. They promote increased understanding of related topics at the expense of the most important topics. The topics and assignments listed in the syllabus have been selected as the best way to meet the course objectives.

E-mail Communication

Students are encouraged to maintain frequent communication with their instructor. E-mail is a convenient way to ask questions about any of the material covered in the course. Please ask questions on any material that is not clearly understood.

E-mail from students should contain a minimum level of professional courtesy. For example, it should not contain abbreviations such as "u" instead of "you" and it should not contain incorrect capitalization such as "i" instead of "I." Sentences should begin with a capital letter and end with a period. The instructor will not read or reply to e-mail messages that contain these grammatical errors.

Academic Integrity

Academic honesty is expected of all Clinton Community College students. It is dishonest to misrepresent another person?s work as one?s own, to take credit for someone else?s work or ideas, to accept help on a test, to obtain advanced information on confidential test materials, or to intentionally harm another student?s chances for academic success.

Students with Disabilities

If you have, or suspect that you may have any type of disability or learning problem that may require extra assistance or special accommodations, please speak with me privately after class or during my office hours as soon as possible so that I can help you obtain any assistance you may need to successfully complete this course. You should also contact Laurie Bethka, EXT 252 (room 420M) for further assistance.

Course Continuity Plan

In the case that the college officially closes because of an emergency which causes a short term disruption of this course, we will use e-mail to continue this course in the short term (1-3 weeks). All students need to use their campus e-mail to receive course related information.

Changes

The details of this syllabus, including topics covered, calendar, grading, grading scale, and attendance policy are subject to change. Changes in the grading scale will be limited to those that result in improved (curved) grades. You will be informed in class of any changes. All changes to the syllabus will also be posted on the Internet in The Biology Web.

Technology Statement

A CCC student should expect that any class may require some course activity that uses a computer and the internet.  Activities could include but are not limited to accessing the course syllabus, schedule, or other handouts on a website, completing homework online, taking quizzes or submitting written work, participating in a discussion or sending/receiving email.

Course Objectives

As the result of instructional activities, students will be able to:

Evolution

• Explain the evidence that supports the theory of evolution including the fossil record, biogeographic, biochemical, morphological, and molecular phylogenic evidence.
• Describe the major evolutionary events in the history of life.
• Evaluate models about the origin of life on earth.
• Explain how organisms are categorized based on evolutionary changes.
• Use phylogenic trees and/or cladograms to infer hypotheses about the evolutionary relationships between organisms to show that organisms are linked by lines of descent from common ancestry.
• Use the Hardy-Weinberg Law to evaluate population genetics data.
• Evaluate evidence to investigate the role of natural selection in evolution.
• Explain the role of mutation, genetic variation, and sexual reproduction in evolutionary change.
• Identify factors that affect speciation including allopatric, geographical, and reproductive isolating mechanisms.

Viruses

• Describe the structure of a virus.
• Describe reproduction in bacteriophages, animal viruses containing DNA, and retroviruses.

Bacteria

• Describe how representative prokaryotic organisms obtain their energy and nutrients, where they found in the environment, their important relationships with other organisms, and important adaptations.
• Describe the mechanisms of genetic variation in bacteria including conjugation, transformation, transduction, transposition, and mutation.
• Compare reproduction in prokaryotic organisms to that of representative eukaryotic organisms.

Eukaryotic Diversity

• Compare the life cycles and reproductive structures of major representative phyla.
• Describe how representative eukaryotic genera obtain their energy and nutrients, where each representative organism can be found in the environment, their important relationships with other organisms, reproduction and important adaptations.
• Describe the characteristics that define phylum chordata and class mammalia.
• Identify three embryonic tissues and describe the tissues that they give rise to in animals.
• Describe the development of embryonic germ layers, symmetry, body cavity, and gut in the major phyla of animals.
• Explain the difference between open and closed circulatory systems and give examples of animals with each type.
• Compare and contrast the structure and function of circulatory, digestive, excretory, respiratory, and reproductive systems in representatives of the major phyla of animals.
• Describe the differences between cell-mediated and humoral immune responses.
• Describe the structure and function of skeletal, smooth, and cardiac muscle.
• Explain how action potentials are propagated along a neuron.
• Describe physiological mechanisms that lead to the release of neurotransmitter and explain how neurotransmitter is removed from the synaptic cleft.
• State the relationship between the hypothalamus and the posterior and anterior pituitary secretions.
• Describe how negative feedback limits the secretion of hormones by the pituitary and other endocrine glands.

Ecology

• Describe the major factors that affect the distribution of species in terrestrial and aquatic environments and explain how each factor affects the organisms in each of the major biomes.
• Distinguish between exponential growth and logistic growth.
• Distinguish between density-dependent and density-independent population growth.
• Describe the age structure of stable, declining, and increasing populations.
• Define ecological niche.
• Explain the competitive exclusion principle.
• Explain character displacement.
• Give an example of a keystone species and explain how it affects community structure.
• Explain how disturbance affects community structure.
• Describe how primary and secondary ecological succession occur and give an example of each.
• Explain how geographic factors affect biodiversity.
• Explain why higher trophic levels have less biomass.
• Give an example of a nutrient cycle and describe the nutrient as it is stored or passed between major components of the cycle.

Laboratory Objectives

Laboratory exercises will engage students in activities that reinforce lecture concepts. Students will:

1. Analyze data from fossil, anatomical, and genetic evidence to support converging lines of evidence for the theory of evolution.
2. Explore the concept of variation to reinforce natural selection operates on populations that have variable characteristics.
3. Investigate population genetics to explain the effect of natural selection on populations.
4. Prepare a gram stain of gram positive and gram negative organisms and compare these slides with preserved specimens.
5. Use aseptic technique to inoculate agar plates, slants, broths, or deep tubes with bacteria.
6. Observe preserved or live specimens of representatives of each of the major phyla of protists, fungi, plants, and animals. For each representative species, students will identify important structures that are characteristic of that taxonomic group and state the function of the structure or how it contributes to survival. These include details regarding adaptations, reproduction, ecological significance of the group, or any other significant information.
7. Investigate plant morphology, physiology, and life cycles of seedless and seed plants.
8. Perform dissections on and identify major structures of representative organisms from the major phyla such as:

• A flower
• Roundworm 
• Earthworm
• Clam
• Crayfish
• Sea star

9. Observe prepared microscope slides of tissue and identify the characteristics that distinguish each tissue described below:

• Epithelial tissue: cuboidal, columnar, pseudostratified, and simple and stratified squamous tissue
• Connective tissue: Adipose, loose (areolar), dense, cartilage, bone, and blood
• Muscle tissue: skeletal, cardiac, and smooth
• Nervous: a typical motor neuron

10. Dissect a doubly-injected mammal such as a fetal pig and identify major structures and their function of the following systems:

• Circulatory - Identify structures of the heart and the major blood vessels.
• Digestive
• Endocrine
• Excretory
• Reproductive - Identify the anatomy of both male and female specimens.
• Respiratory

11. Investigate one of the ecology concepts learned in lecture using either an inquiry based laboratory exercise involving measurement or a computer simulation.
12. Using scientific methodology, develop an experiment to investigate a testable question in the form of a hypothesis about a species of bacteria, protist, fungi, plant or animal.
13. Communicate findings from lab objective #12 (or other inquiry based lab investigation) in written format to include a hypothesis, a statistical test of the hypothesis, a conclusion based on the statistical test, a graph, a table, and literature cited.