Stockton (State) College
BIOL 2110 (Section 2) - GENETICS - Spring, 2002
BIOL 2115, Genetics Laboratory, is a co-requisite course carrying 0 credit units.
MATH 1100, Precalculus, is now a prerequisite for this course.
instructor: Dick Colby, C-120, ext. 4355, secretaries in B-108, ext. 4546; home 965-4453
E-mail: Dick.Colby@Stockton.Edu
My office hours are MWF 10-11, before and after class, and at other times by appointment.
Class times: MWF 2:10-3:25, C-001. There are four lab sections: choose one!
textbooks: Klug and Cummings, Essentials of Genetics 4/e, Prentice Hall, 2002.
There’s probably a study guide for the textbook. Also a “Companion Website.”
(Lab Manual, produced in-house)
This is a Q2 quantitative (QUAD) course. Although it is not a W2 writing (WAC) course, I offer a
writing exercise in which you produce three abstracts of articles published in Scientific American.
grading:
There will be review quizzes almost every Monday (about 15% of the grade)
Three cumulative exams (about 15, 20 and 25% of the grade, chronologically)
Three abstracts (minimal grade contribution, except that they are required for a
grade of B or A)
Lab grade (from lab instructor - balance of grade)
Importance of textbook: We’ll go straight through it, covering an average of 14 pages per class session. I
like to think that the authors (and all their advisors) are better able to decide what’s important than I am.
I urge you to outline the textbook into your own notebook; I think it the best way to learn from a
textbook. Be sure you can define each term in the list at the end of each chapter, and try each of the
problems.
classroom technique: I’ll try to have a handout for each class session, outlining the topics I’ll cover. The
handout will refer to pages in the textbook. I may also put the outlines on my web page. My exams are
generally based on the topics in my outline. You are expected to take notes in class, filling in the outline.
approximate schedule of class sessions, textbook chapters, exams, due dates for abstracts:
week 1 (14 Jan) M Introd’n
W Chapt. 1
F Chapt. 2
week 6 (18 Feb) M review exam
W Chapt. 8
F Chapt. 8
wk 11 (1 Apr.)M review, Ch. 16
W (Advising)
F Ch. 17, Abst. 3
week 2 (21 Jan) M MLK holiday
W Chapt. 3
F Chapt. 3
week 7 (25 Feb) M Chapt. 9
W Chapt. 10
F Chapt. 10
wk 12 (8 Apr) M Chapt. 18
W Chapt. 19
F Chapt. 20
week 3 (28 Jan) M Chapt. 4
M Chapt. 4
F Chapt. 5
week 8 (4 Mar) M Chapt. 11
W Chapt. 12
F Chapt. 13
wk 13 (15 Apr) M Chapt. 21
W Chapt. 22
F Chapt. 23
-------(spring break)------week 4 (4 Feb) M Chapt. 5
wk 9 (18 Mar) M Ch. 13, Abst. 2
wk 14 (22 Apr) M Chapt. 23
W Chapt. 6
F Chapt. 6
week 5 (11 Feb) M Ch. 7, Abst.1
W review for exam
F Exam 1
W Chapt. 14
F Chapt. 14
wk 10 (25 Mar) M Chapt. 15
W review for exam
F Exam 2
W Chapt. 24
F review
wk 15 (29 Apr) M Exam 3?
W no class?
Articles in Scientific American (I’ll make copies):
1. Cibelli et al.: “The First Human Cloned Embryo” (Jan 2002, pp. 44-51)
2. Jejalian et al.: “Why the Y [Chromosome] is so Weird” (Feb 2001, pp. 56-61)
3. R Tjian: “Molecular Machines that Control Genes” (Feb 1995, pp. 54-61)
Resources in the Library:
Feel free to browse the “semi-popular” review journal Trends in Genetics.
Please examine the book series Annual Review of Genetics (QH 431.A1).
Consider browsing the genetics book section of the Library (QH 430 - QH 480).
Note bibliography (“Selected Readings”) at the end of each chapter of your textbook.
Films in the College’s Media Center: (Let me know if you think any are worth showing in class; some will be
shown in the lab.)
Banking our Genes: DNA Data (1995, 32’)
Evolution by DNA (1972, 22’)
Experiment: Biology Series (1986, 10 films, 15’ each)
Fertilization/Meiosis (1993, 37’)
Fruit Fly
Generation upon Generation - Ascent of Man Series (1973, 52’)
Genetic Prophesy (1989, 28’, FH&S)
Genetic Testing for Breast Cancer Risk (1997, 14’)
Genetics (1995, 23’)
Human Designs (1997, 40’, FH&S)
Inheritance in a Fungus (Sordaria) (1987, 15’)
Knowledge Now - Experimental Biology Series (1996, 6 films, 30’ each: phage lambda, mouse,
Drosophila, C. elegans, Arabidopsis, Yeast)
Maxine Singer (1988, 30’ PBS)
Probability - College Algebra Series (1991, 30’, Annenberg)
Protein Synthesis - “dance enactment of translation”
Recombinant DNA Series (1987, 12 films, 15’ each: various techniques)
Secrets of Life Series (1993, 8 films, 60’ each: cancer, DNA)
Yeast as a Model Organism: Conditional Mutants (1996, 30’, Cogito)