BIOS 100 Spring 2015
Biology of Cells & Organisms
Lecture Center A1 CRN # 17077
Instructors:
Robert Paul Malchow, Ph.D.
Mike Muller
paulmalc@uic.edu 413-3614
mmuller@uic.edu 996-3476
MWF 11 AM
4083
3092
SEL
SEL
TAs:
Office Hours:
Dr. Malchow
Wednesday 8:30-10 am outside my lab, 4083 SEL, and
Wednesday 12-1 pm in the African American Cultural Center,
2nd floor, Addams Hall. No appointment needed!
(if these times don’t work, contact via email to set up a meeting)
Mike Muller:
Wednesday 10-12 am 3092 SEL
Course Description: Bios 100 and its companion course Bios 101 serve as
introductions to critical ideas and issues in contemporary biology. They are
designed to provide the student with the intellectual foundation to handle these
topics at more advanced and detailed levels in upper division courses.
Lectures in Bios 100 survey fundamental concepts related to the chemical basis
of life, biological chemistry, the structure and function of cells and organisms,
DNA and RNA, molecular genetics, cellular replication, organismal development
and function, energy transformation, respiration and photosynthesis.
Laboratory assignments are designed to provide an introductory hands-on
experience to deepen students’ understanding about the nature of biological
inquiry. Topics include basic microscopy and quantitative analysis, examination
of cell structure, characteristics of enzyme function, cellular respiration,
photosynthesis, mitosis & meiosis, and DNA, and structural and functional
characteristics of plants and animals. Animals will be used in the laboratory.
The discussion section is designed to connect the lecture and lab topics to
current issues and research in the Biological Sciences that are likely to affect
students’ lives. Among the topics expected to be discussed are cloning, personal
genomics, GM organisms, antibiotic resistance, the Green Revolution, and the
nature of scientific knowledge. It will also allow time for review as well as group
retakes of exams.
There is a significant amount of biochemistry and chemistry-related material in
this course. Students are strongly advised to take a chemistry course prior to
taking Bios 100.
This course is designed for those planning to pursue Biology-related topics in
depth in the future. Bios 100 is not a course recommended for those who
have little or no background in the sciences.
Textbooks & Other Materials:
Required:
- Text: UIC Custom edition of BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE, 5th Ed, by Scott
Freeman; Pearson Press, 2013 and access to the website associated with
the 5th edition of “Mastering Biology”. (NOTE: you DO NOT NEED to
purchase the virtual labs)
- BIO 100 lab manual by Michael Muller (lab manual, sold only at UIC bookstore)
- iClicker, available at the UIC Bookstore. Register your iClicker through the
course Blackboard web site (more below).
We have worked with Pearson Press to providing all the information needed for
the course while Saving Students Money by developing a specific version of the
materials needed for Bios 100. The UIC book store carries this special version,
which includes all the chapters we use in Bios 100 printed out, as well as a code
for web access to Mastering Biology, which we will use extensively, through our
Blackboard course site. The package also includes electronic access to the
complete Freeman text available for 2 years from the date of purchase. We
believe it is a price-effective package.
Alternatively, you can purchase a hard copy of the entire text by Scott Freeman
(4th or 5th edition is fine), but then you MUST purchase access to Mastering
Biology through our blackboard web link.
Access to the Mastering Biology will be through a link on blackboard. If you want
to purchase this item separately, you must purchase access to Mastering
through our Blackboard link – you cannot purchase the correct version off
the web!
Optional:
- A Photographic Atlas for the Biology Laboratory, by Van de Graaff & Crawley,
Morton Publishing.
iClicker registration: iClicker is a response system that allows you to respond
to questions posed in class. Students receive participation points for doing so.
iClicker remotes need to be registered within the first 3 (three) weeks of class.
To register your iClicker, log in to Blackboard, select the Bios 100 course, go to
Tools, and click on the link that says “Register your iClicker”. Note: no other way
of registering the iclicker will work; you MUST register it through the Blackboard
website. The remote ID is the series of numbers and letters on the back of the
iClicker. If you cannot read the number on the clicker, the UIC Book store has a
means to determine the number. iClickers will be used every day in class, and
you are responsible for bringing your remote daily. No clicker, no points – if you
forget your clicker, you lose that day’s point.
Disabilities: Students with disabilities who require accommodations for access
or participation in this course must be registered with the Disability Resource
Center; contact: 312-413-2183(voice) or 312-413-0123(TTY). The Disability
Resource Center is located at the Student Services Building (SSB), 1200 W.
Harrison St., Room 1190 SSB (MC 321) Chicago, IL 60607
Academic Dishonesty Policy: Any student caught copying others' work on an
assignment or exam or cheating in any other way will receive a zero for that
assignment or exam and will be referred to the Student Judicial Affairs
Committee, the Department Chair and/or Dean. Be sure to give proper
attribution when using others' work in laboratory assignments.
Lecture Capture: We will be using a video/audio lecture capture system to
capture instructor presentations and make them available to students. These
materials must NOT be put up on any other public venue by students (putting
them on your personal computer or IPOD is fine).
Laptops and Cell Phones: We ask that students NOT use laptops, tablets or
phones for any other purpose than viewing course materials and taking notes.
Please, no texting or cell phone use in the lecture, labs and discussion sections.
Courtesy to other students: The lecture hall, A1, is very large and prone to
noise, making it very difficult for students in the back to hear the lecture.
PLEASE refrain from talking in class. If there is a need for a student to leave the
class early, they should do so quietly.
NOTE: We reserve the right to make changes in this syllabus. Any changes will
be announced in lecture or posted on Blackboard. Coming to class will be
important for keeping current on if and how the syllabus changes.
Grading: The point levels below are guarantees - for example, if you earn 840
points, you are guaranteed a B. We will never raise the grading scale. However,
at the end of the semester, we may lower it. Please don't pester us too much
about this - we won't know if the scale will move or not until after the final exam is
graded at the end of the semester - it usually doesn’t change at all!
Point values: Maximal points that can be obtained are: 600 points on tests,
110 points for lab, 50 points for review questions & pre-lab quizzes asked during
the discussion section, 55 points for discussion of related articles in the
discussion section, 10 points for leading a discussion section, 45 points for
Group Projects and evaluation of those projects, 100 points for completing the
assigned exercises in Mastering Biology and other associated assignments, and
30 points for iClicker use. There are thus a total of 1000 points.
Grading scale:
900-1000
800-899
700-799
600-699
0-599
A
B
C
D
F
Grades for tests, labs, discussions and clicker points will be posted on the UIC
Blackboard course site. Mastering Biology will have its own grade book. Make
sure to check the accuracy of your grades in the grade book on a regular basis.
Clicker points must be checked on the Blackboard grade book by the end of the
third week of the semester to make sure they are being input correctly. Students
failing to check their clicker grades have the potential to lose clicker points.
Exams: Each hourly examination is comprised of either 40 or 50 multiple-choice
questions and is worth a total of 150 points. There are a total of 5 exams – 4
during the course, and the final exam. If a test is not taken, the score for that test
will be counted as a zero. In calculating grades, the test having the lowest score
will be dropped. This policy is in place to allow students who must miss one
exam due to circumstances beyond their control (for example, illness or an
accident) to do so without penalty - the score for that exam will be dropped. If a
student has taken the first 4 exams, the final examination is thus more or less
optional. If you choose to take the final and have taken the other four exams, we
will drop the lowest exam score. Note that there is no penalty for taking the final
examination even if you have taken all four other exams - if the final is your
lowest score, we will drop the final examination score. If you miss one of the
four hourly examinations, you must take the final examination. To be clear,
there will be NO MAKE-UP EXAMS – we simply drop one of the test scores. The
final exam is cumulative and will contain about half old and half new questions.
Students will take each exam twice. Exams will first be taken as usual, in the
classroom by the student working along without the aid of any ancillary material.
This will count for 80% of the 150 points for the student’s exam grade. Students
will then take the same exam (with the same questions) with a small group of
other students, and may discuss potential answers together. Students may also
consult any other ancillary materials that they chose. The exam “retake” will be
worth a maximum of 20% of the 150 points possible for each exam. The first
three exam retakes will take place during the Discussion period of the week of
the test. The retake for the fourth exam will be a “take-home” retake. There will
be a retake for the final exam as well on the day the final exam is given; the
“solo” test will take the first one hour of the test period, and will be followed
directly after by a one hour retake of the final exam.
There will be a total of 600 possible points available for exams.
Labs: There are 11 laboratory exercises, each worth 10 points. The lowest
laboratory grade will be dropped; thus, there will be a total of 100 points for labs
possible. No make-ups for labs will be allowed – this is the reason we allow one
of the labs to be dropped.
In addition, in week 13, there will be a fetal pig mini-practical. This is worth an
additional 10 points and CANNOT be dropped.
All lab data (descriptions, drawings, etc.) are to be initialed by the lab instructor
prior to leaving the laboratory. The lab assignments are to be submitted to the
lab instructor at the beginning of discussion of the following week. Failure to
obtain the initials of the instructor will result in receiving zero points for the lab.
Some of the laboratories use stains and chemicals which can damage clothing,
so please dress accordingly to laboratory. Neither UIC nor the Biology
Department will assume any responsibility for damaged clothing. Also, there will
be a fetal pig dissection that encompasses two of the lab sessions. If you have
religious or ethical objections to this, please contact Michael Muller as soon as
possible. An alternate exercise may be assigned.
Discussions & Prelabs: The Discussion hour portion that precedes each lab is
required and will include two components - a lecture review and prelab quiz,
followed by a discussion on several required readings (note: during weeks when
there are group retakes of exams, these will be given during discussion and there
will be no lecture review, prelab quizzes or articles to read). The lecture review
and prelab quiz will consist of 10 questions relating to the upcoming lab as well
as material covered in lecture.
There will be 11 lecture review and prelab quizzes and the lowest score will be
dropped, for a total of 50 points. Additionally, there will be 12 discussion sessions
with required articles. Your TA will grade you based on participation - each
session will be worth 5 points and the scores from the lowest one will be
dropped; thus a total of 55 points are possible for the discussions. Finally, each
student (acting in a group of 4) will be required to lead one discussion; students
will be given 10 additional points for leading one discussion. The discussion
topics can be found in the “Discussion Topics” folder in Blackboard.
Note that there will be no Discussion points for the “retake” of exams – rather,
students earn points on the exam score by doing the exam retake.
Group Presentations: There is a group project that you and your lab group will
present to the class. The presentation will focus on research being done in a
laboratory here at UIC or somewhere in the Chicago area. Students will be
expected to describe the overall nature of the research projects being done in a
given lab, and to go over the results of one paper recently published from that
lab. This will be worth 45 points. Attendance to the other groups’ presentations is
mandatory as you will be assessing their presentations. If you fail to attend and
perform peer evaluations, you will lose 10 points from your project score.
Mastering Biology exercises: There will be a number of Mastering Biology
exercises to perform, as well as several assignments whose point value will be
added in with the Mastering Biology scores. The Mastering Biology assignments
will be done on the Mastering Biology web site. A score for each Mastering
Biology assignment will be given (you get two chances to answer the question
correctly before it is marked as incorrect), which will be stored on the Mastering
Biology website and not on blackboard and will likely show a much larger total
score. Your Mastering Biology total for the semester will be scaled down to a
total score out of 100 points at the end of the semester.
Mastering Biology assignments will have specific due dates throughout the
semester, listed on Blackboard and on the Mastering Biology web site;
assignments not completed by the due dates can still be submitted until the final
day of class (that is, 11:59 pm on the Friday before final exam week), but
students will only receive ½ credit for their responses. A number of these
exercises will be “reading quizzes”, designed to ensure that students read the
appropriate material prior to attending the class lectures on these topics. Thus,
you will be expected to read some material from the textbook and answer some
basic questions about the material before it is covered in depth in class.
Mastering Biology assignments will be structured so that students have two
chances to get an answer correct during the session.
iClickers: There will be points associated with using iClickers during the
lectures. A total of 30 points for their use during lecture are possible. We
anticipate using the clickers almost every class. Students will need to answer
75% of the clicker questions asked in class in order to receive clicker credit for
the session (the actual number of clicker questions asked per session will vary
from one session to another). There may be more or less than 30 clicker
sessions, but we will normalize the number of points to 30 when calculating
grades. The score from two clicker sessions will be dropped when
calculating the grades.
If you are in class but have forgotten to bring your clicker, you miss picking up
that day’s clicker point – remember to bring your clicker with you. Check your
clicker points on a regular basis – they will be posted on the Blackboard grade
book. If there seem to be problems, come to office hours to straighten them out.
Clicker points must be checked on the Blackboard grade-book by the end of the
third week of the semester to make sure they are being input correctly. Students
failing to check their clicker grades have the potential to lose clicker points.
Remember that you MUST register your iclicker through our Blackboard course
site to have points automatically uploaded to the grade book. Registering over
the web through the iclicker web site will NOT work.
Counting up the points: Do NOT rely on Blackboard to give you an accurate
total for the sum of all your points. As noted above, we drop one exam, one lab,
one discussion, one prelab, and two clicker sessions. Blackboard does not have
the capability to consider these drops when it calculates the scores. Thus, the
column of “Total Points” in Blackboard will never give a correct account of what
your final points for the course will be!
Late Registration Policy: Student who register after the first day of class will be
required to view the lectures they have missed using lecture capture and to
prepare a one page written summary for each of the lectures missed. The
summary pages Must be handed to your teaching assistant no later than Friday’s
class of the third week. Once handed in, students will receive one clicker point
for each summary sheet turned in.
The first exam is on Monday of the 4th week of class. The purpose of the late
registration policy is to ensure that students are familiar with all the material that
will be covered on the first exam and increase the likelihood that students will
perform well on this test.
Additional Notes:
• In discussion and laboratory, students frequently work in groups. However, all
assignments are individual efforts, not group efforts. We encourage students to
discuss answers before hand, but all work submitted must be the student’s own.
If lab exercises are copied, all parties involved will receive zero credit.
• All discussion and laboratory assignments must be initialed by your TA before
you leave. Assignments submitted without TA initials will receive zero credit.
• No lab make-ups are allowed. This is why students get to drop a prelab,
discussion, and a lab grade.
• We are not responsible for lost exam scantrons - if a student’s scantron is lost,
the student will not receive a grade for that exam and must take the final.
• Blackboard is meant to be a place where students can find out their scores on
labs and exams. However, it does not drop the lowest exam or labs. Keep this
in mind when determining your grades.
• Students are ultimately responsible for keeping track of their grades. Students
are encouraged to keep track of clicker points and point out any problems in a
timely fashion.
Bios 100 Lab Schedule Spring 2015
Week
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Topic
Chapter in
Muller
Discussion will meet; HOWEVER, – no lab this week
Techniques in Microscopy
Quantitative Techniques and Statistics
Cell Structure Reflects Function ***
Determination of Properties of the Enzyme Turnip Peroxidase
Cellular Respiration
Photosynthesis ***
Paternity Testing in Whooping Cranes
Group Presentations & Evaluations
Group Presentations & Evaluations
Spring Break
Mitosis and Meiosis ***
Comparative Anatomy of Animal System ***
Animal Anatomy Mini-Practical
Plant Anatomy ***
Plant Reproduction & Plant Mini-Practical ***
*** Laboratories in which the book A Photographic Atlas for the Biology
Laboratory, by Van de Graaff & Crawley will be useful.
2
1
3
5
7
11
9
8
10
12
13
Week
Date
1
Jan 12
14
16
19
21
23
26
28
30
Feb 2
4
6
9
11
13
16
18
20
23
25
27
Mar 2
4
6
9
11
13
16
18
20
23-27
30
Apr 1
3
6
8
10
13
15
17
20
22
24
27
29
May 1
7
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Topic
Cell theory, cell structure
Cell structure, cell function
Cells & proteins
NO CLASS – Martin Luther King Day
Proteins- structure and examples
Proteins, chemical bonds, & water
Chemical evolution, Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates & lipids
Lipids
Exam 1 – covers weeks 1-3
Cellular Respiration
Cellular Respiration
Cellular Respiration
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis
DNA, RNA, protein: central dogma
How genes work
Transcription
Translation
Control of Gene expression in prokaryotes I
Exam 2 – covers weeks 4-7
Control of Gene expression in prokaryotes II
Gene expression in eukaryotes
Cell cycle, Mitosis
DNA synthesis
Meiosis
Development I
Stem Cells, Cloning, IVF
Development II
Spring Break (no classes)
Cell-cell interactions
Intro to physiological principles
Power of water in physiological systems
Exam 3 – covers weeks 8-11
Intro to osmotic regulation I
Intro to osmotic regulation II
Gas exchange & circulation I
Gas exchange & circulation II
Intro to Nerve & Muscle function I
Intro to Nerve & Muscle function II
Plant Anatomy & Physiology I
Plant Anatomy & Physiology II
Plant Diversity & Reproduction I
Plant Diversity & Reproduction II
Exam 4 Covers weeks 12-15
Final Exam exact time To Be Determined
Chapter
5th ed.
Freeman
7
7
7, 3
Lecturer
3, 8
3, 2
2, 5
5, 6
6
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
9
9
9
10
10
10
4
16
17
17
18
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
18
19
12
15
13
22
22
23
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
11
42
2, 43
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow
Muller
Muller
Muller
Muller
43
43
45
45
46, 48
46, 48
37
37
31, 41
31, 41
Malchow
Malchow
Malchow