Mar 28, 2024  
2023-2024 General Catalog 
    
2023-2024 General Catalog
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BIO 112 - General Biology I


Last Date of Approval: Spring 2021

4 Credits
Total Lecture Hours: 45
Total Lab Hours: 30
Total Clinical Hours: 0
Total Work-Based Experience Hours: 0

Course Description:
This course is one of a two-semester sequence that introduces students to major ideas within the scope of modern biology. This course is designed for students majoring in science. Topics covered include cell structure and function, cell metabolism, genetics, gene expression, and evolution. Labs provide hands-on activities that help explain the lecture material. This course will help students refine their critical thinking skills as they evaluate various topics and concepts while searching for underlying connections between the concepts, which is a skill that should be beneficial in any/all types of careers. This course will also help students gain scientific literacy which will be of vital significance when making important life decisions. Three hours lecture, two hours lab.

Prerequisites/Corequisites: None

Mode(s) of Instruction: traditional/face-to-face

Credit for Prior Learning: There are no Credit for Prior Learning opportunities for this course.

Course Fees: Material Fee/IAM: $70.00

Common Course Assessment(s): None

Student Learning Outcomes and Objectives:
Student Learning Outcomes:

  1. Students will evaluate the theory of evolution.
  2. Students will interpret the structure and function of living systems.
  3. Students will examine information flow, exchange, and storage within a living system.
  4. Students will compare and contrast pathways and transformations of energy and matter within living systems.
  5. Students will evaluate emergent properties of living systems at various levels.

Unit Objectives:

Unit 1: The Scientific Process

Objective 1: Identify the basic characteristics of life.

Objective 2: Describe the stages of scientific investigation

Objective 3: Describe the difference between hypothesis and theory

Unit 2: Chemistry of Life and Water

Objective 1: Describe the makeup of an atom and its chemical properties

Objective 2: Define and describe each bond type

Objective 3:  Describe how the structure of a molecule determines function

Objective 4: Describe the properties of water including the basis of pH and buffers.

Unit 3: Carbon and Macromolecules

Objective 1: Explain how the properties of carbon enable it to produce organic molecules.

Objective 2:  Recognize the chemical structure of the biologically important functional groups

Objective 3: Recognize the chemical structures, roles, and properties of carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids.

Unit 4: The nature of cells, membranes, and cellular transport

Objective 1: List the basic principles of the cell theory.

Objective 2: List the basic differences between eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells.

Objective 3: Describe the functions of the cell, including organelles and membranes.

Objective 4:   Describe the different types of membrane transport.

Unit 5: The cell cycle and cellular division

Objective 1: Describe the parts of the cell cycle and the phases of mitosis.

Objective 2: Describe the basic characteristics of cancer.

Objective 3: Describe the phases of meiosis.

Objective 4: Distinguish between euploidy and aneuploidy.

Unit 6: Introduction to metabolism and enzymes

         Objective 1:  Define catabolic and anabolic pathways.

Objective 2: Define and describe endergonic and exergonic reactions in metabolism

Objective 3: Describe the roles of ATP and enzymes in metabolism.

Objective 4: Describe redox reactions and their role in metabolism.

Unit 7: Aerobic and anaerobic cellular respiration

Objective 1: Contrast how energy flows and chemicals cycle through ecosystems

Objective 2:  Describe the pathways in which energy is formed including glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, the electron transport chain, chemiosmosis, and anaerobic fermentation.

Objective 3:  Describe and be able to identify the different parts of cellular respiration, including the inputs and outputs.

Unit 8: Photosynthesis

         Objective 1:  Contrast heterotrophs and autotrophs

Objective 2:  Be able to briefly describe the two stages of photosynthesis:  the light cycle and the Calvin cycle

Objective 3:  Describe and be able to identify the different parts of a photosystem, including the inputs and outputs.

Unit 9: Genetics

Objective 1: Recognize how meiosis differs from mitosis

Objective 2: Describe how meiosis contributes to genetic variation and evolution, including the law of segregation and independent assortment.

Objective 3:  Explain how some traits are inherited as dominant or as recessive traits, along with various inheritance patterns.

Objective 4:  Perform a monohybrid and dihybrid genetic cross using a Punnett square and determine the trait probabilities.

Objective 5 : Perform genetics problems based on more complex non-Mendelian genetic inheritance patterns.

Objective 6:  Describe the chromosomal basis of inheritance based on autosomal and sex linked traits.

Objective 7:  Describe the basic structure of DNA.

Objective 8:  Describe replication in prokaryotes and eukaryotes

Objective 9:  Describe transcription and translation

Objective 10: Describe how gene expression is regulated.

Unit10: Evolution

Objective1:  Discuss Darwin’s view of descent with modification and give some examples

Objective 2:  List evidences for evolution.

Objective 3: List some sources of genetic variation in populations

Objective 4: Describe the agents of evolutionary change including natural selection, genetic drift and gene flow



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