Welcome to Principles of Biology

A course engaging the ideas and methods of the science of life.

In this class we begin by considering what life is and how we can know what we know about it. We will look at:

the unity of doing that all life forms share:
taking in energy and using it to respond to stimuli, to grow, to reproduce, to adapt and--as a population-- to change over time;
the problems of living on this planet and how a diversity of organisms meet those problems;
some shared patterns of problem-solving; and
the unifying principle of evolution by natural selection as a satisfying explanation of how living beings have arrived at such unity and diversity.

Required Texts

Use for 10% off when buying two or more e-texts by 7 Feb '11.

What is Life: A Guide to Biology with Physiology 1e

by Jay Phelan

Price to Student $52.95 (Get an additional 10% off using the code TCNJIXA at check out when you buy 2 or more e-texts by 7 Feb 2011.)

You may purchase a printed text from the CSM Bookstore or an e-text from Course Smart. Choose what will best support the way you learn. Printed books cost more (when a bookstore buys them back it typically pays about half the sale price) but last longer. Both e-texts expire in 360 days. Consider carefully before picking either the Online or Downloadable version.

the Downloadable version is downloaded to a single computer; O.K. if you have your own laptop or iPad and trust that it won't fail or get lost.
the Online version can be accessed from any computer, but only while online; O.K. if you don't have your own computer or may change computers during the semester.

The Lab Manual was devised specifically for this course. It is displayed in a week-by-week table format below. No purchase is required...except paper and ink/toner for your printer. Each student is responsible for downloading the appropriate files for each week of the course, printing them and bringing them to the laboratory session.

Downloads

Initial Downloads The ones you'll need to start the semester are the Syllabus and Calendar.

Download the pdf file of the syllabus.

Download the pdf file of the Lecture, Reading and Exam Calendar.

Online Lab Manual Files to download and print the week before each lab are in the middle column. The right column contains supplementary materials of some interest or usefulness.

Other useful items Other stuff you might find valuable.

Download the pdf file of "How to Create a Great Poster."

How to Take Perfect Notes Reformatted from an entry at WikiHow to print on a single page.

Download the pdf file of the Concept Map handout. You can download a trial copy of Inspiration from www.inspiration.com and install it (versions for Macintosh and Winblows are available) and make your own concepts maps

Video Report (as a PDF) A format to use in writing a report on an approved video program. Should be written shortly after viewing with notes taken during the program and submitted soon after. Limits on number of reports and timelines will apply.Video Report as a Microsaft Word doc.

Study Guides (for Fall 2007; Spring 2011 may differ.)

Field Trip Downloads One or more of these may be required, optional, with or without extra credit. Ask.

If you don't have a copy of the Acrobat Reader, get one; it is free.

Biology 110 Lab Manual Online

The following files mostly in PDF format may be supplemented or updated during the semester. Students should download and print the "Required Files" before coming to lab. A week before is probably soon enough; downloads made at the beginning of the semester may not include the latest improvements. It is possible that not all of these labs will fit into the semester anyway.

A "bound" lab notebook (one with sewn-in pages) is also required. Each student is responsible for having that notebook and a copy of the assigned exercise in hand when arriving for each week's lab.

Table of files to download arranged week-by-week; detailed descriptions below.
Week	Content subject	Required Files	Other Vital Files/Links
1	Introduction (no lab)	Course syllabus Course Calendar Lab Notebooks	How to Take Perfect Notes Concept Maps Lab Notebooks contains words about your own "Source Document," a bound volume that contains your original dated observations, thoughts, measurements, hypotheses, predictions and tentative conclusions.
2		Make Sense Great Fermentations	Link to a Java view of powers of 10 and a glimpse of our place in the universe. http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Yogurt Spanish flu http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/14
3	Dealing with Data	Measure of Man Model graph 1 Mimic graph 2	sstutorial.xls For beginners and seasoned users alike. Absolut Ads Illustrates use of absolute addresses and takes apart the calculation of standard deviation. Biometrics provides a start in forensic anthropology. S11Biometrics will combine data from both labs...later.
4	Cell Structure	Microscopy Survivor Osmosis MembraneDiffusion	"On Being the Right Size" The classic essay by J.B.S. Haldane on issues of size and scaling. Does Size Matter? examines the effect of size on the rate of diffusion of salt from blocks of agar.
5	Photosynthesis	Capt. Nemo's Niece	. Energy Concept Map Photosynthesis Concept Map Mitochondrion Map
6	Nutrition & Monomers	Pie4Lunch.xls Survivor Lab	Nutrient values in a spreadsheet from CSUN Nutrients ......Dietary Guidlines
7		Mitosis & Worms	http://www.wormclassroom.org/ge/cellDivision.html
8	Mendelian Genetics	Genetics & Gregor	Practice logical deduction and induction and skill in using Punnet squares and pedigrees for problem solving.
9	Virtual Genetics Labs	Intro to VGL VGL Report	The Virtual Genetics Lab software is loaded on lab laptops already. For addition practice at home download your own copy of VGL. VGL 1.4.2 Here are the CSM VGL practice problems: (This is a compressed Zip file of a folder containing: 01autoCodom.prb; 01autoSimple.prb; 01XYcodom.prb; 01XYsimple.prb; 01ZWcodom.prb; 01ZWsimple.prb; 03autosomal.prb; 02SexLinkCodom.prb; 02SexLinkSimple.prb; 03Codom.prb; 03sexLinked.prb; 03simpleDom.prb; 04ChallengeSet.prb.) That folder (once decompressed) is named "Problems" and should replace the one downloaded with VGL 1.4.2; alternatively the files named above could be added to those with names like "level01" in the Problems folder that came with VGL.
10	Genetics continued	VGL Solutions ExploreGE	VGL 1.4.2 http://intro.bio.umb.edu/GX/ Link to download Gene Explorer, a simulation of transcription, translation and mutation. ExploreGE guides you through the exploration of Gene Exploration.
11	EVOLVE	Intro to EVOLVE	To change allele frequency is to Evolve introduces population genetics and simulation software called Evolve to be demonstrated by the intructor. Evolve3.0.7.6, lets you manipulate parameters of Hardy-Weinberg Genetics and do "what if" evolutionary experiments. The manual developed for version 2 might be helpful as well.
12	Family Trees	Globin1	What's "Intelligent Design?" Is it just creationism masquerading as science? Watch the Nova episode on-line http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/program.html and earn extra credit with a Video Report. ESTEEM module: EvolSeq
13	Globins Evolve	Globin2	Mammal Supertree The delayed rise of present-day mammals; Nature 446, 507-512 (29 March 2007)
14	Biogeography	Island Biogeography.pdf	Island Biogeography.xls Alfred Russell Wallace's landmark book, The Malay Archipelago, the land of the orang-utan and the bird of paradise; a narrative of travel with studies of man and nature might be taken as the founding of biogeography and is available to download free from gutenberg.org.
15	Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy	Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy	http://www.skullsunlimited.com/
16	Diving Reflex	Diving Reflex
17	Tidepool Trip	110 Scavenger Hunt Princeton Map PrincetonFT	http://www.saltwatertides.com http://www.worldwithoutus.com/did_you_know.html

Your first assignment:

Send me an e-mail message (to ) that includes the 3-digit course number (110) and your real name in the Subject line and tell me what you intend to accomplish this semester and what you see as the barriers, if any, to reaching your goals. If this assignment is completed during the first lab meeting (with attached photo), it needn't be repeated.

Use your my.smccd.edu e-mail account?

It has many of the features of a Gmail account—including access to an online word processor (that can open and Save as... MS Word files), spreadsheet, and presentation software—but no ads! If you really don't want to use it, you can have any mail received there forwarded to whatever e-mail account you prefer.

Energetics Notes: the Keynote presentation used in class has been converted to this Energetics PDF. The original file was ten times bigger because it had more images, but all of those can be found in the textbook. The concept map files from week five of the lab schedule above (Energy Concept Map, Photosynthesis Concept Map, & Mitochondrion Map) may be better review documents than the converted presentation.

The second exam deals with Energetics; this study guide contains the conceptual terminology needed in the exam. It also contains two graphs about which questions will be asked.

evolutionmap.pdf organizes some of the terminology in the Study Guide on evolution into a Mind Map or Concept map. The map was created using a computer application called Inspiration. You may print out the map, then expand it or simply add your own handwritten notes as part of your preparation. OR you can download a trial copy of Inspiration from www.inspiration.com and install it (versions for Macintosh and Winblows are available) and make your own. In either case it is not an authorized crib sheet.

Industrial Melanism The Case of Industrial Melanism deconstructs a classic experiment and evidence for natural selection in accounts of Pepper Moths. This is one of several case studies to be found elsewhere on this web site.

"On Being the Right Size" The classic essay by J.B.S. Haldane on issues of size and scaling. An interesting read if you've ever wondered about the feasibility of a real 25-foot gorilla like the fictional King Kong.

Field Trip Info

Academy of Science

California Academy of Science field trip "Adaptations for Locomotion" at C.A.S. (can be done using live animals there or those in the S.F. Zoo--both with free admission on the first Wednesday of each month.)
Adaptations for Locomotion
Choose ten or twelve different living animals and carefully observe how each one moves from place to place—or moves things in its immediate vicinity toward or away from itself. Name each animal and describe it briefly before giving a detailed description of its locomotor actions and adaptations.
The "Life Through Time" exhibit has been relocated to San Francisco City College. The file LifeTime provides directions to SFCC and prompts to guide your observations

Littoral Meaning Field trip directions and map to Princeton Harbor and tidepool area. The 110scavenger file will focus your attention on certain common characteristics of intertidal organism and provide an achievable goal to pursue while surveying these denizons of the not-so-deep. You may choose to design your own field trip as an extra credit project, but must plan well ahead and submit a proposal early enough for me to provide guidance and approval. For Spring 2011 some of the better low tides are listed in SpringTides2011.

small map of Pescadero coastal region Tidepool Field Trip Field trip directions and map to Bean Hollow State Beach and its tidepool area.

Farmers' Market Field trip to explore local edible members of Kingdom Plantae. This one is best done twice: once early in the semester and once near the end so that a seasonal comparison can be included in the second write-up. The "market table" can be used to organize your survey and comparison, but should not be considered as an adequate extra-credit-worthy format for your final report.