This course follows Biology 109 and continues the exploration of a range of topics from an organismal to a molecular level. The final five weeks of the course will be devoted to the design, implementation and presentation of an original research project, allowing students to bring together all the skills learned in Biology 109 and 110.
| Course Schedule | Biology 110 Resources | Independent Projects | Academic Honesty & Grading |
Text: Introduction to Experimental Biology: Biology 110 This text will be available in the bookstore at the beginning of second semester. Bring it to the first class of the semester.
Attendance is required at all laboratory sessions. You must come to your assigned section unless you have made provisions in advance for attending a different section. Missed labs cannot be made up.
Academic Honesty: Work submitted must be that of the student submitting it. The contributions of others must be explicitly acknowledged and literature must be appropriately cited. For clarification please read the policy concerning academic honesty presented in the Biology 109 syllabus.
| Laboratory notebook 5% | Beta-Gal lab papers, web tutorials, DNA write-up 40% |
| Class participation 10% | Independent Project 45% (performance 10%, oral 5%, paper 30%) |
If you have a disability, and therefore may have need for some type of accommodation(s) in order to participate fully in this class, please feel free to discuss your concerns in private with me AND be sure to contact Erin Salva, Coordinator of Disability Services at PBX 5453 or via e-mail at SALVAE .
Laboratory Notebook
This packet forms the basis of your laboratory notebook. It should be augmented with notes taken during the laboratory.
The manner in which this is done is extremely important as your laboratory notes will be used when you write papers.
When conducting experiments, changes made in the methods should be clearly documented and important observations
noted. Any problems encountered including measurement error, contaminated reagents or malfunctioning equipment
should be recorded as these may provide insight into unexpected results. Any data collected should be organized
into clearly labeled tables. Your notes should be detailed enough that you can make sense out of them several years
from now. Your notebook may will be collected by the instructor periodically during the semester.
Scientific Paper
Students will write two scientific papers using literature citations, one for the Beta-Gal sequence of labs, and
the other based on a long-term project they will design early in the semester. The papers will be presented in
the format learned in Biology 109.
Introduction: A concise statement of the objectives and hypotheses of the study in the context of the past work that has been done in the field.
Materials and Methods: A reasonably detailed account of how the experiments were done. Subheadings to definde different experiments or techniques is a good way to organize this section.
Results: Present the experimental data and observations in an organized manner in tables and graphs (refer to Biology 109 manual for a checklist). Include error bars when means are graphed. Label all tables in numerical order (Table 1, Table 2, etc.) and all other illustrations (graphs, diagrams, etc.) in numerical order as Figures (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.). In the text, hightlight the main features of the results as well as the outliers in the data.
Discussion: Demonstrate your understanding of the experiments by explaining the results in the context of the past work. Discuss both the expected and unexpected results and place them in the context of your hypotheses that were laid out in the Introduction.
Acknowledgments: Acknowledge the contributions of other in your work.
List of References: A list of the references (papers, books, websites) that were used in doing the work. Use the standard Biology format learned in Biol 109.
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