PREREQUISITE:

BIO101 - General Biology I

Students receiving credit for BIO101 and/or BIO102 cannot receive credit for BIO100.

COREQUISITE:

ENG101 - English Composition or equivalent

 

REQUIRED TEXTBOOK:

This course uses an Open Education Resource (OER) which is free. You can access the textbook at the following URL. https://openstax.org/details/books/biology-2e

REQUIRED MATERIALS:  

Safety glasses are required for all on-campus sections.

 As the result of instructional activities, students will be able to:

Evolution

• Explain the evidence that supports the theory of evolution including the fossil record, biogeographic, biochemical, morphological, and molecular phylogenic evidence.
• Describe the major evolutionary events in the history of life.
• Evaluate models about the origin of life on earth.
• Explain how organisms are categorized based on evolutionary changes.
• Use phylogenic trees and/or cladograms to infer hypotheses about the evolutionary relationships between organisms to show that organisms are linked by lines of descent from common ancestry.
• Use the Hardy-Weinberg Law to evaluate population genetics data.
• Evaluate evidence to investigate the role of natural selection in evolution.
• Explain the role of mutation, genetic variation, and sexual reproduction in evolutionary change.
• Identify factors that affect speciation including allopatric, geographical, and reproductive isolating mechanisms.

Viruses

• Describe the structure of a virus.
• Describe reproduction in bacteriophages, animal viruses containing DNA, and retroviruses.

Bacteria

• Describe how representative prokaryotic organisms obtain their energy and nutrients, where they found in the environment, their important relationships with other organisms, and important adaptations.
• Describe the mechanisms of genetic variation in bacteria including conjugation, transformation, transduction, transposition, and mutation.
• Compare reproduction in prokaryotic organisms to that of representative eukaryotic organisms.

 Eukaryotic Diversity

• Compare the life cycles and reproductive structures of major representative phyla.
• Describe how representative eukaryotic genera obtain their energy and nutrients, where each representative organism can be found in the environment, their important relationships with other organisms, reproduction and important adaptations.
• Describe the characteristics that define phylum chordata and class mammalia.
• Identify three embryonic tissues and describe the tissues that they give rise to in animals.
• Describe the development of embryonic germ layers, symmetry, body cavity, and gut in the major phyla of animals.
• Explain the difference between open and closed circulatory systems and give examples of animals with each type.
• Compare and contrast the structure and function of circulatory, digestive, excretory, respiratory, and reproductive systems in representatives of the major phyla of animals.
• Describe the differences between cell-mediated and humoral immune responses.
• Describe the structure and function of skeletal, smooth, and cardiac muscle.
• Explain how action potentials are propagated along a neuron.
• Describe physiological mechanisms that lead to the release of neurotransmitter and explain how neurotransmitter is removed from the synaptic cleft.
• State the relationship between the hypothalamus and the posterior and anterior pituitary secretions.
• Describe how negative feedback limits the secretion of hormones by the pituitary and other endocrine glands.

 Ecology

• Describe the major factors that affect the distribution of species in terrestrial and aquatic environments and explain how each factor affects the organisms in each of the major biomes.
• Distinguish between exponential growth and logistic growth.
• Distinguish between density-dependent and density-independent population growth.
• Describe the age structure of stable, declining, and increasing populations.
• Define ecological niche.
• Explain the competitive exclusion principle.
• Explain character displacement.
• Give an example of a keystone species and explain how it affects community structure.
• Explain how disturbance affects community structure.
• Describe how primary and secondary ecological succession occur and give an example of each.
• Explain how geographic factors affect biodiversity.
• Explain why higher trophic levels have less biomass.
• Give an example of a nutrient cycle and describe the nutrient as it is stored or passed between major components of the cycle.

Laboratory Objectives

 Laboratory exercises will engage students in activities that reinforce lecture concepts.  Students will:

1. Analyze data from fossil, anatomical, and genetic evidence to support converging lines of evidence for the theory of evolution.
2. Explore the concept of variation to reinforce natural selection operates on populations that have variable characteristics.
3. Investigate population genetics to explain the effect of natural selection on populations.
4. Prepare a gram stain of gram positive and gram negative organisms and compare these slides with preserved specimens.
5. Use aseptic technique to inoculate agar plates, slants, broths, or deep tubes with bacteria.
6. Observe preserved or live specimens of representatives of each of the major phyla of protists, fungi, plants, and animals. For each representative species, students will identify important structures that are characteristic of that taxonomic group and state the function of the structure or how it contributes to survival. These include details regarding adaptations, reproduction, ecological significance of the group, or any other significant information.
7. Investigate plant morphology, physiology, and life cycles of seedless and seed plants.
8. Perform dissections on and identify major structures of representative organisms from the major phyla such as:
   • A flower
   • Roundworm
   • Earthworm
   • Clam
   • Crayfish
   • Sea star
9. Observe prepared microscope slides of tissue and identify the characteristics that distinguish each tissue described below:
   • Epithelial tissue: cuboidal, columnar, pseudostratified, and simple and stratified squamous tissue
   • Connective tissue: Adipose, loose (areolar), dense, cartilage, bone, and blood
   • Muscle tissue: skeletal, cardiac, and smooth
   • Nervous: a typical motor neuron
10. Dissect a doubly-injected mammal such as a fetal pig and identify major structures and their function of the following systems:
    • Circulatory – Identify structures of the heart and the major blood vessels.
    • Digestive
    • Endocrine
    • Excretory
    • Reproductive – Identify the anatomy of both male and female specimens.
    • Respiratory

11. Investigate one of the ecology concepts learned in lecture using either an inquiry based laboratory exercise involving measurement or a computer simulation.

12. Using scientific methodology, develop an experiment to investigate a testable question in the form of a hypothesis about a species of bacteria, protist, fungi, plant or animal.

Communicate findings from lab objective #12 (or other inquiry based lab investigation) in written format to include a hypothesis, a statistical test of the hypothesis, a conclusion based on the statistical test, a graph, a table, and literature cited.

GENERAL TOPICS OUTLINE:

1. Evolution and Population Genetics
2. Speciation and Taxonomy
3. History of Life
4. Viruses
5. Bacteria
6. Eukaryotic Diversity
7. Animal Tissues
8. Circulatory System
9. Immune System
10. Endocrine System
11. Plant and Animal Reproduction
12. The Nervous System
13. Ecology

Feel free to contact a member of the Science Department or the Science Department Chair.