BIOS 1700 Course Information

BIOS 1700 Course Information

• Course name: BIOS 1700
• Instructor: Dr. Perez
• Canvas page: Familiarize yourself with the Canvas page.
• PowerPoints (PPTs): Use the provided PowerPoints.
• Reading Guides: Use the reading guides.
• Study Guides: Use study guides.
• Achieve Assignments: Complete Achieve assignments.
• Syllabus: Read the syllabus thoroughly.
• Due dates and exam dates: Add due dates and exam dates to your calendar.
• TopHat link: Follow the TopHat link to ensure grade books are linked.
• Achieve platform: Access Achieve for book and homework.
• Instant access: Instant access to the online resources are provided.
• Opt out: Instructions for opting out are available.
• BIOS 1700 return: Information about returning to the course is available.

Resources for Help

• Graduate Teaching Assistant (Hunter Ray): Tuesday office hours 11 AM-12 PM.
• Academic Achievement Center: Get help from the Achievement Center.
• Drop-in tutoring: Utilize drop-in tutoring services.
• Scheduled tutoring: Scheduled tutoring is available.
• Tuesday Online Office Hours: Online office hours are scheduled on Tuesday from 2-3 PM.
• Wednesday In-Person Office Hour: In-person office hours are scheduled on Wednesdays.
• BIOS 1100 PLTL: Peer-led team learning for BIOS 1100, starts this week.
• BIOS 1700 PLTL: Starts this week.
• Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) Sessions: 4 sessions per week.
• Hannah Cabral and Enzo Lewis-Baranyai: Advising and resource room.
• BIOS Advising and Resource Room (BARR): Location is Irvine 126.
• Walk-in access: Walk-in access to the resource room is available.

Grading Information

• Total Points: 1000
• Online Quiz (Ch 2): 1% (10 points).
• Exam 1: 18% (180 points)
• Exam 2: 18% (180 points)
• Exam 3: 18% (180 points)
• Final Exam: 27% (270 points) – Comprehensive, emphasizing material after exam 3.
• Online Assignments (Achieve): 15% (150 points).
• In-Class Questions (week 2): 3% (30 points)

In-Class TopHat Questions

• Worth: Each question is worth 0.5 points for participation and 0.5 for correctness.
• Frequency: Typically 2 questions per lecture.
• Total: At least 60 questions asked in total.

Class Attendance

• Importance: Attendance is highly correlated with success in the course, with a pass rate above 82%.
• Score: Attendance score (out of 74). Higher scores correlate with higher course success percentages and a higher likelihood of passing.

Chapter 1: Life: Chemical, Cellular, and Evolutionary Foundations

• Section 1.1: The Scientific Method
• Section 1.3: The Cell

What is Science?

• A body of knowledge gained through the scientific method.
• Exploration: Making observations, asking questions, reviewing literature.
• Investigation: Forming hypotheses, making predictions, conducting experiments, gathering and interpreting data to build a theory.
• Communication: Discussing experiments, sharing results, publishing papers, participating in conferences, applying science to policy issues.

Observation Practice

• Note observable phenomena.
• Generate possible explanations (“what's going on”?).
• Hypotheses should be testable, objective, and answer "what would happen if the hypothesis is correct".
• Predictions: What would happen if the hypothesis was true.
• Repeat experiments; if results are consistent, it supports the hypothesis; if not, the hypothesis is rejected or revised and experiments will be repeated.
• A theory is a broad explanation supported by many experiments and observations.

Experimental Design

• Observational vs. Controlled Experiments – Manipulated conditions.
• Controlled experiments have multiple groups (almost)
  • Control Group does not contain the variable of interest, it's used for comparison.
  • Test Group contains the variable of interest.

Spontaneous Generation

• Background: The belief in the 1600s that maggots appeared spontaneously.
• Observations: Flies gather around decaying matter.
• Hypothesis: Maggots come from fly eggs laid on the decaying matter.
• Predictions: Keeping flies away from decaying matter would prevent maggots from appearing.

Experimental Design (Example)

• Control Group: Open jar, maggots appear.
• Test Group (Gauze-covered): No maggots appear even with flies visible.
• Test Group (Sealed): No maggots appear, flies are hindered from getting to the meat.

Biology, the Study of Life

• Defining life: Difficult, instead focus on characteristics.
• Complex spatial organization
• Composed of cells
• Require energy
• Metabolism: Chemical reactions for energy use and maintenance.
• Respond to environment.
• Reproduction.
• Evolution.
• DNA is common to life.

The Cell – Functional Units of Life

• Unicellular organisms (Examples Bacteria, Yeast, etc.).
• Multicellular organisms (Examples Fruit flies, Cheetahs, humans, etc.).
• One cell, vastly diverse structures.

DNA: An Essential Component

• Stores genetic information.
• Central Dogma: DNA → RNA → Protein (replication, transcription, translation).

Cell Types

• Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic.
• Commonalities include a plasma membrane that encloses the cytoplasm.
• Eukaryotic cells are more complicated, with a nucleus and organelles.
• Prokaryotic cells are only single-celled.

Hypothesis vs. Prediction

• Hypothesis: a possible explanation
• Prediction: what would be observed if the hypothesis were correct