Course Syllabus

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Phytoplankton - the foundation of the oceanic food chain.

 

Course Description:

This course will be an introduction to General Biology I (BI 111).  It is intended to teach students the basic concepts of animal life with emphasis on anatomy, physiology, behavior, evolution and genetics, with special reference to animal contributions to ecosystems and humans. Students are expected to demonstrate and relate understanding of the basic concepts of animal life, methods of scientific research, animal organization: growth, functions, and classification.


The laboratory component of the course enables students to learn hands-on application, testing, skill development, and data collection and analysis. Students are expected to demonstrate knowledge of each lab exercise, identify, and relate lab results to animal life.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

  • Apply the processes of scientific inquiry including experimental design.
  • Carry out an experiment to test a specific hypothesis using appropriate controls.
  • Explain the essential elements of life, major hypotheses for life’s history, mechanisms for the diversification of life, and macroevolution.

Course Content:

  • Overview of tree of life
  • Phylogeny/Evolutionary History of major taxa
  • Systematics and Taxonomy:  Classification schemes
  • Prokaryotes
  • Protists
  • Fungi
  • Survey of animal phyla
  • Survey of plant phyla
  • Animal Systems Structure:  Anatomy
  • Animal Systems Function:  Physiology
  • Plant systems structure: anatomy
  • Plant systems function: physiology
  • Animal Development and life cycles
  • Plant development and life cycles
  • Population Ecology
  • Population structure, growth, regulation, and fluctuation
  • Intraspecific interactions
  • Social systems and behavior
  • Community Ecology
  • Interspecific interactions:  Predator-prey relations, competition, symbiosis
  • Community structure and succession
  • Ecosystem diversity (Biomes)
  • Ecosystems ecology: Trophic structure
  • Energy flow
  • Nutrient cycling and ecosystem integrity
  • Conservation biology
  • Mechanisms of Evolutionary change:  Natural Selection, Genetic Drift, Gene Flow, and Mutation, and Nonrandom Mating
  • Population genetics
  • Speciation and Extinction

Textbook:

Great news: your textbook for this class is available for free online!
Biology 2e from OpenStax, ISBN 978-1-947172-51-7

You have several options to obtain this book:

You can use whichever formats you want. Web view is recommended -- the responsive design works seamlessly on any device.

Important Notes:

  • All assignments need to be completed and submitted by the due date to avoid earning a possible "0" for that particular assignment. 
  • Any student needing accommodations should inform the instructor. Students with disabilities who may need accommodations for this class are encouraged to notify the instructor early so that reasonable accommodations may be implemented as soon as possible. All information will remain confidential.
  • Academic dishonesty and plagiarism will result in a failing grade on the assignment. Using someone else's ideas or phrasing and representing those ideas or phrasing as our own, either on purpose or through carelessness, is a serious offense known as plagiarism. "Ideas or phrasing" includes written or spoken material, from whole papers and paragraphs to sentences, and, indeed, phrases but it also includes statistics, lab results, art work, etc. 

Course Summary:

Course Summary
Date Details Due