Fall 2007
Welcome to introductory biology!
This fall, we will be covering many topics including the nature of science, the nature of life, evolution, ecology, and diversity.
We will study these topics in lecture, group discussions, and laboratory and field exercises.
Lecture sections are taught by Dr. Kari Benson and Dr. Nancy
Cowden.
Lab sections are taught by Dr. Benson and Ms. Bell.
If you have any questions, please contact an instructor. Here is how to contact them:
Dr. Benson's office is 218 Hobbs Hall. Phone: 544-8364
email: benson@lynchburg.edu
Dr. Cowden's office is 274 Hobbs Hall. Phone: 544-8371
email: cowden@lynchburg.edu
Ms. Bell's office is 415 Hobbs Hall (through 416). Phone: 544-8070
email: bell@lynchburg.edu
The syllabus is a good starting point. The syllabus contains the objectives and requirements for this course. The syllabus also has a test schedule and a tentative lecture schedule.
MATERIALS
The textbook for this course is Biology by Sylvia Mader. This book is published by McGraw-Hill Publishing. Use the link to examine sample quizzes, links, chapter outlines, and other materials.
An additional text on science writing is also required: McMillan, V. E. Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences. Third Edition, Bedford Books, Boston.
If you choose to major in the life sciences, you will continue to use this writing manual throughout your college career.
For laboratory exercises, you will need to purchase a notebook from the biology program. This will enable you to obtain the handouts for the entire semester. This will cost $5.00
For in-class quizzes and challenges, you will need to purchase 3x5 (index) cards. These are available from the school bookstore.
RESOURCES
Biology and Environmental Science Writing Tips: This is a resource for writing scientific papers for biology. The instructions address writing abstracts, presentations, posters, and papers.
William Strunk produced a book early in the last century that (though much edited) is an excellent writing reference.
Dr. Kilburn, a professor at Old Dominion University, wrote a series of informative pages to help her daughter adjust to college. Dr. Kilburn is an experienced college professor and has many excellent suggestions to help students succeed at their chosen school. Check out Dr. Mom's Advice.
ASSIGNMENTS
For the first week of lab, we will conduct a case study in lab. You can reach the first part of Love Potion # 10 here.
For the second day of class, we will conduct a case study on "Life on Mars". The reading assignment (with questions) is available here.
NOTE: It is course policy that you may not hand in a lab for any lab periods that you miss. You MUST attend a lab section every week. Please make arrangements with the faculty if you must switch sections.
Extra Hardy-Weinberg Problems can be found here. The answers to these problems are accessible here.
Si el norte fuera el sur. The new case involving speciation/evolution and squirrel monkeys can be found here. Each team will do a presentation on this case next Wednesday or Friday (before fall break).
Deadlines:
Test 1: 28 September
Test 2: 26 October
Test 3: 28 November
Wingstem abstract: week of Oct. 2. Instructions for writing a title and an abstract appear on pages 69-76 of MacMillan's book. There are a few additional instructions for abstracts on Dr. Benson's web page (here). The writing center will help you fine-tune your abstract as well.
Animal behavior lab write up: Oct. 19 for all sections
Forest community abstract: week of Nov. 5
Lab exam: week of Dec. 3
Extra-credit project instructions: . You may earn up to 5% extra credit for the class. However, you must have your project approved before 3 October 2003. The extra credit project is due on the last day of class, 7 December.
NEWS
Statement on the educational legislation in Kansas: from the National Association of Biology Teachers.
Introduction to Evolutionary Biology: written by Chris Colby.
The Evolution Page from the PBS series. You can even try simulations: Under the Darwin heading there is a shockwave item about the evolution of the Honeycreepers. Under the Sex heading the Sex and the Single Guppy deals with the Trinidad Guppy experiments that will allow you to play around to see what happens under different conditions.
If you find fossil hunting interesting, you may be interested in decorating with fossils. Order your floor tiling or counter here!
Why is it that we study the metric system? Maybe some NASA engineers could answer that question.
The tree of life at the University of Arizona webpage.
We will spend a lot of time discussing population biology. There is a web page that addresses many of the concepts that we will discuss (survivorship, age structure, reproductive value, and population growth). You may explore this interactive web site to apply your knowledge of population growth!
NOTES
These notes are available to enable students to listen more carefully in class. These notes are not a comprehensive discussion of all course material (your textbook serves that purpose). Notes will be added after each day's lecture. For additional clarification, you may wish to compare the coverage of different topics in the different lecturer's notes.
Dr. Benson's notes are available here.
Dr. Cowden's notes are available here.
To help you focus your studying, here are some tentative lecture contents and some tests from former years. Though these tests may be instructive about how we write tests, we are using a new edition of the text this year, so the subject matter that we cover will be different.
Final Exams: Students will NOT be allowed to switch sections for the final exam.