Welcome to General Biology 104

General Information

• General Biology I (34BIOL104) is a non-majors’ course. It was designed for students majoring in areas such as Pre-Elementary Education, Pre-Nursing, and Pre-Business and for general majors (Liberal Arts) that just require some science. If you are a Pre-Biology, Pre-Chemistry, Pre-Pharmacy, or Pre-Medicine/Dentistry/Optometry major, you’ll need to take the majors’ sequence (34BIOL101), but if you’ve been out of high school for a long time, you may wish to take one quarter of the General Biology sequence as a refresher before taking the majors’ sequence. If you’re a Pre-Secondary Education major, it will depend on what you’re planning on teaching — check with your advisor!
• I know that many of you have been out of high school for a number of years, never took science courses in high school, and have been told by other people that science is supposed to be hard and no fun, and thus you are coming into this course with preconceived notions that the course will be too hard, you won’t do well, and it won’t be any fun for you. However, past students (just like you) have repeatedly told me while this is not a course that is “a piece of cake” (this is college, after all) and they had to work hard to master the course material, that the material was not beyond their comprension and that the course was fun and do-able. Be forewarned, though, that this is a college-level course, and to do well in the course, you must be able to read and write at a college level. If your placement test scores indicated that you need Preparatory English courses, I would strongly encourage you to postpone taking this course. If you can’t read the textbook, your grades will suffer, and you would be better off getting the proper background before attempting to take this course.
• Go over the syllabus if you have not already done so. Note the text we will be using all three quarters:
  Campbell, Neil A., Lawrence G. Mitchell, Jane B. Reece. 1999. Biology: Concepts and Connections, 3nd Ed.   Benjamin/Cummings Publ. Co., Inc. Menlo Park, CA. Make sure you get the right book, because the majors’ text was written by the same author. Note the way the text is arranged in topical sections. Note the optional resource books listed in the syllabus.
• Read the assigned pages before coming to class, and jot down any questions you may have. After class, go over your notes as soon as possible, filling in holes and jotting down questions on things that aren’t clear. I will include a few minutes at the start of each class for any questions you may have over your reading and/or material from the last class.
• Tape recorders are OK. It is my experience that students who tape lectures, then listen to the tapes again while filling in their notes tend to do better in the course. Many students have also found “flash cards” of wordstems and definitions to be useful learning aids.
• Experts on education say that there are three styles of learning:

  Dualistic

  The student thinks in terms of right or wrong answers, black or white. The instructor is seen as an all-knowing authority in that field.

  Multiplistic

  The student recognizes that there may be different right answers. The instructor is still seen as an authority.

  Relativistic

  The student recognizes that there are a number of possibilitie to consider, and the answer in any given situation depends on one’s point of view and experiences. The instructor is seen as more of a guide/facilitator.

  Studies have shown that many beginning students, who are unfamiliar with a subject area, fall into the dualistic category, while many faculty fall more into the relativistic category. This can be frustrating for students who are at a point in their thought process where they’re seeking black and white answers in areas where there aren’t any. On the other hand, the instructor, in attempting to answer what are often good, thought-provoking questions, may present several possibilities that need to be considered. The studies have shown that this situation leads to a tendency among those students to think the faculty member doesn’t know anything and/or is just rambling without a point to make. In all of your courses, be aware of this possible difference in viewpoint.

What is Biology?

• Biology is the study of life. As we study biology, we will frequently run across a lot of “big words” that you will need to learn. One thing that can help you understand those words, which will also aid you in everything from reading the newspaper to communicating with your doctor, is to know the Greek or Latin (or other) derivations of the wordstems which make up those words. For example, the word “biology” is made from the wordstems bios, which means “life,” and -logy which means “to study” or “the study of.”
• Why are you here? Is biology important in your everyday life? How? What sorts of questions about biology are or should be important to non-majors, to general people?
• What branches or subdisciplines within biology might have the answers to those questions? Can you think of any other branches of biology and what they study? For example. . .

• In the General Biology 104-5-6 sequence we will cover many of these topics and talk about many of these branches of biology. In general, 104 starts with some background biochemistry and cell physiology, then goes into mitosis and meiosis. 105 picks up with genetics, then goes into anatomy and physiology, with emphasis on human A&P. 106 covers evolution, plant and animal taxonomy, and ecology.

Is it alive?

yes no	yes no
yes no	yes no
	Press here to see if you were right. I goofed it up.
yes no

OK, that’s the easy part, but how do you know they’re alive or not? How can you tell? What makes the difference? What properties do living organisms have that makes them alive? Make a list of the things come to your mind.

The properties that all living organisms share, the things that enable us to recognize something as being alive, are called the emergent properties of life. Biologists say that all living organisms have/can do these things. How does this list compare with your list?

Properties of an Organism:

Precise Organization

The various levels of organization include atoms, molecules, organelles, cells, tissues, organs, systems, whole organisms, populations, communities, ecosystems, and the biosphere. “Form follows function” means that the form of a body part or structure is related to its function. The form or shape of a structure within an organism is correlated to the purpose or function of that structure. For example, a bird’s wing and a human arm are homologous structures and have the same bones, yet are differently modified to serve different functions.

Ability to Take in Energy and Use It

Much of the energy an organism takes in is in the form of food (= chemicals), thus we’ll need to look at some of the basic chemistry needed for an organism to be alive.

Ability to Respond to Stimuli

Organisms can interact with their environment, including both the non-living components such as sunlight and other organisms in the community. All the organisms within a community influence/interact with each other.

Capacity for Growth and Development

Growth and development are guided by DNA, the genetic code. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is a very unusual chemical because it can direct the synthesis (manufacture) of more molecules just like itself, something most chemicals cannot do.

Ability to Reproduce

All organisms can only reproduce their own kind, their own species. Little flies are not the offspring of big flies or of bees, but of other little fly parents just like themselves. All organisms are composed of cells.

Additional Property of a Population:  Ability to Evolve

A population is a group of the same species of organism in the same area at the same time. Sometimes, individuals are born whose genes have changed, in some way, due to mutations. Some of these changes enable the individual to get along better in its normal environment, while other mutations make survival difficult or impossible. Those individuals who are best able to survive have a greater chance of reproducing and passing on their genes, thus the genetic make-up of the whole population changes over time due to the environmental pressures that cause some individuals to live and reproduce while others die. Evolution is the changes in the percentages of the various kinds of genes in a population (and therefore, overall changes in the “looks” and/or actions of the individuals who have those kinds of genes) over time.

Over the course of the three quarters, we’ll be coming back to these ideas and discussing them in more detail.

The Five Kingdoms

Here’s a song to help you remember the five kingdoms.
Back when I was in school, biologists recognized two groups of living organisms: everything was classified as either a plant or an animal. Now, biologists recognize five main groupings/categories into which all organisms are divided. Actually, the most recent edition of your textbook splits the bacteria into several kingdoms, but for our purposes, they are similar enough that we will consider all of them to be members of Kingdom Monera. All living organisms can, then, be put into one of these five big groups, called Kingdoms:

Kingdom Monera

bacteria (one-celled, no true nucleus)

Kingdom Protista

algae, seaweed, protozoa (many are one-celled, some colonial, some multicellular; simpler organisms)

Kingdom Fungi

mold, mushrooms, yeast, fungus (multicellular; nutrition via absorption of nutrients)

Kingdom Plantae

plants (multicellular; nutrition via photosynthesis)

Kingdom Animalia

animals (multicellular; nutrition via ingestion of food, followed by digestion)

Within these big groups, there are subdivisions which we’ll discuss later.

References:

• Borror, Donald J. 1960. Dictionary of Root Words and Combining Forms. Mayfield Publ. Co.
• Campbell, Neil A., Lawrence G. Mitchell, Jane B. Reece. 1999. Biology, 5^th Ed.   Benjamin/Cummings Publ. Co., Inc. Menlo Park, CA. (plus earlier editions)
• Campbell, Neil A., Lawrence G. Mitchell, Jane B. Reece. 1999. Biology: Concepts and Connections, 3^rd Ed.   Benjamin/Cummings Publ. Co., Inc. Menlo Park, CA. (plus earlier editions)
• Marchuk, William N. 1992. A Life Science Lexicon. Wm. C. Brown Publishers, Dubuque, IA.

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Copyright © 1996 by J. Stein Carter. All rights reserved.
This page has been accessed times since 15 Aug 2000.