General Biology Lecture Slides

Objectives for each class period and slides (usually without illustrations, animations, or in-class problems) for upcoming classes will be posted before each class period. If you would like to print a copy of these slides to use as a framework for taking notes in class, you may open the slides as a PDF file which has already been formatted to slide format and print directly. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to do this. If you are working on your personal computer and require a copy of Adobe Acrobat reader, you can download a copy of Acrobat Reader for free. Please stay abreast of material as we proceed..."A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."...which is followed by another step, and another step, and......

Tuesday 26 August - Welcome to General Biology - we will be doing all sorts of "administrivia" - checking enrollment lists, introducing the syllabus for lecture (the "rules of the road"), etc. We also will spend a few moments in an introduction to the nature of life and its study. If you have time before this morning's class, you should read Chapter 1 in our textbook (and if not before class, you should read it immediately after class). During the semester, you may want to track your progress by using the General Biology Opening Day Assessment which we will discuss briefly in class. You can focus your learning by referring to these objectives for the first class and its associated reading. You may download the slides here as a PDF file which already has the slides formatted 3/page.

Thursday 28 August - The history of the idea of evolution; an introduction to Charles Darwin, his times and his life; Evolution by Darwinian natural selection. Chapter 22. You may access learning objectives for chapter 22, and the remaining chapters discussing evolution (23, 24, and 26), here. You may download the slides here as a PDF file which already has the slides formatted 3/page.

Tuesday 2 September - The remaining slides from 28 August will suffice for today's class. We will be continuing to talk about the development of Darwin's theory by discussing Darwin's experiences, his publication of The Origin, its major principles, and the responses that Darwin's ideas provoked. All of this is still the subject of Chapter 22. We may not get to the point at which we discuss the readings that you have done from Darwin until Thursday.

Thursday 4 September - We will conclude our discussion of the development of Darwinism by discussing the publication of The Origin and examine the major themes within a Darwinian understanding of evolutionary change. We also will take a brief look at some of the major lines of evidence, both classical and modern, that support these ideas. We will next turn to the development of what often is called "The Modern Synthesis" as evolutionary theory meets genetics in the 20th century. This will include an introduction to population genetics and its role in formulating the new Darwinian synthesis. This is the subject of Chapter 23 in our main text. Slides from previously published sets are useful for this discussion. In addition, the following slides outline the major ideas necessary to a modern genetically-based understanding of Darwinism. Additionally, by the first exam, you should read the article: Petrie, M., T. Halliday, and C. Sanders. 1991. Peahens prefer peacocks with elaborate trains. Animal Behaviour 41: 323-331. This article is available on ereserves at the SAU library. Select "Electronic Reserves and Course Materials, next scroll to my name in the instructor list and click on "GO", click on the course number BIOL 103, enter the password that you have been given in class, and then click on the article name (Wow! What a trail of breadcrumbs to follow!). When reading this article, you should analyze it as an example of scientific methodology. For example, you should think about the following questions. What is the hypothesis (and null hypothesis)? What are the independent and dependent variables? How was control incorporated into the experiment. What conclusions were reached? You may prepare notes about this paper for use on the first exam. I ask that you confine your notes to the size of a small notecard. Each member of a team may have his or her own notecard, or a single notecard may be prepared by a team working together in reviewing the paper by Petrie.

Tuesday 9 September - We will begin with practicing making a Darwinian argument. We will then begin a discussion of population genetics,and its impact upon an understanding of evolutionary theory, the topic of chapter 23. We may begin Chapter 24 which discusses the origin of species: what are species? how do they arise? how are the boundaries between species maintained over time? Here are the outline slides for the discussion of the topic of speciation.

Thursday 11 September - We will continue our discussion of population genetics before moving on to a discussion of the origin of new species.

Important...15 September, 730 p.m. Rogalski Center Ballroom. You are required to attend the lecture of Distinguished Professor David Sloan Wilson of Binghamton University who is delivering the Hauber Lecture of Biology this year. The title of his lecture is "Evolution for Everyone" The lecture is the kickoff of our year-long program of events recognizing the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birthday, and the 150th anniversary of publication of the Origin of Species. There are many events throughout the year which you may learn about at the Darwin Project web site.

Tuesday 16 September - we will not have lecture class today (replaced by last night's lecture)

Thursday 18 September - We will be discussing the topics of defining species and the mechanisms by which they arise. I will not be talking about Phylogeny and Systematics as I had originally planned and only material through speciation will be examined. I will be emailing you the exam at the end of this class.

Tuesday 23 September - tentative exam date; we will not have class today and your completed submission is due in the next class period

Thursday 25 September - your exam submission is due today at the beginning of class In addition to a quick review of the exam today, we will be beginning our next major section of the course, an introduction to basic biological chemistry. Here are the specific learning objectives for this next section of the course. Our first class will include a review of basic chemistry, Chapter 2, and possibly an introduction to the properties of water, Chapter 3. While your memory of high school chemistry may be somewhat rusty, I hope it has not yet fossilized! This material should be very familiar to you. Here are the slides for the discussion of basic chemistry and the chemistry of water.

Tuesday 30 September - Exams are available outside my office.. We will finish chapter 3 today as we talk about the unusual properties of water. We also will probably begin our discussion of the chemistry of carbon and the structure and functioning of the various classes of macromolecules. These two subjects are intertwined and are treated in chapters 4 and 5 in your text. Here are the slides for chapters four and five; I have made them 6/page to save a little paper. You may begin signing up for teams for the second exam today. You may work in teams of 2 or 3. You may not work with anyone with whom you worked on the first exam.

Thursday 2 October -We will be finishing the chemistry of water, quickly taking a look at Carbon chemistry and then begin looking at classes of macromolecules (Chapters 4 and 5) with a long look at the chemistry of proteins; there are no new slides for today's class.

Tuesday 7 October- We will finish discussing macromolecules today and may begin our study of Energetics which is the subject of chapter 8. Here are the slides for this discussion.

Thursday 9 October -We will be finishing up Energetics today. This is the last topic on Thursday's exam. The second exam will be distributed at the end of this material and you will have one week for its completion.

Tuesday 14 October - if the exam was distributed at the end of the last class, this will be your "exam day" and we will not have regular class.

Thursday 16 October - Exams are due at the beginning of today's class; they will be returned to you next week. We are once again moving up the ladder of complexity as we next address the organization of cells, the fundamental units for all of life. Cellular structure and sub-cellular functioning is the subject of Chapter 6 in your main textbook. Objectives for all chapters on the third exam may be found here.

Tuesday 21 October - We will be finishing our discussion of cell structure and then moving on to a discussion of the structure of membranes and transport across cell membrane - how do membranes keep the inside in and the outside out, all the while selectively regulating the passage of materials in both directions? The functioning of membranes is critical to all aspects of cellular functioning. It would be a good idea to have your textbook with you for the next couple weeks so that you could follow along the illustrations and notate them in your book. Membrane structures and transport mechanisms are the subject of chapter 7.

Thursday 23 October -We will complete our discussion of movement across membranes today. Topics will include ways in which materials to which the cell's membrane is generally impermeable manage to cross the membrane, and how materials move against concentration gradients. Following that discussion, we will turn our attention to examining the basic catabolic processes of cellular respiration. How do cells convert energy from energy rich sources into chemical forms that can be put to other purposes? The answer lies in one collection of cellular reactions know as glycolysis common to all cells, and a second series of processes, known as the Krebs Cycle and chemiosmosis, found in eukaryotes. Taken all together, these processes comprise cell respiration which is the topic of chapter 9.

Tuesday 28 October - We will finish cell respiration by examining the electron transport system and chemiosmosis, and take a quick look at a couple anaerobic alternatives in respiration. After a moment or two of review (can you spell Concept Map?), we will turn our attention to Photosynthesis, Chapter 10.

My November Guest
By Robert Frost (1874-1963)

My Sorrow, when she's here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walks the sodden pasture lane.
Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She's glad the birds are gone away,
She's glad her simple worsted gray
Is silver now with clinging mist.
The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why.
Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
And they are better for her praise.