classes meet: Wed 12:00-12:50, Kirk 108.
and sections A,B,C,D meet Wed 2:00-4:50 or Thu 2:00-4:50
in Kirk 412 or Kirk 426.
Dr. Itzick Vatnick, office Kirk 512, 610-499-4245,
vatnick@pop1.science.widener.edu
Dr. Bruce W. Grant, office Kirk 200, 610-499-4017,
grant@pop1.science.widener.edu
Department of Biology, Widener University
Chester, PA, 19013
Note: Lab Exam 2 (1995-1999) is now on the web!!! Press HERE!
This page was last modified 3 January 2000, and has been accessed 1277 times since 1 January 1998.
Over the past half century biologyhas seen an explosion in academic, social and political activity. Technologicaladvances in biology (especially molecular biology), chemistry, engineering,and computer science, have lead to breakthroughs in our understanding ofhow our bodies work, how and why we resemble our ancestors, and how wecan modify and use other living organisms (e.g. bacteria, plants and animals)to improve our lives.
Yet despite this proliferationof knowledge about living organisms, each new discovery reveals dozensof new questions without answers. Some new questions are purely scientific,such as “how does the brain work?”, or “what are the causes and cures forcancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and a host of other diseases?”
But other questions are of a verydifferent nature and can only be answered by an examination of our deeplyheld personal and ethical beliefs, such as “what is life and when is itnot worth technologically prolonging it?” “What rights do non-human lifeforms possess?” Or, “who should have access to our personal medical recordsthat will soon include information about hidden genetic predispositionsto expensive diseases that each of us may have?” Thus, like it or not biologistsand their applied cousins in the biomedical industries are at the fore-frontof major social changes in the next century due to the revolution in biologythat has occurred in the latter half of this one. It is your responsibilityas students in this course to absorb enough understanding of the disciplineof biology to become engaged as constructive participants in this debate.
We hope that your experiences inlab this semester will show you first-hand how biological knowledge isconstructed from observation and interpretation. We hope that you willunderstand and appreciate the profound and often overwhelming complexityof the living processes within a single organism. We also hope that youwill realize the limitations of our present day methods of inquiry. Biologistsdo not understand from first principles in the vast majority of cases whya living system (cell, tissue, individual, etc.) responds the way it doesto any specific environmental factor (e.g. a toxin or disease pathogen).Instead, our knowledge base about biological function, e.g. disease pathology,is almost entirely based upon empirical record-keeping of what worked andwhat didn't.
This profound level of biologicalignorance could not come at a worse time in human history. Due to the unconstrainedindustries of a few hundred million people in the developed world, andthe marginal contribution of 5 billion others in the developing world,we now face a planet-wide crisis of environmental degradation. Human causedperturbation of our air, land, and water ...
Growing concern over these issueshas pushed the science of biology to the forefront of public and politicalconsciousness. Your developing an understanding of biological processesand biological inquiry will equip you with the skills to read global environmentalsignposts and understand these global threats to the health of ourselves,our children, of other people, of all other organisms as well. Becauseof the critical role that technology, especially biotechnology, will playin our future if we are to sustain ourselves, your understanding of biologyis critical to your evaluating the courses of action we humans need totake in order to competently manage our world.
There is a required textbook (which is the same one as used in the Biology 152 lecture course) by Campbell, Reese, and Mitchell. 1999. Biology, 5th ed. (it has a dark red cover), that must be brought each week to lab.This text is well written, well illustrated, and is a leader in terms ofhow it interweaves evolutionary principles of organismal design throughout.We recommend multiple readings of the summaries at the end of each chapterof relevance to each lab.
In addition, there is a requiredin-house generated lab manual that closely follows the Cambell et al. text thatis for sale from us. This manual comes in a 3-ring binder. You should placeall of your lab handouts and other materials accumulated for these labsin this notebook.
We recommend that you buy a labcoat, or other functionally equivalent attire, to protect your street clothesfrom noxious (and some toxic) specimen preservatives.
Although, we supply tools for dissection(scalpel, small scissors, probes, 6” ruler, etc.) for those labs wheredissections are needed; some may wish to own and maintain their own kits.This is optional.
notes: Q = answers to lab handout questions are due at the followingWednesday noon meeting,
R = review ofthe lab activity is due at the following Wednesday noon meeting.
Previous Class Schedules:
There are five categories upon which your performance in lab will be assessed.
(1) Attendance, In-Class Assignments, and Quizzes,
(2) Answers to Questions from the Lab Handouts,
(3) Lab Exams
(4) Laboratory Reports,
(5) Critical/Constructive Reviews of Lab Activities.
(1) Attendance, In-Class Assignments, and Quizzes.
Attendance is required in lab and in the Wednesday noon weekly organizational meeting. Each unexcused absence from a lab period following your second absence will result in a lower grade (please refer to the Student Handbook for the Widener University policy on unexcused absences).
(2) Guidelines for Answers to the Questions from the Lab Handouts.
Each lab handout contains numerous questions for thought for which you are asked to attempt concise answers to ANY 4 OF THEM. You should use your text or any other written references to answer these questions. You may discuss your answers with others, but your written answer must be original. We highly recommend that you attempt as many of these answers as possible BEFORE coming to class, since this will help you greatly in understanding concepts in lab.
Answers should be typed or wordprocessed, single spaced, 12 point, 1” margins, minimum 1/2 page in length, and in some cases including a little diagram. Each answer should begin with your name, lab section (meeting time and instructor), the lab number, the question number, and the first five words of the question, so that we can see which question you are answering. For each week, your answers to these questions are due at the beginning of the next Wednesday noon hour. Each clear, concise, and insightful answer will earn you +5 points. However, a poorly conceived answer that reflects a lack of understanding, thought, or effort will earn 0 or -2 points.
(3) Lab Exams.
Lab exams will assess your mastery of the material and skills from the lab periods immediately preceding each exam. Lab exams will be one hour in length and will be held midday on the Thursday of the lab exam week (whether or not you have lab on Thursday). Since questions will be based heavily on the labs you did, your best plan to study for these exams is to study your lab handouts (especially the answers to the questions in the lab handouts), the pages in the text to which these handouts refer, and other handouts from lab.
(4) Guidelines for Laboratory Reports.
Separate handouts will provide the guidelines for the two labs for which you will do a report - the stomata lab and the animal systems investigation.
(5) Guidelines for Reviews of Lab Activities.
No lab activity is perfect and its participants, YOU, are the best judges of what changes need to be made to make things run more smoothly so that you can get the most out of it. In addition, numerous studies have shown that students learn more if they are involved in the teaching process. This activity is specifically designed to meet both objectives: improve the labs and help you get more out of your time and effort here.
After the completion of each lab activity, preferably at the end of lab or immediately thereafter, we want you to write a brief paragraph (typed or wordprocessed, single spaced, 12 point, 1” margins, minimum 1/2 page in length), that conveys your most pressing concerns with the lab activity and exactly how the activity should be modified to improve it. For example, if a lab was in your opinion “too long” which particular activities would you omit and why? If an activity in a lab was “a waste of time,” why was it so? What specific lab objective(s) were not met, and what specific activity should be used instead that would accomplish the(se) lab objective(s)? To repeat, your comments must be constructive to be given credit.
Your critical/constructive reviews of each lab activity are due at the beginning of the following Wednesday noon hour meeting. Clear, concise, and insightful reviews that demonstrate your reflection and constructive criticism of a lab activity will earn +5 points; however, reviews that do not meet these criteria will receive 0 or - 3 points. During the semester there will be 2 multiweek lab activities (the stomata lab and the animal systems lab, see syllabus). Reviews for these two labs will be worth +10 points and will be due the Wednesday following their conclusion.
Point Breakdown:
proposal (10 points) oral presentation (20 points) symposium participation (10 points) written report (80 points) original data (10 points) disk copy of your project (10 points) | |
proposal (10 points) oral presentation(30 points) poster display (30 points) labeled dissection display (30 points) answers to questions (50 points) handout/study guide (50 points) | |
2 labs with 10 point reviews (20 points) | |
Please send comments to: grant@pop1.science.widener.edu.