Biology Course Description

Biology 151 and 152 is important to students who major in biological sciences in Biology 151 it address the concept of cellular and molecular biology genetic and mammalian anatomy and physiology, while Biology 152 addresses the concept of evolution and diversity of organisms, plant anatomy, physiology, and anatomy. So as to meet the challenge of the 21st century, the students need knowledge and skills, and to be responsible with the practice of integration of knowledge in a new and complex way. Biology 151 and 152 give students a strong foundation in the main concept and knowledge of modern biology and help them develop the skills that are integral to the process of science. These courses provide a coherent framework for understanding biology and prepare the students for upper-level education; they also encourage the students to enjoy biology and science in general.

GOALS AND INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES (ILOS) ILO 1

To demonstrate the ability to engage in scientific inquiry in the laboratory or field.

Scientific inquiry refers to the activities through which students develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, as well as an understanding of how scientists study the natural world. These activities are alike in their reliance on evidence, hypothesis, and theories. Scientific inquiry cannot be easily be described except the contest of particular investigation, that is there is no fixed set of steps that scientists follow, no path leading to scientific knowledge. However, there are certain features of science that give it a distinctive character which everyone can exercise in thinking scientifically on everyday life

Various experiments are conducted in the laboratory or in the field for the learner to understand bio 151. These experiments include ecology, cellular biology and energy flow.

In bio 152, a lot of field work is conducted by the learners so as to understand evolution and inheritance better which always changes with time. This field work includes: genetic, evolution and molecular genetics

According to scientific inquiry:

The learner should engage in scientifically oriented question

The learner should give priority to evidence in responding questions the

The learner should formulate explanation from evidence

The learner should connect explanation to scientific knowledge

The learner should communicate and justify these explanations

Objectives

Develop practical skills necessary for a professional biologist. Students will advance in:

Team work

Laboratory skills

Quantitative analysis skill

ILO 2

Identify and describe fundamental theories, themes, and habits of mind that are foundational to the study of the natural world.

Biology 151 explores basic biological concepts about the theme of energy flow. These ideas include:

The nature of science

Ecology

Cellular biology

Levels of organization

Energy capture and transfer within cells and communities.

These concepts are foundational to the development of fundamental theories and study of the natural world.

The nature of science

This is the principles and idea that provide a description of science as a way of understanding scientific knowledge. These ideas have enabled the successive generation to achieve an increasingly comprehensive and reliable understanding of human species. The union of science, mathematics and technology forms the basis that makes it successful

Ecology

This is a branch of biology that deals with the relationship of organism and their surroundings. Ecology is an interdisciplinary field and it includes biology and earth science. The study of ecology is divided into four categories:

Physiological ecology is the response of a single species to environmental condition example temperature or light

Population ecology is the distribution of individual species and the factors causing such distribution

Community ecology is the number of species found at a given location and their interactions

Ecosystem ecology is the study of living and non-living components of the ecosystem and their interaction within a ecosystem frame work,

Evolutionary ecology is a form of ecology which may operate on any of the four levels but most commonly on the physiological or population level

Cellular biology

This is the study of cell structure and function and it revolves around the concept of life that a cell is an important unit of life. it focuses on cell permit a detailed understanding of the tissue and the organism that cell composes. It explains the structure, organization of the organelles they contain, their physiological processes, metabolic process, signaling pathways, lifecycle, and interaction with their environment. This is done on both microscopic and molecular level since it contains prokaryotic cells and eukaryotic cells. The component of the cells is fundamental to all biological sciences. It is also essential for research in the biomedical fields such as cancer and other diseases. The research of cellular biology is related to genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, and immunology and development biology

Level of organization

The unicellular organism performs all life function and they function independently but the multicellular have various level of organization within them. The multicellular organism has 5 levels.

Level 1 the cell

It is the basic unit of a living thing. The cell plays a specific function within the organism. Examples include; blood cell, nerve cell, bone cell.

Level 2 tissue

This is cells that are similar in structure and function and they work together to perform a specific activity. An example of tissue includes blood, nerve etc. The human has 4 basic tissue connectives, epithelial muscle, and the nerve.

Level 3 organism

This is made up tissue that work together to perform a specific activity. An example includes heart, brain, and skin.

Level 4 organ system

This is groups of two or more tissues that work together to perform a specific function. Examples of organ system include circulatory system, nerve system. The human body have 11 organ system which include-circulatory, digestive, Endoline, excretory immune, integumentary muscular nerves, productive respiratory and skeletal.

Level 5 organism

Organism is living thing that carry out all basic life process. The level of organisms in correct order includes Cell tissue organ-organ system-organism.

Energy captures and transfers with cell and community

The key source of cell reaction ATP-linked with a ribose sugar .ATP is produced from ADP and phosphate by several inorganic reaction in the cell .ATP is the major energy reaction in photosynthesis the captured light energy is transformed into bonding energy between ADP and phosphate and glucose is made using ATP while respiration the bonding energy holding glucose is transferred to ATP.light and sugar are the major sources of energy in a cell. Energy from light is gotten from the sun. 2% of the light energy is converted to a chemical by photosynthesis while the rest is lost through reflection from leaves, heat loss since not all wavelengths are used. 10% of the light energy is passed on to trophic levels while the rest is lost through respiration or as heat. The number of food chains becomes limited due to energy loss at each trophic level, through respiration, egestion, excretion or too little energy left to sustain high trophic levels

Biology 152 explores related biological concepts of inheritance and evolution that change over time. These concepts include:

Transmission

Genetics

Transmission

Molecular genetics

Evolution

Transmission genetic

This is the transfer of genetic information from one gene to the other or from one location in a cell to another. According to Mendels law of segregation, it states that each individual that has gene copies at each locus and these gene copies segregate during gamete production so that one gene goes to one gamete. He also stated that two genes copies are passed on to the next generation at one locus are independent of each gene copies are passed on to the next generation and another locus. He named this law as independent assortment. Mendel also provided empirical evidence that traits of the two parents were not irreversible blended in the offspring. He demonstrated that heritable factors were particulate. Mendel was breeding and scoring tens of thousands of pea plants. This work gave birth to the field of genetics including transmission genetics.

Molecular genetic

This is the field of biology and genetic that studies the structure and function of genes at a molecular level. The study of genes and chromosome of an organism can give insight into hereditary genetic variation and mutation. This study is helpful in developmental biology and also in understanding and treating genetic diseases.

Research areas in molecular genetics include:

1. Inherited metabolic diseases this genetic condition results in metabolism problems, most of the people who have metabolic disorders have a defected gene which results in enzyme deficiency. This disorder includes

11. System biology this is the study of a system of the biological component which may be a molecule, cell organism or the entire species. The Living systems are energetic and challenging, and their performance may be hard to expect from the belongings of individual parts.

111. Disease pathogenesis. This is a biological mechanism which leads to the diseased state. It also describes the origin and development of the disease and whether it is acute, chronic or recurrent. Examples of disease pathogenesis include microbial infections, inflammation, malignancy, and tissue breakdown. Bacteria pathogenesis is a mechanism by which bacteria cause infectious illness.

Evolution

Evolution helps us to understand the history of life. Evolution teaches us about our origin and our common. The central idea of evolution is that life has history and has changed over a long period of time. Evolution also shows that different species share a common ancestor. Evolution also shows that different species have a certain relationship and hence by studying inherited species characteristics and other historical evidence, we can reconstruct evolutionary relationship and represent them on a family tree which is known as phylogeny

Diversity of life on earth

Life is everywhere on earth and for over 3.7 billion years living organism on earth has diversity and adapted to the environment. The diversity of life is amazing since organism share certain similarities such as they replicate and the receptor molecule is DNA and they convert information stored in DNA into a product used to build cellular machinery from fat protein and carbohydrate. There is 3 domain of life Bacteria, Archaea, Eukaryotic. Living things are divided into five kingdoms; Animalia, Plantae, monera, Protista and fungi and they were divided into two main divisions which include; eukaryotes which include animals, plants, fungi and Protista and prokaryote which include bacteria.

Taxonomy classifies living organisms. It groups living things into kingdoms which are subdivided into phyla, classes, orders, families, genus, and species. This is according to Linnaeus.

ILO 3

Describing the importance of the history and philosophy of science in shaping current thought and practice

We can say that Science is hierarchical and current findings build on historical knowledge. In Introductory Biology 151/- 152 we are provided with the foundation upon which the rest of our biological growth stands. As a result, both process and content are crucial.

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