Course Syllabus
1st nine weeks
• The scope of biology
• The science of biology
• Careers in science (paper/presentation)
• Chemical basis of life
• Molecules of life
• Tour of the cell (model project)
• The working cell: energy from food
• The working cell energy from sunlight
2nd nine weeks
• The cellular basis of inheritance
• Patterns of inheritance
• DNA and the language of life (model project)
• Human genetics
• Frontiers of genetics
• Evolution: A history and a process (presentation)
• Origins of biological diversity
Mid-term Exams
3rd nine weeks
• Prokaryotes and viruses (paper/presentation)
• Protists
• Fungi
• Plant diversity
• Flowering plants
• Plant nutrition and transport
• Control systems in plants
• Invertebrate diversity
• Fishes and amphibians (dissections)
• Reptiles, birds, and mammals
4th nine weeks
• The human body systems
• The biosphere (project)
• Population and community ecology
• Ecosystems and conservation biology (fieldtrip to
Seaworld)
Final Exams