GOING INTO SPRING BREAK: DIVERSITY AND CLASSIFICATION

When you return from SPRING BREAK....

These notes were introduced to students before Spring Break, and completed on Thursday, March 26th.

The Power Point on "Diversity and Classification" can be uploaded here. The Lecture Guide, given in class today, based on the Power Point can be found as a PDF file here.

NEW SYLLABUS: EVOLUTION AND NATURAL SELECTION

Students and Parents:

We now come to the heart of any introductory Biology course, the 'big idea' that unites the many different areas of biology (and other sciences!) in one massive and incredibly useful explanatory framework.   

That idea, EVOLUTION, at its most basic is simply the obviously true statement that populations (not individuals) change genetically over time.   Following this line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, however, is not simple.   This is the branch of biology which most challenges many traditional ideas in the popular culture about our own species. and it also requires understanding evidence from a variety of sources.

In considering this evidence, it is my pledge to both students and parents that I will always present the evidence (which students are expected to know and understand), but leave the question of how students should incorporate that understanding in their own lives to the students.   Biology is not ideology, and it is certainly not my job to tell anyone what they should believe.   On the other hand, no one (not even teachers!) are entitled to have their personal beliefs be privileged, and never challenged.   It is my hope that teaching this important material in an open and assertive way will inspire students and parents to think more deeply about what they actually do know, and what they believe, and why.

Here is the new syllabus for this unit:

POSTER PROJECTS DUE, NEW UNIT IMMINENT

Students, today (Friday the 13th!) your groups (which you have chosen) should be prepared to hand in your 'Human Genetics Poster Projects', which were given on March 5th and described in this previous blog post.

These Projects are time-consuming to grade, because they are bulky to store and because they must be graded by a detailed rubric. Further, this occurs in the same window of time that your Instructor needs in order to finish grading your Unit Test 2, which was given in class on Wednesday the 11th.

Therefore, it is important that:

• groups complete their Poster Projects by their scheduled due date;                                                    
• FAILURE TO COMPLETE THE PROJECT MAY LEAD TO HOME CONTACT AND SATURDAY SCHOOL ASSIGNMENT                                                                                         
• groups provide a printout, ideally a Word document, that contains the full text of their Poster along with the bibliography of sources;                                                                                            
• FAILURE TO PROVIDE THIS DOCUMENT MAY DELAY THE GRADING OF THE ASSIGNMENT

Finally, at the bottom of this post is a link to the notes on Human Genetics which will be needed on our next Unit on Evolution and Natural Selection

The Power Point Notes for Human Heredity are available here.

POWER POINT: MENDEL'S EXPERIMENTS

The lecture notes for the present unit on Genetics is available at this link. 

Also, students have been assigned a 100-point Group Project, a "Human Genetic Disorders" Poster in which each group of 2-3 students have been randomly given a different such disorder to research.

Students will have only one day in class to complete their POSTER PROJECT (Thursday, March 12th).   The Project is DUE the next day, Friday, March 13th.   

STUDENTS WHO FAIL TO ATTEMPT THIS PROJECT MAY BE ASSIGNED SATURDAY SCHOOL.

FINALLY...the next Unit Test is on Wednesday, March 11th.   There will be an AFTER-SCHOOL STUDY SESSION on Tuesday afternoon, March 10th, between 3:15 and 4:45, in Room N-63.