|
Honors Cell Biology
Biol 240H, Spring 2024 Course Description Welcome! BIOL 240H Cell
Biology is an Honors course. This course will take you
to the next level of understanding how cells work. You
will learn how cell components function, and how cells
accomplish dynamic processes including cell division,
migration, and communication. These topics are
important for development, homeostasis, and avoiding a
wide range of human diseases. We consider cell biology
interesting because it involves active materials,
signal integration, and the struggle to create and
maintain order in an increasingly entropic world. The
course will also help build your understanding of how
scientific knowledge is amassed through creative
design of scientific experiments. You will learn to
think critically about how discoveries are made, and
you will imagine and propose how future discoveries
might be made. Meeting days, times T/Th 11:00-12:15pm in GSB1378 Target audience This is an honors course and
part of the set of 200-level core courses in Biology.
The material that we present will mirror to a large
extent, though not fully, what is presented in
non-honors sections, plus we will use some class
periods for hands-on enrichment activities and
discussions. Enrichment activity days will replace
lecture time, so students will be responsible for
learning some material from textbook readings,
bringing questions about the readings to the next
lecture. Modes of Learning We use some innovative
approaches to teaching along with traditional
lecture-based teaching, and we seek to connect
students’ interests to the course material. Lectures and
Interactive Learning Lectures will provide
some of the fundamental learning necessary to build up
a rich understanding of how cells work. Students will
participate actively at times, for example by
considering problems, pairing up with other students
to discuss possible solutions to problems, and sharing
the resulting thoughts with the class. Lectures will
be supplemented with explanations of the experimental
discoveries that have built up our understanding – to
contribute to critical thinking and to appreciate
creative experimental design – and with explanations
of the specific health relevance of many of the topics
that we cover. Enrichment Activities We will seek your input
on some interactive honors-specific activities that we
are planning. These activities are designed to give
you experiences related to the course topics, and to
give you time to interact informally with the
instructors and with each other. One central goal of
these activities is to heighten students’ curiosity
about cell biology, so that learning can be
increasingly built from students’ own curiosity. We do
this because curiosity is a powerful, core motivator
for learning. We specifically design enrichment
activities in partnership with the students, so that
students can take an active part in their own learning
through creative and interactive means. In past years,
for example, students have built their own
smartphone-based microscopes to use and to keep,
contributing to their understanding of microscopy
methods, to an intuitive sense of the size scale of
cells, and to the proximity of cells to their everyday
experiences. Assignments Students are assigned
readings and the in-class activities detailed above,
and you are expected to be active participants in
class periods. Grades are determined based on exam
results, and we expect that performance on exams will
be boosted by active participation in the course. Prerequisites Students must have completed
Biol 103 (or, from the old Biology curriculum being
phased out, Biol 202). Honors Carolina students have
priority for registration slots. If spaces are
available, other students with at least a 3.0 GPA may
register as well. Instructors Dr. Bob Goldstein Office location: Fordham Hall
616 Office hours: by appointment bobg@unc.edu Dr. Amy Shaub Maddox Office location: Fordham Hall
407 Office hours: by appointment asm@unc.edu General Course Policies We want each of you to do
well, but for this to happen we need you to do your
part. Please take advantage of all of the
opportunities to learn and review the material. To
facilitate this, attendance at all classes and
activities is essential. Anyone who does poorly on any
exam is strongly encouraged to meet with the professor
at the earliest possible time to plan how to improve
performance on the next exam. Please come to class prepared
to ask questions. If you do not understand a point in
lecture or in your readings, please feel free to
interrupt by asking a question. Do not feel
intimidated or embarrassed to ask questions! Note that
we would prefer not to answer questions about lecture
material by email. This does not mean that we do not
want to discuss the material with you, but merely that
email is not a good mechanism of doing so. It could
take several days of emailing back and forth to answer
a question we could address in minutes in a
conversation after class. We are happy to stay at the
end of class to answer questions. Anyone who wishes to
audio record lectures is free to do so. Please
follow Campus Health’s COVID recommendations
(https://campushealth.unc.edu/services/primary-care/covid-19-service-details-and-faqs/) to help keep
us all healthy. Course Materials Course materials that we
provide (exams, lecture slides, lecture outlines, etc)
are copyrighted and may not be distributed to third
parties including web-based course material
collections. You are of course welcome to download
copies of the course materials that we provide onto
your own computer. This can be especially valuable to
you in the unlikely event that a server goes down
before an exam, limiting your access to the course web
site. Lecture materials will be uploaded to the course
web site (for the first half of the course) or to
Sakai (for the second half of the course) before each
lecture. Required Text Essential Cell Biology, 6th
Edition (Bruce Alberts and coauthors, 2023) Student Learning Outcomes This course will make you
fluent in the following topics, which we consider to
be both important – forming a fundamental basis for
understanding human diseases, for example – and
interesting. The course will also help build your
understanding of how scientific knowledge in these
areas has been, and continues to be, built up through
creative design of scientific experiments. You will
learn to think critically about how discoveries are
made, and you will gain increased appreciation for
creative experimental design. Lecture Topics: Week 1: Introduction
to Cell Biology Week 2: How to Study Cells Week 3: Protein Structure
and Function Week 4: Membranes and
Transport Week 5: Mitochondria Week 6: Intracellular
Compartments and Transport Week 7: Cytoskeleton Week 8: Cell
Cycle Week 9: Cell
Division Week 10: Cell
Migration Week 11: Cell
Adhesion Week 12: Intercellular
Communication Week 13: Stem
Cells & Cancer Week 14: Septins Week 15: Bacterial
Cells, Fungal Cells, Plant Cells Course requirements and
grades Most of your final grade will
be determined by your performance on four exams. Exams
1 and 2, given during the first half, bear equal
weight (25% each). During the 2nd half of the course,
exams (#3 and the Final exam) are worth 20% each. The
final 10% of the course grade will be earned by
completing guided reading quizzes in Canvas, and by
completing an online course assessment for the Biology
Curriculum Assessment Committee (~10 tasks total).
Each exam will cover only the material indicated on
the syllabi. Exam questions will be taken from
lectures, activities and assigned readings. Exams must
be taken on the dates indicated during the regular
class period. Makeup exams will only be given in
exceptional circumstances, i.e., medical or family
emergency documented in writing. You must notify your
professor of such an emergency before the time of the
regular exam. The makeup exam may be in a different
format than the in-class exam. Final course numerical
averages will be rounded up or down to integers in the
usual way (only 0.5 or above gets rounded up), and
then letter grades will be assigned as follows. A final course average of 93
or above will earn you an A A final course average of 90
to 92 will earn you a grade no lower than A- A final course average of 87
to 89 will earn you a grade no lower than B+ A final course average of 83
to 86 will earn you a grade no lower than B A final course average of 80
to 82 will earn you a grade no lower than B- A final course average of 77
to 79 will earn you a grade no lower than C+ A final course average of 73
to 76 will earn you a grade no lower than C A final course average of 70
to 72 will earn you a grade no lower than C- A final course average of 67
to 69 will earn you a grade no lower than D+ A final course average of 63
to 66 will earn you a grade no lower than D A final course average of 60
to 62 will earn you a grade no lower than D- In the unlikely case that a
student scores below 50% on any of exams 1 through 3,
they will be given an opportunity to bring their score
up to a maximum of 50% by completing test corrections.
This opportunity does not exist for the final exam.
Exam dates Exam dates are listed on the
course web site. The last exam is given in compliance
with university final exam policy and is scheduled
according to the UNC Final Exam calendar. Diversity statement The Department of Biology
values the perspectives of individuals from all
backgrounds reflecting the diversity of our students.
We broadly define diversity to include race, gender
identity, national origin, ethnicity, religion, social
class, age, sexual orientation, political background,
and physical and learning ability. We strive to make
this classroom and this department an inclusive space
for all students. The professors reserve the
right to make changes to the syllabus, including
project due dates and test dates. These changes will
be announced as early as possible. Advice to you from past
students
Information below applies
to all classes at UNC Chapel Hill.
|