Course Overview and Syllabus
Faculty: Dr. Joanne Pratt
Email: joanne.pratt@olin.edu
Office hours: During lab period and by appointment
Learning Outcomes
Students will learn how to apply concepts and research skills that are currently used in biological research to solve problems in health and disease and drug discovery and development. (Olin Learning Outcomes (OLOs) developed: Think Critically and Develop and Apply Knowledge, Skills, Approaches and Methods –assessed through homework problems, midterm and final exams, lab report)
Students will develop technical writing and oral communication skills and demonstrate an ability to utilize scientific resources (literature, databases) to research and present a topic of interest. Students will present their laboratory-based research and literature/media-based research in written and oral formats. (OLO developed: Communicate effectively, assessed through class discussion, homework problems, lab notebook or website, lab report, media presentation/discussion, final presentation/discussion)
Students will gain experience with the basics of designing, conducting and evaluating laboratory experiments. (OLOs developed: Develop and Apply Knowledge, Skills, Approaches and Methods and Think Critically, assessed through lab report, midterm/final assessments and lab activities)
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the larger societal context in which biological concepts, tools and research play a role in everyday life and medicine, and how societal context shapes the advancement of research in biology and medicine. (OLOs developed: Develop and Apply Knowledge, Skills, Approaches and Methods and Prioritize Doing Good in the World -assessed through oral presentations, midterm and final assessments.)
Course Resources
Book
Life: The Science of Biology
I often assign an earlier edition of the textbook, so students don’t have to spend so much money on the most recent version.
Website
The course website is found on Canvas. Students will log into the website to complete weekly homework questions. There are many resources available through the site, including links to helpful videos and animations, assignment documents and the lab manual.
Laboratory
A lab manual of general reference information is available on Canvas, and there will be weekly installments of upcoming protocols and procedures. An older version of the lab manual is available on this wordpress site, so you can read ahead, but changes may be made to the protocols each week, so Canvas will have the most up to date information.
Assessments and Grading
Final grade will be based on the following:
PIPI 15%
Homework 15%
Midterm assessment 20%
Final presentation/paper 30%
Final group lab report 15%
Lab notebook 10%
PIPI
participation, initiative, professionalism and improvement
PIPI counts 15% towards your final grade, and it encompasses critical behaviors that are important for success in any endeavor. It will be determined based on objective measures, including completion of all assignments on time, active participation during class and lab periods and feedback from your lab group members. Attendance in laboratory sessions is required. Students are also expected to attend each classroom session (barring any health concerns). All of the components of PIPI will factor into the score.
Homework Assignments: Reading Questions
Reading questions and class discussion will provide a means to demonstrate understanding of concepts and to identify areas that require more explanation. Students will complete the online quizzes through Canvas by midnight each day before class, unless otherwise indicated. Students may work with a partner on these quizzes (you must indicate who you worked with), and may use books, notes and the internet and spend as much time as needed. These assignments will count toward your homework grades. In most weeks there will be two quizzes to complete. Students should refer to the syllabus below to see which chapters they are expected to complete prior to each class period.
Students will also be assigned specific sections of the lab manual to read prior to lab periods each week. Questions on lab procedures and results will be included in “clicker questions” posed during class periods.
Homework Assignments: Media Discussions
Each lab group will be responsible for leading a discussion on a topic in contemporary biology, e.g. identified from news or science journal reports. Groups will email their article (or website or video, etc) to all class members by 12 PM (noon) on the day prior to their discussion. All class members are expected to read the article(s)/website/video and to come to class prepared to discuss them. Student presenters/discussion leaders are expected to have some additional background knowledge of the topic to be discussed. Media discussions will last approximately 20-30 minutes. A handout with more information will be distributed.
Homework Assignments: IQI and Other
In addition to the online quizzes, there will be several other homework assignments throughout the semester. Other assignments include (but are not limited to) a bioinformatics assignment, a global health presentation, and an optional poster presentation. More information on these assignments will be distributed.
Assignments that involve watching a video or listening to a podcast may include an IQI (Insights, Questions, and Implications) component. IQI is an approach to learning that allows for more lively discussion and learning in the classroom. When you are asked to read an article or watch a film outside of class, you should be an investigator and observer who yields between 6-10 insights, questions and implications to be shared in class as discussions start to evolve that your curiosity and depth of thinking. It will also confirm that you are actively engaged in outside work.
Take home assessments
There will be a midterm take home assessment to measure learning during the semester. This will be untimed. Textbooks, notebooks, lab manual, Google, etc. may be used to find information during the exams, but you should not use AI. Discussing the assessment with anyone during the assessment period is not allowed. Emphasis will be placed on your understanding of concepts, ability to apply this understanding to solve problems and your ability to find relevant information and communicate your understanding, rather than memorization of facts. The exams will cover material presented in the textbook, lab and covered in class, including media discussions.
Laboratory notebooks and lab reports
The laboratory grade will have two major contributing components. A final group lab report is due the week following completion of the lab activities. The final lab report is based on the entire lab project and counts 15% toward your final grade. A document describing the components of the lab report will be available. A midterm lab report that covers the first half of the laboratory project, namely the cloning, transformation, DNA preparation, restriction digest, PCR and agarose gel electrophoresis results will be due the week after these procedures are completed. This lab report will count as two homework grades.
In addition each team will keep a lab notebook. This must be a hard copy; writing on the electronic lab manual, then printing it out at the end of the semester, is not acceptable. This will be a record of all experimental steps taken during regular lab hours or between lab sessions. Lab notebooks will be read periodically by lab instructors, TAs and your peers, and will be assessed two or three times during the semester. Completed lab notebooks are due immediately after the completion of lab activities, at which time they will receive an official grade. They count 10% toward your final course grade.
Academic Integrity and Expectations
Students who do not attend classes are responsible for all materials presented or discussed in class and for announcements made during class. You should check the Canvas site or ask classmates for information that you may have missed. Computers may only be used in class to take notes or to engage in assignments that are integral to the class session.
All students are expected to behave with high levels of academic integrity. This includes the following:
- Not presenting the work of others as one’s own. This includes presenting the work of others with no or minimal changes (plagiarism)*.
- Providing appropriate citations for all information presented. This includes print-based, web-based and personal communications. Citations are required for both text and figures.
- Sharing credit with collaborators (and refraining from working with others if you have been requested to work independently).
- Preserving integrity of laboratory data, including using appropriate data collection and recording methods, and not falsifying or fabricating results.
- Adhering to the Olin Honor Code.
*This entire section on academic integrity was borrowed from Debbie Chachra’s syllabus.
Topics to be addressed
Emphasis will be on structure, function, and regulation at the molecular level. For example, the structure and regulation of genes, properties and synthesis of proteins, the organization of the cell and multi-cellular systems will be studied in detail. These topics will be applied to understand the molecular differences between organisms, the molecular basis of disease and the molecular approaches to drug development.
5 core concepts in Biology have been identified in a study conducted by AAAS and NSF (visionandchange.org) as central to undergraduate life science education, and these concepts will be unifying themes throughout the semester.
- EVOLUTION: The diversity of life evolved over time by processes of mutation, selection, and genetic change.
- STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION: Basic units of structure define the function of all living things.
- INFORMATION FLOW, EXCHANGE, AND STORAGE: The growth and behavior of organisms are activated through the expression of genetic information in context.
- PATHWAYS AND TRANSFORMATIONS OF ENERGY AND MATTER: Biological systems grow and change by processes based upon chemical transformation pathways and are governed by the laws of thermodynamics.
- SYSTEMS: Living systems are interconnected and interacting.
In addition to the content covered in the ebook, the following topics will be covered:
- Drug discovery, development and clinical trials
- Natural Defenses against Disease: Innate and adaptive immunology
- Scientific Ethics and Ethical Implications of Biological Research
- Global health
- Bioinformatics
- Cancer research and treatment
Integrating Biology 