BIOS 211 Course Description

Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival.
W. Edwards Deming (1900 - 1993)

There are three steps to take to enroll in BIOS 211. This is step ONE.

• STEP ONE: Read this course description completely
• STEP TWO: Complete and submit the sign-up form (campus access only - inquire if you need to sign up from off campus)
• STEP THREE: Visit the the "Register" page and follow instructions; you may be required to schedule a pre-laboratory exam

Description

The Introduction to Experimental Biosciences (BIOS 211) is an intermediate level laboratory course that is designed for biosciences majors and non-majors who have sufficient laboratory experience. It is among the options available to premedical students for meeting the requirements for a year of biology laboratory. An alternative is to take BIOS 111 in combination with either BIOS 213 or BIOS 320 (BIOE 342). We recommend that premedical students who are not biosciences majors and have a limited science background and/or limited laboratory experience take BIOS 111. We recommend the same for less experienced BIOS majors.

Bios 111 course web page

In BIOS 211 we focus on the process of science and on writing, quantitative, and several other fundamental practical skills, in the context of investigative laboratory studies. Assignments include pre-lab preparation, starting/maintaining a laboratory notebook, laboratory work, several research papers, and a final exam. To help you learn technical writing we employ a method called Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) in which students evaluate selected research papers written by their peers.

Students will attend a one hour lecture and participate in an afternoon laboratory session each week for the first seven weeks of the semester. Due dates for writing assignments will extend past the first seven weeks and the final exam will be held at the end of the semester. Preparation for laboratory work, time in class, and time spent on writing and other assignments should require about 90 hours, equivalent to the time that one would invest in a two credit lecture course in a technical area.

What you will need

For the first day in the laboratory you will need a blank laboratory notebook (bound, quadrille ruled, designed to make duplicate copies), a pair of laboratory goggles, and a black marker ("Sharpie") for marking glassware. The required text is "Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences, 4th edition," VE McMillan, New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006 (ISBN 0-312-44083-9). You will need the text when the writing assignments begin, about the third week of classes. Please keep the text after you finish the course. You may need to consult it for assignments in upper division laboratory courses, and it is a good reference for technical writing in general.

Bios 111/211 instructors

***NOTE: Dr. Eich will be on leave until after the second week of classes***

Other recommended courses

• BIOS 111 (1 credit hour), Fundamentals of laboratory work in the biosciences, instructs students in fundamental research methods and prepares students to conduct independent research in biochemistry & cell biology
• NSCI 121 (2 credit hours), Writing professionally in the natural sciences, is designed specifically to prepare students for BIOS 211 and other laboratory courses that require research papers
• BIOS 115 (1 credit hour), Freshman seminar on local biosciences research, is designed to prepare students who are interested in doing undergraduate research in biosciences.

Weekly schedule

Week one

(lecture)  Course content, organization, expectations; Importance, dynamics, and biology of microtubules; concepts of regulation by feedback inhibition and of steady states; regeneration of flagella in the organism Chlamydomonas
(laboratory)  Introduction to laboratory record keeping; tutorial on using the research light microscope; on your own, find, view, and measure selected microscopic specimens; practice making estimates based upon measurements; fix and observe Chlamydomonas and learn to measure flagella length

Week two

Because next Monday is the Labor Day holiday we cannot hold the weekly meeting; please plan to review the background material on the course web site
(background material)  Flagella regeneration study; overall question; specific hypothesis; experimental design; experimental controls; experimental error; collection of replicate data; criteria for selecting valid data; graphing; statistical analysis
(Monday lecture) Plan for an introduction to "calibrated peer review (cpr);" we will use cpr to evaluate results sections of your research papers this semester.
(laboratory)  Measurement of flagella regrowth following amputation in Chlamydomonas

Week three

Monday lecture is cancelled due to the holiday
(lecture material)  Introduction to "laboratory math" and good bench technique; mixtures, solutions, use of SI units and prefixes, formulas, colorimetric assays, spectrophotometry, and dilutions; hazards and safety considerations
(laboratory)  Prepare solutions, dilutions, standards and samples for protein assay; conduct an assay, determine fraction yields, conduct dilutions

Week four

(lecture)  Structure of blood and origin of blood cells; erythrocyte cytoskeleton and rationale behind the research project; blood and blood cell fractionation, differential cenrifugation, and collecting samples
(laboratory)  Isolate red blood cells from whole blood; Lyse red cells and isolate membranes using differential centrifugation; use a Bradford assay to determine sample protein concentrations; freeze samples for later analysis

Week five

(lecture) Overview of protein structure; denaturing proteins for electrophoresis; polyacrylamide gels; principle of discontinuous gel electrophoresis; band separation and calibration
(laboratory) Prepare samples for electrophoresis; prepare polyacrylamide gels; load and run samples; remove and stain gels

Week six

(lecture)  Analysis of SDS-PAGE, including objectives of the analysis, strategies, calibration of gels, kinds of evidence that we collect, and how we use such evidence; principles and use of a polarographic system for measurement of dissolved oxygen  
(laboratory)  Complete the analysis of protein gels; learn to operate a polarographic system, collect and analyze data

Week seven

(lecture)  Preparation of mitochondria from fresh liver tissue; paths of electrons from specific substrates, proton pumping, oxidative phosphorylation, and respiratory control; expected responses to electron transport inhibitors, uncouplers, and inhibition of ATP synthase
(laboratory)  Dissection of fresh liver; tissue fractionation to isolate mitochondria; polarographic studies on electron transport, respiratory control, electron transport inhibitors, uncoupling agents, and inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation.

Weeks eight and later

Remaining writing assignments will be due at intervals. In addition to the date scheduled by the Registrar, the final exam will be offered the first two weekdays of finals, morning and afternoon, in the teaching lab. The early dates are reserved for students with conflicts, either with other final exams or with travel plans.