Textbook: Human Biology: Concepts and Current Issues, 4th Edition (Required)
Author: Michael D. Johnson
Publisher: Benjamin Cummings, 2008
Course Description:
BIOL 1130 is designed for students who may have had a range of science courses at the secondary level (no matter how long ago) and for those for whom human biology is a new subject. It is NOT a course for majors in biology. A major objective of this course is to help students become more comfortable with science in their daily lives. A second objective follows from the first. It is hoped that students will continue to learn more about their bodies and also to increase their understanding through life-long learning. Reading scientific journals and keeping up-to-date with the latest medical information on-line and on other electronic mediais a major way to obtain these objectives. General biological principles will be related to cellular structure and function at both the cellular and organ system level.
Topics to be discussed will include biochemistry, energetics, the molecular basis of cell metabolism, cell division, and the homeostatic regulation of the cell environment. Structure function relationships are at the heart of the study of anatomy and physiology. Current issues are used to discuss and relate ethical, social, political, and economic issues raised by new scientific discoveries.
Course Objectives:
The 1992 Public Health Service Report entitled Prologue to Action: Life Science Education and Science Literacy summarizes the major conceptual ideas that we believe apply to those who declare as science majors as well as those who take science for other reasons.
"...Scientifically literate people should be able to participate in discussions of contemporary scientific issues, apply scientific information in personal decision making, and locate valid scientific information when they need it. These components of scientific literacy in turn require that people be able to understand and evaluate publically disseminated information in science and technology, distinguish science from pseudoscience, and interpret graphic displays of scientific information.Because the rapid pace and complex nature of advances in the... sciences raise difficult issues of ethics and public policy for the Nation, the public’s ability to understand science and technology is critical to the Nation’ s future."
We also strive to:
1) provide students with a broad-based general knowledge and familiarize them with the language of science;
2) increase student awareness of current issues in science, especially the relationships of science to society and the ethical questions inherent in the use of technology."
(Comprehensive Assessment in Academic Disciplines, FIPSE Project Grant No. 116BH70686)
Intellectual performance can be of many different types. One or more of these types may be called for dependent on the given topic and your level of preparedness. Thus, as learners we must be able to:
a. RECALL information
b. APPLY principles or rules to new materials or situations
c. ANALYZE a complex array or occurrence and identify specific entities or patterns
d. INTERPRET or SUMMARIZE a body of evidence in order to formulate generalizations that adequately represent available data.
e. DRAW NEW IMPLICATIONS, to extrapolate beyond what is known, to create new intellectual products
The rapid exponential growth of scientific and technical knowledge has forced us to shift attention from information content to information selection. Therefore, throughout this course, we will emphasize PATTERNS and RELATIONSHIPS rather than specific facts. Facts will not be ignored but used as instruments for the achievement of intellectual growth.