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General Biology in a Cultural Context Tu, Th Chae Auditorium 9:00-10:20 Text: Biology (seventh edition) by Campbell and Reece Instructor: Gilchrist Office: HNS 109 Office Hours: Monday 9:30-11:00; others by appt. only please (voicemail 487-4275; email gilchrist@ncf.edu; webpage www.ncf.edu/gilchrist)
General biology is typically taught as an abstract set of information without regard to context of the ideas. Our currently accepted ideas advanced in texts generally emanated primarily from European scientists. Interpretation of biological activities can be related to viewpoints within different cultures. For example, there are many different views of how and why cells function. “Rules” of genetic inheritance have had many different origins over time from early koi and camel breeding to the garden pea. We will examine biology as a way of knowing as well as what is known through considering technological development. There is an emphasis on group work and self-directed study. In class experiments and observations as well as class discussion boards will be used to augment understanding. Rather than a march through the different topics in order, we will integrate ideas organized by topics.
Evaluation will be based on the following criteria: three quizzes on knowledge application, context journal, in class projects, 1 lab project, class participation and final presentation. Two of the three quizzes will give individual students the chance to demonstrate understanding of overall concepts. The third quiz will be a joint effort between students to solve a puzzle (a project in problem based learning) based on understanding of concepts. The context journal will challenge students to look for articles relating to unity and diversity of biology from different cultures. There is an expectation that students will use library resources heavily for this journal. An example of a journal entry will be distributed in class. Each student is expected to have 6 journal entries based on readings from the PRIMARY LITERATURE. The journal should also include the bibliography from each of the class projects as well as the information from at least one of the optional lab projects. Class projects may be web based or experimental. In some cases, students will have to work cooperatively outside of class time to finish projects including labs. Results of projects along with procedures should be included in same notebook as context journal. Students are expected to participate in class through avenues that allow them to use current skills and explore new ones. All students will be expected to contribute to discussions on the class webBoard. Each student will be asked to submit an online introduction (can include hobbies, skills, interests, etc) up to 250 words with photo (optional) by the end of the first week of classes. Students will also be expected to log onto the webboard at least three times a week to keep up with information and to participate in discussions. HOWEVER, student silence in classes is respected. The final group presentation (total 15 minutes-includes question time) can be done within a group of 2-3 (some groups of 4 will be considered) students. The topic for the presentation can be any biology topic in a cultural context; NO INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS WILL BE ALLOWED. For each, the student or students will develop an annotated bibliography and a PowerPoint presentation. The annotated bibliography should be included in the context journal. ALSO, each student will be expected to provide a peer review of presentations made by classmates in the context journal. Academic honesty is expected in this class.
Week # Topic Readings*
1-3 Lives of a Cell/Chemicals of life C ch 1-5 (pg 19-27 science as a way of knowing read carefully)
Class project 1 and lab project 1 see list of topics for class project 1**
QUIZ optional lab project 1: soap making and saponification
(see millersoap.com for basic techniques and
recipes-sign up sheet for lab time at HNS 109)
4-6 Metabolism and energy/structure C ch 6-9
QUIZ Class project 2 class starts at 8 for presentations class handout for project 2: fermentation
Lab project 2 optional lab project 2 on fermentation
7 photosynthesis C ch 10; film THURSDAY EVENING
Cell replication and genetics C ch 12-13 (see site on Tuskegee project)
Class project 3 distribute materials for project 3
8
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9-11 Proteins and expression C ch 14-17
GROUP QUIZ
12-14 Micro and Macro evolution C 19-21; class project 4: we will start class at 8:00 am for project 4
15 Presentations and wrap up
*Supplemental reading references may be given on the class webboard
Class project 1: Scientific claims are made for many products used regularly. Some of these include dietary supplements (saw palmetto or products that melt fat away overnight, for example), provitamins, DEA (in many shampoos and lotions) and dihydrogen monoxide. Choose a product of interest, discuss the scientific research behind the product (beware of ‘preliminary results suggest’) along with the claims made about the products. You might also wish to call their toll free numbers to find out about the scientific research behind their claims. Discuss how scientific methods were used in presenting the products to the public. We will present work on these topics THURSDAY OF THE THIRD CLASS WEEK IN THE EVENING AT 7:30 pm.
Class project 2 topics: Select a topic and prepare a group report on how the product is made (commercially and/or traditionally), detailing the fermentation aspects. Include where possible information on microbial hazards in production. Palm wine, ayib, raib, sauerkraut, vinegar, sourdough bread, dawadawa, grape wine, honey wine, yogurt/cheese, soy sauce, ogi, filmjolk, kimchee, sake’, fermented olives, kisra, kombucha, fufu, nham, tapuy, tempeh, ontjom, burukutu beer, ang-kak, koji, fermented fish pastes, sigda, fermented sausages, general topics such as chu, nuruk, ragi, huang-cheng, and bakhar ranu or murcha, and similar topics can be researched. We will do a short presentation on these in class (2-3 minutes) and post them on our web board. We will start the class at 8 am for the presentations.
Class project 3: Ethical use of cell biology and genetics information using the example of the Tuskegee Syphilis studies. We will view the film called "Miss Evers' Boys" on Thursday evening at Chae. Following the film, we will divide the class into small research groups for different roles. The following Thursday evening, we will engage in a role playing exercise based on information that has been gathered. This project will put students into the roles of reporters, scientists, participants, family members, and descendants concerning the “bad blood” experiments conducted on African American men.
Class project 4: Black death has been an important biological and social phenomenon. For this project, we will read some background material on the biology and history of the disease, then we will embark on some journeys to see who can survive to "reproduce". During the journey, there will be some "reproductive events" to help augment our populations as many of you will succumb early in the journeys.
optional Lab project 1. We will make soap in class. If students are interested, they can sign up for making soap individually and explore the process. This project will demonstrate how different types of soaps can be created, the purposes for these soaps, and the traditional knowledge used in creating these soaps. We will work in groups of 3-4 in the lab, so if you are interested in doing this option you will need to collect a group. Come prepared to work as a team. Look over the website to decide if you will make animal based or vegetable based soap and indicate your choice on the sign up sheet. I will provide some limited additives that you may try.
optional Lab project 2. Yeast fermentation is a common experiment to learn about aerobic and anaerobic respiration. In air, yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) make carbon dioxide and water while under anaerobic conditions, they go through the process of alcohol fermentation. For this experiment, we will use common items so that you can do the experiment at home. You will receive the following materials: California yeast, Publix commercial yeast, table sugar, potato flakes (combine with water, shake well, allow to settle and use only the liquid), chicken broth cube (crush well and add to 2 cups of water to dissolve), natural apple juice, and baggies. We will divide those who do this experiment into two groups: California and Florida. Each group will prepare one baggie with water, one with one cup of sugar and four cups of water, one with one cup of plain water and four cups of potato flake liquid, one with one part chicken broth-one part sugar and 4 parts plain water, and one with equal parts chicken broth and plain water. Place a small amount of California or Florida yeast into each of the baggies, seal, and store in a warm, dark place. What is your hypothesis? Make observations at 30 minutes, one hour, two hours, four hours, eight hours, and 24 hours. Record your observations. Did your results support or refute your original hypothesis? Did fermentation occur? How might you determine this?
Lab write-up for journal entry
The following items should be included in your lab write-up:
Title of lab, names of lab partners, general introduction to the lab, major methods, results, discussion (this should include both scientific information and relate the work to a cultural context), and references. For instance, if you made the soap, your introduction should include information on the general scientific principles behind how soap forms. For your results, most of you obtained a small amount of soap, but what are its characteristics? What does it look like? What was the pH? Did it foam? What color did you add? Did it turn out as expected? The discussion should have information on how soap works as a cleaning agent, explanation of results, and how soap is used in different populations. The write-ups should be informative, but not too long.
Evaluation scheme for group presentations
Each project should have a Project Title and list the group members
The following areas will be considered by the instructor in evaluating the group project and presentation
Organization
Topic relevancy
Background research
Presentation organization
Language use
Eye contact/voice variability
Distracting mannerisms
Time management
Collaborative effort
Responses to questions
Well documented
Creativity
Interest/enthusiasm
Peer evaluation
Bibliography
Each student is expected to critique presentations of other students. Peer review should include comments on the following elements: Introduction: Is the topic clear? Have the presenters given an overall roadmap of the presentation? Do they capture your interest in following along with the topic? Content: are the main topics/points of the presentation clear and well organized? Do the presenters have a logical flow to developing their arguments? Are there too many details? Do the presenters relate the conclusions to their original organization? Are conclusions clear? Do conclusions flow logically from the arguments presented? Do the arguments appear well substantiated with documentation? Presentation: Do members of the group seem well organized? Do they share in the responsibilities of the presentation? Are there mannerisms that were distracting? Did they maintain good eye contact with the audience? Could you hear the presenters clearly? Other comments
www.cellsalive.com this is a site that has several different movie clips of cells. There are some interesting puzzles if you have time on your hands. It also has clip art and a photo gallery
http://www.med.virginia.edu/hs-library/historical/apology/index.html information on the Tuskegee experiments involving African American men and their families
www.biology.arizona.edu/cell_bio/cell_bio.html this site is a part of the Arizona Biology project. There are images as well as other information that might be of interest here. It is a well designed site for student use.
SciDev.net This website provides gateways to Latin American, Middle Eastern, African and Subsaharan African news and science articles. It is an excellent resource with a very user friendly archive.
www.scienceinafrica.co.za/ This link is to an online journal published from Africa. There are numerous articles relating to health, parasites, agriculture, and politics.
www.africahistory.net This site has links and resources about a variety of topics including science and mathematics. It also includes links to films.
millersoap.com This website is a collection of different techniques for making soap, for purchasing soap supplies, finding oils, and helpful hints for improving techniques.
www.black-collegian.com/african/science.shtml this is an excellent site for finding resources about African contributions to several areas of science
How to write a short review of a science paper for your context journal
For this exercise, you will read a paper from the primary literature. Primary literature is scientific work written for viewing by the science community. You will choose one of the papers suggested for the class. The length of the paper does not make a difference in how the material is to be reviewed. Before beginning the writing, you should read through the entire paper at least once to get a sense of the overall information being conveyed. It is often a good idea to work with another student in first discussing the paper before writing begins. This may help to alleviate some difficulties with unfamiliar phrasing or terminology that can distract from a review. The overall review should include a summary of the main points of the paper, your questions/comments about the points, and an overview of the paper for completeness.
The following information will assist in forming the review. After reading the paper, does the title seem specific enough to inform you about the content. This is important. Often, in the world of increasing amounts of information, scans and keywords become the method for finding information in electronic databases. Titles that are misleading or vague can lead to an important paper being overlooked or to time being wasted on obtaining a paper not related to the topic of interest. If the paper has an abstract, is the abstract a good summary of the major points, methods and conclusions discussed in the paper? Abstracts can be important in determining whether a paper is critical to an argument that you might be making about an idea. If the abstract is poorly written, the same kinds of problems encountered with a vague title can ensue.
The introduction is a critical part of any paper. It should accomplish two things: give the reader a roadmap of the major arguments to be established in the paper and situate the work discussed in the paper in the larger body of information on the topic. Introductions can be of different lengths depending on the type of paper discussed. Generally, in papers where one of the functions is to do an overall review of a field, the introduction can be extensive. Often, these types of introductions will give an historical overview of the topic discussed throughout the paper. An introduction to a research paper will typically include enough information about the topic to lead the reader into the line of thinking pursued by the author or authors. A part of the research paper that follows the introduction is generally a methodology section. The introduction should include some idea about how the methods used in the experiments/observations reported in the experiment relate to the methods commonly used in the field. If the approach used in the paper is novel, the authors must make the case in the introduction as to why a new method should be examined. This is generally done by pointing out shortcomings of current methods.
The methods sections should give a succinct set of procedures that a reasonably well-informed reader could understand and repeat. If there is a complicated set of experiments, the methods should be broken into sections for each major type of experiment. This section should be detailed enough to allow the reader to repeat the work, but not so detailed as to distract the reader from the rest of the paper.
If the paper is a research paper, there will be a results section. This is often the heart of the paper, yet it receives only cursory consideration by authors. From your reading, you should be able to follow the data easily. The figures and tables should be labeled clearly and should relate to the information in the text. The captions for the tables and figures should give sufficient explanation to understand the material. You should not have to go back to the text to understand symbols or shorthand notations. The data in the figures and tables should be consistent with the information in the text. There should be no conflicts in the information. If different scales (for instance months in one figure and decades in another0, this should be indicated clearly to the reader. It is critical that all important, relevant results be included. As the reader, you must determine if what has been presented fit those criteria. It is not unusual for new investigators to want to include extraneous or redundant results. As a reader, you must determine whether information presented in the results is sufficient to support any conclusions drawn by the authors. In results sections for experiments or observations that are complex, it is not unusual for information to be reported in sections. As reader, you should examine the subheadings to see if they are reasonable and logical.
The discussion should allow you to understand the major implications of the data or information reported in the paper. In a review paper, authors may try to synthesize ideas to form a new perspective. For an experimental paper, the discussion should parallel the major arguments established in the introduction. Any problems or inconsistencies in the data reported should be included in the discussion. If the authors fail to address such data, this will weaken the conclusions of the work. If there is credible counter evidence about particular points raised by the authors, they must address these points in a reasoned manner. As the reader, the discussion should give you an understanding of the importance of the results from the current paper to the body of information in the field. What are the contributions to current understanding or research? In the end, does the research make sense?
One final thing that should be considered by the reader is whether details are taken care of by the author(s). One important detail is to determine whether the references cited in the paper are found in the references section of the paper. Are the references correct? Authors may get a date wrong between the text and the references at the end of a paper. This type of inattention to detail can signal a sloppy approach if it occurs consistently within a paper or within several papers written by the same authors. If there is a pattern of sloppiness with detail, the inference will be that the research may also have suffered from the same lack of attention to detail. A common set of mistakes is to have a reference in the text not included in the reference cited section or to have a reference in the reference cited section that does not appear in the text. With the age of electronic word processing, cutting and pasting can lead to such errors.
Below is an example of a paper done by a student in a previous class. The paper is not perfect and it is not an outstanding paper, but it is an overview. I will point out what I consider flaws in the paper by inserting red comments.
Malathion Spraying
The main issue with malathion is to spray or not to spray. Malathion is a pesticide used to control the infestation of Mediterranean fruit fly which preys on citrus in Florida and elsewhere. Citrus is an important business in Florida and when Med flies are spotted as they were in 1998 near Tampa, spraying begins. The truth is that malathion is very dangerous and poses a great health risk to those who come into contact with it. (there should be an elaboration here about some of the potential health risks; these can be extended in another paragraph) The spraying of it should have been banned long ago once it was found to be hazardous to humans. However, once again in the interest of money, human safety is put at risk.
Sasikala (1993) studied the effects of malathion on humans. This work was comprehensive for the time and included an extensive literature cited section. From this study, it is noted that chromosomal damage can occur from exposure of human cells to this pesticide. Human contact with malathion can also show suppression of the immune system (be sure to note the methods used to show this suppression—are they realistic? Do they include different age groups? Different genders?). Children and the elderly are most susceptible to this because they have the lowest immune systems (www.chem-tox/malathion/research). (you need to clarify what you mean by the "lowest immune system"; this is a little vague). Tables and figures in the paper are clear and to the point. The axes are labeled clearly and the captions describe what is to be gleaned from the tables and figures. Although the paper is somewhat dated, these findings should be very important to officials of southwest Florida because of the large number of elderly in the area.
Malathion has not only been shown to suppress the immune system but has many other harmful health effects. It has caused serious injury and even death to farmers exposed to it (you need a reference for this assertion). It is also a carcinogen causing cancer (this is redundant, a carcinogen potentially causes cancer as a part of the definition) not to mention large amounts of genetic mutations. The spraying not only affects humans but other animals as well. Malathion can be absorbed through the skin and effects animals from amphibians to bees (you need to reference this assertion; expand on how these animals are affected). I cannot understand why our state government continues to place us in danger (careful about interjecting clear personal view) by spraying this harmful chemical. What frustrates me even more is that I as a taxpayer am paying to be polluted. I do not want them sprayed on me or my family. I have not found one person in the literature not associated with the citrus industry who is in favor of spraying (this kind of anecdotal information may be used, but you should include polls or other formal survey information where possible; a "he said, no he did not" kind of scenario will convince few people). The only people who benefit are in big corporations; most are not in areas being sprayed. (when you make a sweeping set of statements like these, it is easy to point to exceptions to cast doubt on you arguments; build the arguments with fact, not inuendo or hearsay) The decision should be left up to the people. I believe there needs to be a referndum vote on the issue statewide just as there was a vote on the sugar cane tax some years ago. The citizens in the state should decide whether they wish to be polluted for the sake of the citrus industry.
References
Sasikala, 1993. Mutation Research 301. (you need the complete citation including the author's initials, the title of the article and the page numbers; you also need to provide a short annotation about the content of the reference)
www.chem-tox.com/malathion/research --webpage maintained by the University of South Florida to include articles of interest on malathion research updated regularly