Biological Reasoning

Instructor:

Dr. Jacqueline Tanaka
Temple University

Focus:

This course is a transition semester of biology to be taken before Introductory Biology 1111 for students who have not had advanced biology in high school or who wish to increase their reasoning skills before taking the Introductory Biology sequence. The course will focus on the analysis of biological data as well as understanding how these data support or contradict foundational concepts including biological evolution, structure and function, information exchange, energy transformation and flow and systems. The course format will involve group exercises designed to increase diagrammatic and quantitative reasoning in biology using examples from introductory textbooks. Understanding and developing concept maps will provide students with an effective approach for studying biology. The course will prepare students for the content and pace required to be successful in the Introductory Biology sequence.

We plan to track the students who register for the course and compare their persistence in biology and their grades as they enter the required core biology courses. I will build the course from one full article, short articles, figures from the Campbell or Freeman textbook and passages from The Beak of the Finch.

Overview:

Applicable for Courses:

Educational Level:

Introductory Level

Roadmap Objectives:

- Article: Pedigrees, assortative mating and speciation in Darwin’s finches. Grant, P.R. and Grant. R.B. 2007 Proc. R. Soc. B 275: 661-668.
- Content area/major concepts: Evidence for evolution, adaptation, sexual selection, speciation, data collection, phenotype, pedigrees
- Methods or technology used to obtain data:
- How the CREATE strategy was used:
- Biggest teaching challenge:
- Article: Bmp4 and Morphological Variation of Beaks in Darwin's Finches Abzhanov, A., Protas, M., Grant, B.R.,Grant, P.B. and Tabin, C.J. 2004 Science 305:1462-1465. Use only Introduction and Fig 1.
- Content area/major concepts: Phylogenies, morphological measurements, development, genes
- Methods or technology used to obtain data: histology, in-situ hybridization
- How the CREATE strategy was used:
- Biggest teaching challenge:
- Article: Vocal mechanics in Darwin’s finches: correlation of beak gape and song Frequency Podos, J., Southhall, J.A., and Rossi-Santos, M.R. J. Exp Biol 207, 607-619
- Content area/major concepts: Role of song in mate selection, learning in birds, song characteristics, pattern recognition.
- Methods or technology used to obtain data:
- How the CREATE strategy was used:
- Biggest teaching challenge:

Advice for Using Module/Activity:

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