BIOL 112/121 Content Curation Subjects
The following subjects were identified by faculty as priority search areas. Please continue to add or remove subjects you need researched for the biology OER project.
UNIT 1: Cells – the basic unit of life
- Course level Learning Outcome for Unit 1: Apply knowledge of the structure-function relationship to the cell’s utility of biomolecules (proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, carbohydrates) and organelles.
Unit 1 priority topic: Major macromolecules in cells: structure and assembly:
- Lipids – with a focus on membrane phospholipids
- Nucleic acids
- Proteins
- Carbohydrates
UNIT 2: Genes to proteins – Biological Information Flow
- Course level Learning Outcome for Unit 2: Describe the general cellular machinery and regulation of the processes of replication, transcription, translation, and energy transformation.
Unit 2 priority topic: Gene regulation – activation and repression
- Eukaryotic promoter regulation
- Bacterial operons (but not tryptophan as an example)
UNIT 3: Metabolism
- Course level Learning Outcome for Unit 3: Outline general processes and basic thermodynamic underpinning of cell’s generation of energy from sugar, and energy + reducing agents from the Calvin cycle.
BIOL121 Pyramid of Productivity
- trophic levels/food chains/food webs
- how energy is passed from one trophic level to the next
- how energy is "lost" so that only a fraction of it is transferred to the next trophic level
- the resulting relationship between trophic level and biomass
BIOL121 Genetics
- Meiosis
- Mendelian genetics
- Connections between Mendel's Laws and the process of meiosis
- DNA, chromosomes, genes and alleles (eukaryotes)
BIOL121 Evolution
- population genetics
- mechanisms of evolution (we especially need something good on genetic drift)
- Adaptations: what they are, how they come about, idea that they are environment-dependent
Math Skills These are the basic skills required that are related to the Biology content
- Frequencies: what they are and how to calculate them.
- Probabilities: how to calculate the probability of multiple independent events using the AND and the OR rule
- Square roots: basic knowledge of what they are
- Exponential functions (very basic)