Introduction to Biology

Description

Through knowledge and understanding, students will be able to: • Understand biological life with its different levels of organization • Realize how life is organized from atoms, molecules, and cells to the organisms, eco-systems and the biosphere • Gain a basic understanding how cells function and divide and the role of DNA, RNA and Proteins • The role of enzymes and metabolism • Discern how life differs from non-life and the relation between both • Appreciate how organisms’ sense and respond to stimulus • Be able to use taxonomic classification to identify flora and fauna • Appreciate biodiversity • Become familiar with the scientific method Through intellectual skills, students will be able to: • Critically think • Evaluate the quality of information • Comprehend the scope and limits of the scientific method • Find scientific explanations to multiple phenomena • Become aware of scientific bias • Observe nature • Question observations • Develop hypotheses and test them • Make an educated prediction based on data • Employ basic statistics to quantify errors and certainty • Write a report on a scientific experiment • Compile test results and draw conclusions from them • Evaluate evidence and find alternative explanations Through professional and practical skills, students will be able to: • Conduct a simple experiment • Use their biological knowledge with taxonomic keys to identify a species • Discern between variables, treatment and control Through general and transferable skills, students will be able to: • Ask scientifically sound questions • Design simple experiments • Become accustomed to laboratory safety regulations • Writing in a formal scientific manner and using precise language to describe living systems.

Program

Egyptian Archaeology

Objectives

• This course is composed of a two-hour lecture and one lab where they apply parts of what they see in practice. This introductory course in biology gives students of archaeology a generic understanding of the life of the plants and animals around them. It gives them also a tool to better understand the material culture of the past. The course aims at giving students an introduction to the basic concepts of biology, molecules of life, cell structure, cell cycle, biodiversity, and ecology. Students are also given the foundation of genetics and molecular biology needed for them to further investigate the archaeological record. The course also aims at giving the students the basis for scientific investigation and research through laboratory analysis and experiments.