CELLULAR BIOLOGY SPRING 2011

CELL BIOLOGY
General Information – Spring 2011

1. Instructor: Dr. John Sternfeld Dr. Lisa DiMarco

Office: 225 Bowers Hall. 313 Bowers
Office Hours: MWF 3-4 pm; Th 10-12 am M 8:00-10:00, Tuesday 1:30-3:00
Email: [email protected] [email protected]

2. Course Materials:
Text: Cell and Molecular Biology (6th edition) by Gerald Karp.
Lab Manual: Laboratory Investigations in Cell and Molecular Biology by Allyn Bregman.

3. Communication: We want to keep open lines of communication. One way we will do this is through email, but
also material will be posted to a web site: “web.cortland.edu/sternfeld”. (Note that this is “web”, not “www”.) We
will be using this site to make announcements and to post lab data.

4. Labs: There will be lab every full week during the semester (see attached Laboratory Schedule). There are three
elements to the lab grade. (1) There will be 10 quizzes each worth 10 points. The lowest quiz grade will be dropped.
No make-ups will be given for missed quizzes. (2) There will be 2 Lab Reports, each worth 25 points. (3) There will
be a laboratory computer exercise you may do on your own time. This exercise will be graded by a 20-point practical
examination on March 9th. The lab, as a whole, will be worth a total of 160 points.

5. Lecture Exams: The lecture part of the course will be worth 300 points. There will be two hour exams, each
worth 70 points and a comprehensive final worth 120 points. The exact timing of the hour exams will be a little
flexible, but must occur approximately one third and two thirds through the semester. There will be quizzes and
homework assignments worth a total of 40 points.
Make-up exams. Only under unusual circumstances will I give a make-up for one of the hour exams. All make-ups
will be held on May 3rd. There will be no make-ups for quizzes or homework.

6. Grading: For each hour exam I will make a graph (histogram) plotting everyone’s average. I will post the
histograms so that you will be able to determine exactly how you have done relative to everyone else in the class.
Letter grades will be assigned as an approximation for you to judge how you are doing. The reason for the
approximation is that the actual exam score, not the letter grade, will be used in computing your final grade.
At the end of the course there will be a total of 480 points possible; 300 points from lecture, 160 from lab, and 20
points that will be determined from overall performance in lab and lecture. I will determine an average for each
person and plot those on a new histogram. Then, judging the overall quality of the grades (taken as a whole) and the
normal breaks in the histogram, I will divide the histogram into groups to assign the final letter grades.

7. Calculators: For any quiz or exam question that requires a calculator, a NON-graphing calculator must be used.
If you do not have one, there will be some you can use. If you want to use one of the department’s, you may want to
familiarize yourself with it a little before you actually need it.

8. Cell phones: Cell phones must be turned off and put away during all classes.

9. Students majoring in Adolescence Education: Biology 7-12 will focus on acquiring knowledge and developing
skills aligned with learning outcomes from the College's Conceptual Framework for Teacher Education and those
established by the National Science Teachers Association. In particular, this course addresses Conceptual Framework
Learning Outcome 2: Possess in-depth knowledge of the subject area to be taught; Conceptual Framework Learning
Outcome 13: Demonstrate sufficient technology skills and the ability to integrate technology into classroom
teaching/learning; NSTA Standard I: Content; NSTA; Standard 2: Nature of Science; NSTA Standard 3: Inquiry;
NSTA Standard 4: Issues; and NSTA Standard 7: Science in the Community.

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CELLULAR BIOLOGY SPRING 2011
CELL BIOLOGY

Lecture Schedule – Spring 2011

TOPICS READINGS

I. Introductory Topics
Chapter 1
1. Discovery & Characteristics of Cells p. 1-7
2. Size and Measurements p. 20-21
3. Microscopy p. 737-752
4. Viruses, Prokaryotes & Eukaryotes p. 7-25
5. Evolution of Cells p. 25-29

B. Organic Molecules Chapter 2

6. Chemical Bonds p. 32-38
7. Properties of Water p. 38-39
8. pH and Buffers p. 39-41
9. Hydrocarbons & Functional Groups p. 41-43

10. Carbohydrates p. 43-49

11. Lipids p. 49-51
12. Proteins p. 51-69
13. Nucleic acids p. 75-77
p. 403-407
p. 428-432
II. Membranes
C. Membrane Structure and Function Chapter 4
14. Composition and Structure p. 122-149
15. Transport p. 149-160

D. The Cell Surface Chapter 15

16. Receptors and Signal Transduction p. 627-643

III. Cellular Processes Involving Membranes

E. Enzymes and Metabolic Processes Ch. 3,5 & 6
18. Energy, Enzymes and Metabolic Pathways p. 86-107
19. Glycolysis, Mitochondria and Respiration p. 108-114
p. 182-209
20. Chloroplasts and Photosynthesis p. 217-239

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CELLULAR BIOLOGY SPRING 2011
TOPICS READINGS

F. Internal Membranes & Synthesis of Macromolecules Chapter 8

21. Endoplasmic Reticulum p. 279-299
22. Golgi p. 299-311
23. Lysosomes p. 311-313
24. Endocytosis and Membrane Flow p. 316-323

IV. Cellular Processes not Involving Membranes (as much)

G. Cellular Information and Its Dissemination Ch. 12 & 11
25. The Nucleus and the Organization of Chromosomes p. 492-504
26. Transcription and Processing p. 439-447
p. 452-464
27. Translation p. 470-484

H. Cell Division
28. DNA Replication and The Cell Cycle p. 550-558
p. 578-581

I. The Cytoskeleton: Intracellular Structure and Movement Chapter 9

30. Microtubules p. 334-355
p. 588-603
Cilia & Flagella p. 356-364
Intermediate Filaments and Microfilaments. p. 364-372

J. Specialized Cell Types

31. Nerve Cells p. 166-173
32. Contractile Cells p. 375-381

"Long ago it became evident that the key to every

biological problem must finally be sought in the cell,
for every living organism is, or at sometime has been, a cell."
Edmund B. Wilson, 1925

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CELLULAR BIOLOGY SPRING 2011
CELL BIOLOGY

Laboratory Schedule – Spring 2011

Subject of QUIZ
DATE TOPIC PROJECT or Lab Report
Jan 27 1. Microscopy 1 ---------------

Feb 3 2. Nucleic Acids 3 Microscopy

Feb 10 3. pH and Buffers HANDOUT Nucleic Acids

Feb 17 4. Spectrophotometry HANDOUT pH and Buffers

Feb 24 5. Spectrophotometry of DNA and RNA 5 Spectrophoto.

Mar 3 6. Electrophoresis 6 DNA/RNA L.R.

Mar 10 7. Membrane Permeability 9 and Handout Electrophoresis

Mar 17 SPRING BREAK ------------------- -------------------

Mar 24 8. Cell Fractionation 10 Memb. Permeability

Mar 31 9. Succinate Dehydrogenase Activity 11 Cell Fractionation

Apr 7 10. Enzyme Kinetics HANDOUT Succin. Dehydro. L.R.

Apr 14 11. Chromatography 12 Enzyme Kinetics

Apr 21 12. Hill Reaction 13 Chromatography

Apr 28 13. Restriction Mapping of Lambda DNA 17 and Handout Hill Reaction

May 5 TBA

Lab Reports and Quizzes: There will be two lab reports each worth 25 points, due as shown in boldface type
above. There will be 10 quizzes during the semester, one for each lab as indicated above. Each quiz will be
worth 10 points. Note that quizzes for a particular lab will be given at the beginning of the subsequent lab
period. There will be NO make-ups for missed quizzes. The quiz of anyone arriving late will be collected
no later than the last quiz handed in by someone who was present at the beginning of the class period. A
maximum of 5 quiz points will be awarded to anyone who has missed the laboratory upon which those
points are based. The lowest quiz grade will be dropped in determining the final grade for the course.