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Biology Open Educational Resources

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    24726
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    OER @ City Tech Biology

    Open educational resources (OER) are free and (re)distributable teaching materials. This site is a sponsored by the Ursula Schwerin Library to select and curate resources for use in General Biology 1. This was extended to include Molecular & Cell Biology through the U.S. Department of Education Title V Grant, “A Living Lab“. This site was originally authored and curated by Jeremy Seto, Department of Biological Sciences – New York City College of Technology. In the spirit of remixing and redistribution, the entire WordPress site can be downloaded from GitHub as well as customized imagery (https://github.com/jeremyseto/bio-oer).

    Table of Contents

    The NYCCT General Biology 1 Lab will follow the sequence below:

    WEEK EXERCISE
    I
    • Microscope: Basics
    • Scientific Method
    • Reporting in Science
    II Chromatography
    • Measurements in Science: Metric System
    • Quantitative Skills
    III Chemistry of Water
    • Atoms
    • Water
    • pH: Acids, Bases, and Buffers (Activity)
    IV Biologically Important Molecules I: Carbohydrates & Lipids
    • Basic Organic Chemistry
    • Carbohydrates Activity
    V Biologically Important Molecules II: Proteins & Nucleic Acids
    • Protein Activity
    • Purification of DNA, Dische’s Test
    • Review (Concept Map)
    VI Quantitative Determination of Proteins
    • Beer’s Law (virtual)
    • Protein Assay (SpectroVis)
    VII Membranes and Biological Transport: Diffusion and Osmosis
    • Size
    • Gummy
    • Cell Models
    • Dialysis
    VIII Enzyme and Energy
    • Enzyme Kinetics activity (SpectroVis Plus)
    IX Cellular Energy
    • Anaerobic and Aerobic
    • Review (Concept)
    X Photosynthesis
    • Pigments
    • Absorbance Spectra and the role of Light in Carbohydrate Synthesis
    • Review (Concept)
    XI Cell Division
    • Mitosis: Estimating time of phases
      • Chromosome Modeling
    • Meiosis: Reductional Division and Gametogenesis
    • Comparing Cell Division
    • Chromosomes and Karyotypes
    XII Genetics
    • Genetics of Taste Activity
    • Sex-Linked Genes
    • Co-Dominance and Multiple Alleles
    • Probability and Statistics with Chi-Square
    XIII Principles of Gel Electrophoresis
    • Analyzing DNA
    • Restriction Enzymes
    XIV DNA Fingerprinting
    • RFLP
    • PCR Technology
    • Forensics
    XV Hardy-Weinberg and Population Genetics Simulations

    Quiz

    Molecular and Cell Biology Lab Schedule:

    For additional background material, consult the “Reading Pages” that correspond to the textbook: Essential Cell Biology 4th By Alberts et al.

    Week Lab Schedule Reading Pages
    1
    • Micropipetting and centrifuges
    • Metric Conversions and Scientific measures
    2
    • Plasmid Purification by Alkaline lysis
    • Agarose Gel Electrophoresis
    • Plasmid Identification using restriction enzymes
    • In silico Digestion
    Alberts 327-338, 347
    3
    • Bacterial transformation: heat shock
    • History of DNA as genetic material
    • pGlo/Genotype to Phenotype → Hypothesis test/Predictions
    Alberts 174-176
    4 Quiz 1
    • Plasmid Structure → Visualize transformation predictions
    • Transcriptional Control
    Alberts 248-249

    Alberts 331-333

    5
    • DNA isolation from Eukaryotes
    • Introduction to DNA replication and PCR
    • Genetics Review
    Alberts 200-202
    6 Crime scene PCR
    • VNTR, STRs, RFLP
    • PTC Paper and human alleles (SNP)
    Alberts 340-344
    Alberts 664
    Alberts 674-677
    7 Tracing Origins
    • Mitochondrial Haplotyping (activity)
    • Using Transposons for lineage with Alu insertion
    Alberts 302-303,314
    Alberts 486-487
    8
    • Quiz 2
    • Barcoding of Life (COI and RbcL activity)
    • Tissue Culture demonstration
    9 Introduction to Tissue Culture
    • Gene Expression
    • Prokaryotic transcription
    • Eukaryotic mRNA
    • RNA isolation and Reverse Transcription
    10
    • Quantitative Real-Time PCR
    • Sequencing technology (Sanger)
    Alberts 343-347
    11
    • Quiz 3
    • Bioinformatics: Analysis of mitochondrial DNA and Barcoding
    • Primer Design for qPCR
    12 Sequencing technology (Next Generation Sequencing)
    • Illumina
    • Ion Torrent
    • PacBio
    • MinION
    • qPCR results review
    Alberts 335-339
    13 Gene Cloning Workflow
    • Transgenic Technology and activity
    • Transfection of Eukaryotic cells (demonstration)
    Alberts 351-353
    14 GFP Protein purification
    • Introducing biotechnology: Protein Production
    • Protein Purification (activity)
    • Review Transfection
    15 Quiz 4
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