Instructor

Dr. Laura Francis Department of Biology Office: ISB241D Email: lif@bio.umass.edu Office phone: 545-2599 Office Hours: Monday: 1-2pm Wednesday: 2-3pm Thursday: noon-1pm If those times do not work, feel free to make an appointment. Textbook: Your textbook is your resource guide. I do not design the course around any particular textbook so any good cell and/or molecular biology textbook should serve you just fine in this course. Here are a few options: Essential Cell Biology 3rd edition; Alberts et al; ISBN: 978-0815341291 Molecular Cell Biology 7th edition; Lodish et al; ISBN: 978-1429234139 Molecular Biology of the Cell 5th edition; Alberts et al; ISBN: 978-0815341055 Other classroom resource: i>clicker2 (clicker) required Websites you might need for this class: Course Learning Management website: https://moodle.umass.edu/ For students with disabilities: http://www.umass.edu/disability/students.html Course Description Course designed for sophomores in Biology, Biochemistry, or Microbiology. Building upon concepts learned in Biology 100 (now Bio151), consideration is given to structure and function. The course is equally divided between aspects of molecular and cellular biology.

Cell and Molecular Biology Bio285 Spring 2013 Lecture: MWF 11:15am-12:05pm Morrill I North N375

 Course Design I like to think about molecular biology in some sort of real world context and so we will use a disease/treatment-based (i.e. human health and disease) model to investigate concepts in how cells function at the molecular level. Emphasis will be on conceptual understanding of the topics, as well as developing critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Learning Topics (subject to change) 1. Proteins Subtopics: a. Amino acids and their chemistry b. Protein folding c. Protein trafficking d. Enzyme function Selected disease topics: Prion disease (protein mis-folding) 2. Cancer Biology Subtopics: a. Signal Transduction (Selected disease/drug topics: Chronic Myolegenous Leukemia/Gleevec; Breast cancer/Herceptin) b. Control of Cell Cycle c. DNA mutations/DNA damage repair and response (Selected disease/drug topics: Xeroderma Pigmentosum) d. DNA replication (Selected disease/drug topics: Werner Syndrome) e. Mitotic Spindle Assembly (Selected disease/drug topics: Taxol) 3. Control of Gene expression Subtopics: a. Transcriptional control b. Translational control c. RNA interference d. Epigenetic silencing Examinations Three 1-hour examinations will be held in the evening at 7pm. Rooms for the exams will be announced in class the week before, and there will be alternate exam times that day for students with a conflict, signup sheets will be available in class the week before the exam. You can find exam dates below under Course Schedule. Make-up Exam Policy: Students with a valid excuse for missing an exam must present these to Dr. Francis before the exam. If the excuse is valid and verified, the student may take a make-up exam. Students may do this only once in a semester. An exam missed without a valid excuse will be recorded as a zero. A schedule conflict is not a valid reason for missing an exam. The day of the exam there will be earlier exams during the day for students with a conflict for the evening exam. Sign ups for

early exams will be available in class the week before the exam. A make-up final exam will be available to students with valid and verifiable excuses. The three exams during the semester are not cumulative you will be assessed on the material covered since the previous exam. The final exam is cumulative. Final Exam Grade Substitution: If you have a higher percentage on your final exam than your lowest exam grade, I will replace your lowest exam grade with your final exam grade. For example, if you receive a 40/50 (80%) on the 1st exam, a 45/50 (90%) on the next two exams and then a 90/100 (90%) on your final, I will change the first exam grade to a 45/50 (90%). Quizzes There will be nine (9) quizzes each worth 10 points. Two quizzes will be dropped at the end of the semester. You may make up a quiz with a valid excuse (illness, family emergency, etc) but the quiz make-up should be scheduled with me ASAP and make- up quizzes will not be offered more than a week after the actual quiz. You may only make up two quizzes in a semester. A note about Quiz and Exam assessments: In this course, students generally find quizzes easier than exams. My goal for quiz assessments is to test knowledge of concepts, whereas on exams there may also be questions focused more on critical thinking and problem solving. These types of questions ask you to take the knowledge that youve learned in the course and solve a different or new problem with that conceptual knowledge. i>clicker2 (Audience Response System) i>clicker2 is an in-class communication system that uses wireless transmitters to allow students to send answers to questions posed by the instructor during class. Responses from all students are recorded, tallied and used as the basis of discussions of problem solving. We will use this system almost every class period and you are required to participate to earn a significant fraction of your course participation points. Please make sure to bring your transmitter to EVERY class. When a question is posed, you are encouraged to discuss the answers with your classmates before sending a response. The responses for all the students will be compiled and displayed for class discussion. After each question, we will discuss the results as a class. The iclicker participation grade is based on participation, not correctly answering the question. Some clicker questions are designed as assessment of knowledge, but some clicker questions are designed to generate discussion and may not have one formally correct answer. These types of questions are designed to mimic the conversation that you might have during scientific inquiry (i.e. as a scientist), rather than being designed to mimic exam or quiz-type questions. Grading (Grades will be posted in Moodle)

 The TA and I aim to grade as fairly and objectively as possible. We will use the same criteria and standards for all students in the course. When assigning final letter grades I do not take into account improvement or weigh your good exams more heavily than your bad exams. However, there may be one opportunity to make up for a poor exam performance by substituting your final exam grade for your lowest regular exam grade (see Exam section). I do not offer extra credit and I do not round up final grade percentages (i.e. if an A- is a 90-92.99% and you receive a 92.78%, you will receive an A- in the course). Moreover, I will not change your grade if you are very close to the next letter grade, even if you need that grade to graduate or move on to the next course. The only exception to this rule is a change of grade due to clerical error. If you find a clerical error in grading, please let me know as soon as possible (preferably before grades are finalized). I will base your grades on your performance in this class, which I expect to be the result of your honest efforts. 1) Exams: 150 pts Three exams worth 50 points each. 2) Final Exam: 100 pts 3) Quizzes: 70 pts There will be quizzes in-class Fridays at the end of class in any week in which there is no exam. Check schedule for more details. There will be 9 quizzes worth 10 points each; the 2 lowest quiz scores will be dropped. 4) i>clicker2 participation: 30 pts Answers to clicker questions will not be graded, full points will be given provided 80% of clicker questions are answered. You can earn a maximum of 350 points in the course Grades will be assigned as follows unless the final grade median is less than 75%, in which case the letter grade ranges will be adjusted so that the class average is in the middle of the C range of grades. To calculate your percentage grade, add up the points youve accumulated and divide by the total possible points. A = 93-100% B- = 80-82.99% D+ = 67-69.99% A- = 90-92.99% C+ = 77-79.99% D = 60-66.99% B+ = 97-89.99% C = 73-76.99% F = 0-59.99% B = 83-86.99% C- = 70-72.99% Course Schedule Bio285 Spring 2013 Exam Schedule All exams are at 7pm except for the final exam

 Exam 1: Wednesday, Feb 13 Exam 2: Wednesday, Mar 13 Exam 3: Wednesday, Apr 10 Final Exam is TBA during finals week **Note that the Final Exam is cumulative (meaning it will contain subject matter from previous exams) Bio285 Spring 2013 Quiz schedule Friday, Jan 25: No Quiz (First week of classes) Friday, Feb 1: Quiz 1 Friday, Feb 8: Quiz 2 Friday, Feb15: No Quiz (Exam week) Friday, Feb 22: Quiz 3 Friday, Mar 1: Quiz 4 Friday, Mar 8: Quiz 5 Friday, Mar 15: No Quiz (Exam week) Friday, Mar 22: No Quiz (Spring Break) Friday, Mar 29: Quiz 6 Friday, Apr 5: Quiz 7 Friday, Apr 12: No Quiz (Exam week) Friday, Apr 19: Quiz 8 Friday, Apr 26: Quiz 9 Academic Honesty http://www.umass.edu/dean_students/codeofconduct/acadhonesty/ I. STATEMENT OF POLICY Since the integrity of the academic enterprise of any institution of higher education requires honesty in scholarship and research, academic honesty is required of all students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Academic dishonesty is prohibited in all programs of the University. Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to: cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and facilitating dishonesty. [See Appendix B for detailed examples of behavior that constitutes academic dishonesty.] Appropriate sanctions may be imposed on any student who has committed an act of academic dishonesty. Instructors should take reasonable steps to address academic misconduct. [See Appendix C for some suggested ways to deal with issues of academic integrity.] Any person who has reason to believe that a student has committed academic dishonesty should bring such information to the attention of the appropriate course instructor as soon as possible. Instances of academic dishonesty not related to a specific course should be brought to the attention of the appropriate department Head or Chair. The procedures outlined below are intended to provide an efficient and orderly process by which action may be taken if it appears that academic dishonesty has occurred and by which students may appeal such actions. Since students are expected to be familiar with this policy and the commonly

accepted standards of academic integrity, ignorance of such standards is not normally sufficient evidence of lack of intent.