Course Information & Syllabus

1. Course Info

In this chapter, we will go over:

• Course Description
• Course Format & Features

1.1. Course Description

Fundamentals of Biology focuses on the basic principles of biochemistry, molecular biology, genetics, and recombinant DNA. These principles are necessary to understanding the basic mechanisms of life and anchor the biological knowledge that is required to understand many of the challenges in everyday life, from human health and disease to loss of biodiversity and environmental quality.

1.2. Course Format & Features

Course Format

The course includes 4 units which each include a number of lesson in order to breakdown each unit's concepts in an easy to understand display. They go as listed:

UNIT 1: BIOCHEMISTRY

• TYPES OF ORGANISMS, CELL COMPOSITION
• COVALENT BONDS, HYDROGEN BONDS
• MACROMOLECULES: LIPIDS, CARBOHYDRATES, NUCLEIC ACID
• PROTEINS, LEVELS OF STRUCTURE, NON-COVALENT FORCES
• BIOCHEMICAL REACTIONS, ENZYMES AND ATP
• RESPIRATION AND FERMENTATION
• CHEMIOSMOTIC PRINCIPLE, PHOTOSYNTHESIS

UNIT 2: MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

• DNA STRUCTURE, CLASSIC EXPERIMENTS
• DNA REPLICATION
• TRANSCRIPTION, TRANSLATION
• ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
• GENE REGULATION AND THE LAC OPERON

UNIT 3: GENETICS

• MENDEL'S LAWS
• LINKAGE AND RECOMBINATION, GENETIC MAPS
• PEDIGREES
• BIOCHEMICAL GENETICS

UNIT 4: RECOMBINANT DNA

• DEVELOPMENT OF RECOMBINANT DNA
• BASIC MECHANICS OF CLONING
• CONSTRUCTING AND SCREENING A RECOMBINANT DNA LIBRARY
• CDNA LIBRARIES AND EXPRESSION LIBRARIES
• AGAROSE GEL ELECTROPHORESIS, DNA SEQUENCING, PCR

Course Features

This course includes the following features and these are their functions:

• LECTURES (Worth 5 points each)
  Lecture are videos that you will be required to watch. These videos can range from 2 minutes to a couple hours so be sure to set aside enough time to watch them. Now, you are obviously able to watch the videos given however, there will also be a reading linked with each video that will go over the exact same concepts, if you decide you learn and retain the information better watching a lecture rather than reading the material yourself. Regardless of your preferred method of learning, you may find it extremely beneficial in the long run to take notes on the lectures.

• CHECK-IN QUIZZES (1 point per each correct answer)
  Check-In quizzes are mini tests that contain just a few quick multiple-choice questions which serve the purpose of checking your understanding of the lecture reading you just read beforehand. If you took notes during the lecture, this could be helpful when taking these as you're allowed to use your notes during the check-in quizzes.

• HELP SESSIONS (Worth 5 points each)
  Help sessions are videos that you are required to watch before you attempt the practice problem assignments. The purpose of help sessions are to go over the concepts that will be addressed on the practice problems. They are similar to lectures in the way that they also contain a reading going over the same concept, however they are much shorter videos and require less time to watch.

• PRACTICE PROBLEMS (1 point per each correct answer)
  Practice problems serve as your assignments or "homework." You will have one for each lesson. These practice problems are different from check-in quizzes in the way that you only have to do them after you have learned everything you can for that lesson and they are not multiple-choice. You, however, are still allowed to use your notes (if you took them) for this assignment. Practice problems are self-graded, so please be honest when grading yourself. You gain nothing from cheating or marking an answer as right when it was wrong, as your grade in this course is for you only, so it's best to be as honest as possible in order to gauge how well you actually did once you've completed the course.

• USEFUL LINKS (Each link worth 1 point)
  Useful links are completely optional assignments but they also count as extra credit, which can be great if you have a check-in quiz, practice problem assignment, or previous final exam that you didn't do that well on. Useful links consist of readings, videos, or some other activity.

• FINAL EXAMS (1 point per each correct answer)
  Final exams are the tests you take at the end of each unit to gauge how well you understood the concepts you've learned. You are NOT allowed to use your notes so it is recommended you go over all the notes you have taken before you open the exam. Feel free to also go over your practice problem assignments or any check-in quizzes to review the concepts before taking the exam. The final exams are also self-graded so please be honest. Again, there is nothing to gain from cheating or lying about your score.

2. Course Syllabus

In this chapter we will go over all important information as follows:

• Course Overview
• Prerequisites
• Course Objectives
• Course Materials Ownership & Team

2.1. Course Overview

This course focuses on the basic principles of biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, and recombinant DNA technologies. The material presented introduces modern biology at the molecular level: the structure and function of biological macromolecules, the basics of cellular metabolism, meiosis and inheritance, DNA replication, the basics of gene expression, and general recombinant DNA techniques.

2.2. Prerequisites

There are no formal prerequisites for this course. At MIT, it is usually taken during the freshman (first) year.

Prior to taking this course, you may want to review Pre-7.01 Getting up to Speed in Biology, a self-paced course designed to help prepare students for their first college-level biology class.

NOTE: The course mentioned above may not be available on Education Academy yet.

2.3. Course Objectives

After completing the four units of this course, you should be able to:

• Identify the general structure and function of carbohydrates, phospholipids, proteins, enzymes and nucleic acids.
• Outline the general processes used by the cell to generate cellular energy from sugar and to generate the energy and reducing agent needed for the Calvin cycle.
• Describe how DNA was shown to be the genetic material and how DNA is copied.
• Describe the structure and regulation of genes, and the structure and synthesis of proteins.
• Understand the inheritance of two or more traits based upon Mendelian genetics. Apply this knowledge to drawing and decoding human pedigrees.
• Understand the inheritance of traits when the genes involved are linked.
• Predict the results of genetic crosses involving two or more traits when the genes involved are linked or unlinked.
• Understand the general tools and reagents used in recombinant DNA technologies.
• Outline a general strategy for making a recombinant DNA library, screening a recombinant DNA library, and analyzing the DNA fragment identified.
• Design a general strategy for identifying a gene of interest using recombinant DNA techniques.

2.4. Course Materials Ownership & Team

All of the materials on this course are available on the MIT OCW website. Education Academy has been able to use the materials to transfer them into a workable and interactive course for free under the Creative Commons License.

Meet the Team:

This OCW Scholar course was developed by the following MIT Faculty and Teaching Staff:

• Prof. Eric Lander
• Prof. Robert Weinberg
• Prof. Tyler Jacks
• Prof. Hazel Sive
• Prof. Graham Walker
• Prof. Penny Chisholm
• Dr. Michelle Mischke

The Help Session Videos were developed by the following MIT Teaching Assistants:

• Joseph Robert Dorkin
• Sera Thornton
• Genevieve Michelle Gould
• Nicole De Nisco