Bio 129 HUMAN BIOLOGY

Fall 2008

Richard R. Almon Ph.D
http://biology.buffalo.edu/Faculty/Almon/almon.html

Description:  Biology 129 is a non-majors course focusing on human biology.  The course consists of a three credit lecture plus a 0.5 credit lab.  The lecture will be graded based on three in class exams and a comprehensive final during finals week.  Each in class exam will count for 20% of the student’s grade and the final will count for 40% of the student’s grade.  However, because students taking this course vary considerably in relevant background and because the final covers the entire course, the final can count as 100% of the student’s grade if it is to their advantage when the lecture grade is calculated.  All exams including the final will be open notes/book.  The lab consists of three assignments to be turned in the class before each in class exam.  Each assignment will count for one-third of the student’s lab grade.

Topics:  The following topics will be covered during in the lecture part of the course:

>Conception:  How it works including a discussion of issues such as fertility/infertility, birth control and genetics.

>Prenatal development:  Developmental “forks in the road” and non-genetic birth defects.

>Birth:  How a fetus transitions to life out of the womb.

>Postnatal development:  How a baby develops into a reproductive capable adult. 

>Reproduction:  How to do it and not do it

>Aging:  What is it, why does it happen and can we do anything about it.

>Disease prevention and treatment:  Infections, cancer, metabolic diseases, immune related diseases etc. 

>Death:  the inevitable

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