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Date	Lecture Topic	Reading
Sept. 25	Introduction, The Tree of Life
Sept. 28	Basic Chemistry for Biology	Chapt. 2
Sept. 30	The Molecules of Organisms	Chapt. 3
Oct. 2	DNA and RNA	Chapt. 3
Oct. 5	Lipids and Membranes	Chapt. 5
Oct. 7	Membrane Proteins	Chapt. 5
Oct. 9	Procaryotes and Eucaryotes	Chapt. 4
Oct. 12	Organelles and the Cytoskeleton
Oct. 14	Energy and Metabolism	Chapt. 6
Oct. 16	Exam
Oct. 19	Glycolysis and the Krebs Cycle	Chapt. 7
Oct. 21	Electron Transport and ATP Synthesis
Oct. 23	The Cell Cycle	Chapt. 9
Oct. 26	Mitosis
Oct. 28	Meiosis
Oct. 30	Mendel and the Gene	Chapt. 10
Nov. 2	Chromosomes, Linkage
Nov. 4	Gene Function - DNA as Genetic Material	Chapt. 11.1, 11.2
Nov. 6	DNA Synthesis	Chapt. 11.3
Nov. 9	DNA Mutation and Repair, PCR	Chapt. 11.4, 11.5
Nov. 11	Holiday
Nov. 13	DNA Sequencing, Transcription	Chapt. 11.5, 12.2, 12.3
Nov. 16	Exam
Nov. 18	RNA Processing	Chapt. 14.2, 14.3
Nov. 20	tRNA	Chapt 12.3, 12.4
Nov. 23	Ribosomes	Chapt 12.4, 12.5, 12.6
Nov. 25	Prokaryotic Gene Regulation	Chapt. 13
Nov. 30	Eukaryotic Gene Regulation	Chapt. 14
Dec. 2	Methods of Molecular Biology	Chapt. 16, 17
Dec. 4	Methods of Molecular Biology

Dec. 9	Final Exam, 4pm – 7pm

Policy on Cheating

Books I Recommend

Good sites for animations and movies.

http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/media.html

http://www.johnkyrk.com/index.html

Text: Life, The Science of Biology, by Sadava et al.

The bookstore will carry a paperback version that has the first third of the book. This will work fine for Bio20A. You can also get the whole book. We plan on using this same text for Bio 20B and Bio 20C. The 8th edition is most recent, but editions 7 and 6 are fine also for Bio 20A. I don’t know if the instructors in Bio 20B&C required the 8^th edition, but I doubt that it makes much difference. You can find new or used copies of the older additions for greatly reduced prices.

How to do well in this course.

Bio 20A provides information essential for all areas of biology. You should plan to spend 15 hours per week on this course. This includes 5 hours for lectures, discussion sections and office hours, and 10 hours for independent study.

Read all the information in the textbook. Do this carefully and make sure you understand before moving on to new material. If you don't understand a topic ask about it in sections or come to my office hours.

Take notes in class. This helps you to organize the material and to stay focused on the lecture. If you have questions, ask, even though it is a big class. Of course, come to class! Go to your discussion section. I have found a high correlation between attendance and performance. Sit where you can see and hear well.

Use the Study Guide. I will periodically provide an outline of "What you need to know." Go through the Study Guide and explain each of the topics to yourself, in your our words. One of the best ways to determine your level of understanding is to put into words how you would teach this material to someone else. If you can't explain it, then you don't really understand it.

Don't get behind. Ten weeks goes by fast.

Link for one-letter amino acid code -- http://wwwchem.csustan.edu/chem4400/code.htm