First lab meeting

Today we had our first lab meeting.  The lab syllabus was handed out and the mechanics of the lab grading were explained.

Lab guides will be NOT handed out.  Students will be responsible of printing them out.  Find them in the class folder in the school's P-drive (a-cordoba/Intro Genetics-BIOL 210/Biol 210 Lab guides).

Teams of 3, 4, and 5 people were formed (of 3 and 5 due to the uneven distribution of students in both lab sections) and topics for a bioethics paper/debate assignment were proposed by students and/or suggested by the instructor, and subsequently discussed.  Such topics will be developed as individual research papers (week 6) and a debate (week 9).

Next week:  A lab on human genetics.  To be able to make a pedigree analysis, students must collect some information from their immediate family (as many as you can and even better if you get great-grand parents involved, if possible) (check the lab 01 guide for details):

• can they roll their tongues?
  
• do they have a free or an attached ear lobe?
  
• do they have hitchhiker's thumb?
  
• how do they fold their hands?
  

These traits (three morphological and one behavioral) are genetically determined and will be useful for our exercise.

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Lecture: A perspective on human genetics (or a human perspective of genetics)

Today we had our first lecture.  Even though there was no PowerPoint presentation due to technical problems (in my office) we were able to cover most of chapter 1 of the textbook, an introduction to the course.

We talked about what genetics and genes are, how are they studied, and how important it is to understand the theoretical background of genetic-based technologies impacting our daily lives.

I also gave out the "Blue Books" that you will be using to write the answers to the quizzes, so every body should have one by now.

Reading for Friday Dec 5th:  Finish chapter 1 and start chapter 2.

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Welcome to Intro Genetics (Biol 210) @ ONU

Welcome to Introductory Genetics (Biol 210) at ONU...!

This blog is meant to be a tool for communication between students and the instructor (Alonso Córdoba), as well as to keep track of the actual happenings of the class.  Ideas and constructive criticisms are welcome.  If there is any piece of information you would like to see in this blog, please let me know:

e-mail: a-cordoba(@onu.edu)

Office phone: 419-772-3016

Some useful information

• pdfs of the syllabi can be found in the p-drive (p-drive/a-cordoba/Intro Genetics-Biol 210/Biol 210 Syllabi)
  
• I prefer to be called just by my name:  Alonso.  Unless you feel uncomfortable, you can save the titles "Dr." or "Professor".

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