Instructor:

Dr. Bonnie Bartel
George R. Brown Hall W300D (x5602)
bartel@rice.edu

Guest Lecturers:

Dr. Janet Braam
George R. Brown Hall W100C

Dr. Kendal Hirschi
USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine

Dr. Seiichi Matsuda
George R. Brown Hall W300E

Sarah Ratzel
George R. Brown Hall W304

Dr. Lucia Strader
George R. Brown Hall W310

Lecture Schedule:

The lecture schedule can be found on the Bios 425 OWL-Space site.

Text Book:

None. Readings are from review articles and primary literature. Readings are available in the resources folder on the OWL-Space course page.

Written and Oral GMO Project:

Topics - choose by Oct. 1 (or sooner)
Outline due - Oct. 29
Oral presentations - Nov. 10 - Nov. 17
Final written report - due last day of finals at 5 pm

Grading:

The three exams together will be worth 75% of the final grade.
The written and oral scientific reports on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) together will be worth 21% (14% for written portion; 7% for oral portion) of the final grade.
4% of the final grade will be based on class participation.

There will not be a comprehensive final exam.

Course policy on plagiarism

Disability based accommodations:

Any student with a documented disability needing academic adjustments or accommodations is requested to speak with the instructor during the first two weeks of class. All discussions will remain confidential. Students with disabilities should also contact Disability Support Services in the Allen Center.

Links to plant info:

Frontline "Harvest of Fear" transcript
Prize-winning plant videos on YouTube
Plants in Motion - Very cool movies of plant movements by Roger Hangarter, Dept. of Biology, Indiana Univ., Bloomington
DNA Microarray Methodology - Flash Animation illustrating cDNA microarrays from Genomics course at Davidson College
Plant Biology in the News - Terrific site with recent articles on plant biology topics.
A museum of photographs of carnivorous plants
Plant cell imaging at the Carnegie Institution of Washington - using fluorescent molecular tags and confocal microscopy to visualize live plant cells
Phylogenetic trees of green plants from the Deep Green project
This on-line text book (Raven, Evert, & Eichorn) has a nice site with lots of pictures.
This is a searchable dictionary of terms relating to biochemistry, biology, chemistry, medicine, molecular biology, physics, plant biology, zoology, science and technology.
This is the Fondren library site with links to a variety of search databases.
These sites have informed discussions and news on genetically modified organisms: http://www.agbioworld.org and http://ucbiotech.org/resources/

Links to instructors' web pages:

Bartel Lab
Braam Lab
Covington Lab
Hirschi Lab
Matsuda Lab

Biochemistry and Cell Biology Department
Plant Biology Research at Rice