Advanced Topics in Biology

Sometimes the sheer volume of new information that school students are expected to learn becomes overwhelming.

Our course “Advanced topics in Biology” is focused on of the basics of molecular biology.

The course is offered for students of 8th grade and older. The Earth Science course in school is a pre-requisite. Depending on enrollment a separate more advanced class could be offered to 9-11 graders who studied or currently studying Biology at school.

Syllabus:

• Defining life as a process. Diversity of life and history of evolution of Life on Earth. Modern evolutionary tree based on genome comparison. The last universal common ancestor.
• Chemical basis of life. Water molecule. Non-covalent interactions and their importance in biochemistry.
• Amino acids and proteins, levels of protein structure. Nucleotides and nucleic acids, secondary structure of nucleic acids.
• Flow of information within living organisms – from DNA to RNA to proteins. DNA replication. Transcription of DNA. Translation of RNA.
• Modern methods used by scientists to study life.
• Regulation of gene expression. Promoters and operons in prokaryotic organisms.
• Translational regulation in prokaryotes. Regulation of gene expression in eukaryotes.
• Cell cycle. Meiosis and sexual reproduction.
• Genetic diversity and genetic recombination.
• Organization of genetic material in nucleus.
• rief description for pop-up (if needed) Modern biology is a rapidly expanding field of science.