1 Biology 423L Fall 2009 Instructor Prof Sarah Grant Class Policies Meeting Time There will be a lecture on Monday at 11 00 am each week in Wilson Hall room 128 The lecture will provide background for the experiment being carried out this week In some cases we will have a guest lecture from one of our UNC Genetics professors to explain their research The laboratory groups will meet on Tuesday or Wednesday from 2 00 5 00 p m in Wilson Hall room 242 to carry out the experiments The laboratories will generally require 2 3 hours but for several experiments it will be necessary to come in at other times to complete the experiment The lab room will be open every weekday from 9 5 Readings Background readings will be assigned from Hartwell et al 2008 Genetics from Genes to Genomes 3rd edition Additional readings and laboratory protocols will be provided by the instructor on the web site Web Page url http www bio unc edu courses 2009Fall Biol423L This site will give you access to the syllabus reading assignments and course handouts copyright concerns may make it impossible to put some class materials on the web site Labs Bring to class your own pencil permanent felt tip marking pen and a centimeter ruler A lab notebook should be kept and a three ring binder is recommended There will be no make up labs unless the university is closed due to inclement weather Attendance A doctor s certificate is required if labs are missed due to illness Preparation Do assigned readings on the subject the week before lecture Study the laboratory protocol before the beginning of each lab Prepare a flow chart outlining the timing of the experiment before the lab class You will find the flow chart helps you to organize your time during the lab period and to prepare to come in after lab period to finish the experiments when necessary Computer policy You may bring your laptop to class or lab to take notes but you will not need to have a computer during the Monday lecture You are forbidden to use your computer for non class purposes during class The lab room should be web accessible and we will be doing some computer exercises in the lab periods Exams One midterm will be held in class on Monday Oct 26 It will be worth 15 of the total grade The final exam is worth 25 Regrade policy No exam written in pencil will be considered for a regrade under any circumstance Regrade requests must be made within 1 week of getting back the exam Requests must be made in writing Grades 50 of the final grade will be based on laboratory performance and write ups 15 will be based on the midterm exam and 10 on a research paper The final exam will be comprehensive and worth 25 of the final grade 1 2 Lab Reports Reports or other assignments will be required for each laboratory period and must be completed 2 weeks after each experiment They must be handed to the TA at the beginning of the laboratory period See below for report format Reports are to be prepared individually even if the lab work was done by a group In this case each group member will prepare your own report using shared data Lab Report Format The lab reports will be organized like a research paper for publication Look at Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for examples Type in 12 pt font Modern research papers are generally written in active voice example we prepared five liters of yeast extract not five liters of yeast extract were prepared Keep your results in the past tense and stick to one tense In the text write numbers up to nine as words and numbers of 10 or more as numbers Always use numbers in tables Latin scientific names are to be italicized and the Genus capitalized e g Homo sapiens Names of genes should be italicized but the names of RNA transcripts and proteins should not be italicized Dominant alleles start with a capital letter and recessive alleles are written in small letters Misspelling will not be tolerated Use the spell check on your computer Cover sheet In the top line give your report a title reflective of the content In a separate line write your name Below that list any lab partners with whom you shared the data In the last line type the date submitted Abstract In a few sentences state the nature of the problem addressed or the question to be asked in the experiment Summarize the technique used to address the question and state your major findings Introduction Clearly state the purpose of the lab and the specific scientific question that is being addressed Introduce the model organism being used Give relevant background information so that an educated reader will understand why this question is interesting Provide background knowledge essential to understanding the experiment Finally use the last paragraph to state how you have approached the question and briefly mention the main conclusion Materials and Methods no lists In most cases you may cite your lab handouts for the protocols However you must describe any modifications made to the protocols in the handouts Science builds on what has gone before Therefore scientists often refer to a protocol published elsewhere and describe only modifications that they made for the experiments presented Results Present the findings of your experiments Use tables and diagrams as much as possible Photographs should also be included if they were made Label all diagrams and tables so that it is clear what each lane or figure represents even without reading your text Introduce each section with the basic purpose of what you did For example In order to determine the genetic map of the plasmid we cut the DNA with the following restriction enzymes If a brief conclusion comes from the result presented summarize it here Save the discussion for the big stuff Example The frequency of yellow seedlings is presented in Table 1 Chi square analysis is consistent with segregation of two alleles at a single locus 2 3 Discussion Describe the importance of your findings Be sure to refer to the goals of the study as stated in your introduction Explain deviations from expected results However if the deviations are due to an error in the protocol I prefer that you state it briefly in the results Discussion sections are for the meaning of your results and for you to speculate about new experiments that can be done Please be brief here For most experiments this is the section where you state the conclusions you can make from the experiment References If you have used primary literature in the report list the references