1 Course Description

This course provides an introduction to the biology and classification of plants, fungi, and animals, their tissues, organ systems, development and reproduction. Four hours of lecture and a two-hour lab session are required each week.

1.1 Learning Objectives

• Understand and explain the evolutionary relationships between the major groups of fungi, plants and animals, and their relationships with their habitats, and with other groups of organisms.

• Identify the appropriate external and internal structures and their functions in representative organisms.

• Identify some of the distinguishing characteristics of the major fungi, plant and animal groups studied, and to be able to recognize and/or give examples of organisms belonging to these major groups.

• Identify (through the microscope, and in diagrams) representative examples of the major somatic tissue groups, and to demonstrate understanding of their characteristics, functions, and location in the vertebrate organism.

• Identify the basic anatomy of the different organ systems studied, and to understand the related basic physiology.

• Recognize some of the factors which influence human health, and the causes and symptoms of some common human diseases.

• Learn and demonstrate basic lab dissections.