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white PRINTABLE version of this page, click PRINTABLE.
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Infectious
disease is one of the few genuine adventures left in the world.
The dragons
are all dead and the lance grows rusty in the chimney corner...
About the
only sporting proposition that remains unimpaired by the relentless
domestication of a once
free-living human species is the war against those ferocious little
fellow
creatures, which lurk
in dark corners and stalk us in the bodies of rats, mice and all kinds
of domestic animals; which fly
and crawl with the insects, and waylay us in our food and drink and
even
in our love.
- Hans Zinsser, Rats,
Lice and History (1934) [courtesy Alison Jacobson]
borrowed from:
Dept.of
Microbiology, University of Cape Town, South Africa
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Introduction
The Cell
Biology 1-3 sequence is a series of ELECTIVES for any student at Bergen
County Academies who is
seeking an in-depth exploration of the concept of the structure and
function
of genes (Cell Biology 1),
and the application of molecular genetics to the study of viruses (Cell
Biology 2) and immunology (Cell
Biology 3). These three
courses are descendants of the coursework in the curriculum of Advanced
Biology for senior AAST / AEDT students from 1995 - 2003.
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Virology
As you may find out if you enroll in this
elective, you
can
NOT truly understand how viruses infect and reproduce and therefore
cause diseases if you do not understand how DNA and RNA work. Hence,
coursework in genetics is a useful for Virology.
Resources
Although
our
textbook (Biology by
Neil Campbell) has a chapter on viral and bacterial genetics (chapter
18) and a chapter on bacteria (chapter 27), the
treatment
of diseases is not a major focus. In addition, many of the viral
diseases
of interest are of recent concern due to major outbreaks in the last
few
years. In reality, there is little attention paid to infectious
diseases
in the textbook. However, the immunology resource in the textbook is
chapter 43. Even while we study viruses, you may wish to refer to
this
chapter occasionally. We will spend most of Cell Biology 3 there so
anything you read now puts you ahead in the next course.
As we focus
on viral diseases and the agents that cause them, we will rely heavily
on three resources:
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Outbreak
the movie:
a role playing
CDC or USAMRIID
analysis
and report
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Video
The videotapes used are those that have
been collected from
the Discovery Channel, The Learning
Channel, The Meaning of Life Series, and the hollywood film Outbreak.
During the viewing of each video, we will employ a cooperative learning
approach in which students are provided with a series of 50-60
questions
about the video. Each student is assigned four or five questions. Thus,
during the video, a student does not need to focus on every question,
and
can enjoythe show. However, in the following class period, each student
presents their questions and answers to the class. Every student can
then
obtain all of the important information from the video. Each student
then
uses this information as background information for the Outbreak and Viral
Infectious
Disease research papers.
Internet
A variety
of references to virology resources can be found at the Virology Internet
References page. These will be
of great use in the research paper investigations.
Virology eText
In our study of viruses, students will
use my computer based eText on Virology.
This program is quite large (around 5Mb) and is now available for
either
the Macintosh or PC environment as 3 PDF files.
This program may be
downloaded
from the Cell
Bio
2 Download site.
Assessments
Current
Events
Because
virology is a hot area of biology and is changing daily, each
student
is required to maintain a portfolio of current events
articles with one article due about every other week throughout the
trimester. More detailed
information can be found in the assessments webpage.
In-class Assessments
Although
most students enrolled in Virology are self-motivated learners,
demonstrable evaluation of information assimilated and processed is
appropriate. This will be seen as a cumulative in-class
examination
covering virology. More detailed information can be found in the assessments webpage.
Special
Note on HIV/AIDS
Although
the
causative agent for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is
believed to be caused by Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), we will
split our study of AIDS into two components.
- During Virology we will study
the structure and replication process of HIV.
- During Immunology we will gain
insight into our defense mechanisms by
investigating an example of the failure of
the defense system, a resultant human species catastrophe and the
evolutionary
success story known as AIDS.
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