HU Credits: 3

Degree/Cycle: 1st degree (Bachelor)

Responsible Department: life sciences

Semester: 1st Semester

Teaching Languages: Hebrew

Campus: E. Safra

Course/Module Coordinator: Dr. Ariel Chipman

Coordinator Email: ariel.chipman@huji.ac.il

Coordinator Office Hours: By appointment, Berman building, room 206

Teaching Staff:
Prof

Course/Module description:
An introductory to the diversity of the animal kingdom and to princiles of organismic biology. The course presents the various taxonomic groups and their characteristics, while using the different groups to demonstrate general principles of organization of the body and its systems. The full course includes a lab module which serves for practical demonstration of principles learned in the lectures.

Course/Module aims:
To give an organismic basis to the study of biology in general. To develop organismioc and evolutionary thinking.

Learning outcomes - On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:
- To identify the main animal taxa at the Phylum and Class levels.
- To predict organismic function based on morphology.
- To place various organisms on teh phylogenetic tree of teh animal kingdom.
- To appreciate the importance of understanding the whole organism in all branches of Life Sciences
- To describe histological sections of different tissues and dissections of select members of different animal taxa.

Attendance requirements(%):
90%

Teaching arrangement and method of instruction: Laboratory

Course/Module Content:
1) Histology. Use of a light microscope. Epithelia and connective tissues. Muscle types. Compound organs: intestine, skin.
2) Protists: Diversity, structure, behavior.
3) Simple multicellular organisms. Introduction to Porifera. Major groups in Cnidaria. Feeding behavior in Hydra. Cnidarian life cycles.
4) Lophotrochozoa I: Platyhelminthes. Parasitic groups. Regeneration in Planaria.
5) Lophotrochozoa II: Annelida. Mollusca. Earthworm dissection. Snail behavior.
6) Ecdysozoa I: Nematodes, tardigrades. Arthropod diversity.
7) Ecdysozoa II: Insects. Grasshopper dissection.
8) Deuterostomia I: Echinoderms. Fertilization and development in sea urchins.
9) Deuterostomia II: Vertebrates. Dogfish

Required Reading:
Invertebrates – Moore, J, “An Introduction to the invertebrates” 2nd edition (2006)
Life (9) – Sadava, Hillis, Heller & Berenbaum, “Life – The Science of Biology” 9th edition - International (2009)
Additional reading material (in Hebrew) on the course website

Additional Reading Material:
None

Course/Module evaluation:
End of year written/oral examination 0 %
Presentation 0 %
Participation in Tutorials 25 %
Project work 0 %
Assignments 30 %
Reports 25 %
Research project 0 %
Quizzes 20 %
Other 0 %

Additional information:
None