Mid-Continent UniversityBarbara Pierpont, Professor

Roll call Who’s class rep? Who’s class chaplin? Prayer needs? Prayer praise?

Married with six children and seven grandchildren, two spoiled Siamese

Taught high school physics and forensic sciences and am now RETIRED!

Lead Professor of Bio and Env. Sci. Hold BA in Education from LWC Hold a MS in Education, Science Instruction

from Walden. Hold a MASE in Physics from WGU, a MASE in

Geosciences from WGU 21 hrs towards my Doctoral at Univ. of the

Cumberlands.

Rules◦Please be on time◦Try to finish eating before class if possible◦Turn your homework in before class starts◦Pick up the agenda each time◦Tell me of upcoming absences (know that

you will have 20 pts off if your work is late and that absences can result in grade penalties)

◦Writing assignment will be discussed later tonight.

Email me at bpierpont@midcontinent.edu

Call me at 270-404-0637 between 1 and 8pm.

Discuss the methods and repercussions of genetically modified foods (GMFs) in terms of

A. human health B. genetic plant diversity C. national security D. consumer costs

You should have 6-8 pages, typed, including title page and resource page.

You must have at least four separate works cited in proper APA format. Wikipedia is not a source!

What does it mean?

What makes something alive or not?

What problems do we face today?

How have scientific discovery impacted biology or life as we know it?

What did God set up for this planet, this universe?

Is Biology in the Bible?

What did God intend for life on this planet? sustainability

What have we humans done so far? Man’s

impact

Where are we going? Global eco disasters

The world is a closed system – nothing on and nothing off.

So, all we have is all we’ll ever have.

Everything must balance.

The Earth doesn’t need us.

What are some things that we need to live?

What are these things made of?

All things are made of atoms Atoms are the smallest unit of matter

◦ But even rocks and water are made of atoms – are they alive?

Atoms combine to make molecules◦ Oxygen, Phosphorus, Nitrogen and most

importantly – CARBON which is essential to life on this planet. You are mostly carbon.

Burnt sugar Burnt wood Burnt marshmallows

◦ What do these things have in common◦ What do they taste like?

But if I removed all the water from your body, the value of your remaining chemicals would only be $12.86 on today’s market.

Why are you so special?

Life is defined as an organism that grows, develops, and reproduces

The environment is set up in a rather rigid hierarchy going from the individual to the world as a whole.

We start with individual, to population, then communities, to ecosystems.

Let’s take prairie dogs – just ‘cause they’re cute…

Ya got ‘cha one lone prairie dog…

He finds himself a mate…

They settle into a nice suburban home to raise the kids…

Pretty soon urban sprawl takes over and the neighborhood grows…

The neighborhood gets some fly-by-night characters…

And before you know it, organized crime gets a foothold…

Organized crime causes the colony to take defensive measures…

The colony is forced to gather food closer to home, depleting the available grass lands…

…increasing their exposure to the criminal elements…

Eventually talks break down and hostilities are declared…

The prairie dogs are forced to do one of two things – move or evolve….

We will discuss evolution in this class.

In my opinion, evolution is part of God’s plan for us and our environment.

Don’t let the term scare you – evolution just means change or adaptation over time.

Some examples…

Biotic comes from BIO- which is the prefix for “Life”

Abiotic, then would be ???What are some abiotic factors our prairie dogs face?

What other abiotic factors can we find in an ecosystem?

Energy is being passed along throughout this ecosystem. Energy as food, as chemical kinesthesia or sentience, etc.

So where does this energy come from?

Energy on our planet originates from the sun.

Sun energy drives the winds, the weather, food supplies, and animal births and migrations.

Energy moving through the ecosystem can be divided into three categories:

Producers

Consumers

Decomposers

Also known as autotrophs

Can produce food directly from the sun

Are found around the planet and in the oceans

Feed on the producers and each other

Get energy from producer, but only 10%

Each step removed from the producer is minus 10%

Feed on the leftovers of the consumers or producers.

Gives forensic scientists something to look at to determine TOD or COD.

Are essential to nature’s recycling plan.

15 minutes, please.

Elements – the basic form of matter Can’t be broken apart by normal means 92 naturally occurring elements on Earth

Oxygen Hydrogen Nitrogen Carbon

Smallest particles that retain properties of an element

Made of subatomic particles◦ Protons +◦ Neutrons 0◦ Electrons -

Number of protons All atoms of an element have the same

atomic number Atomic number of hydrogen = 1 Atomic number of carbon =6

The number of electrons equals the number of protons

Electrons move in “orbitals” Orbitals can hold at least two electrons, the

farther away from the nucleus of an atom, the more the orbital can hold

Orbitals closest to the nucleus are lower in energy and are filled first

Gaps in the shell mean that the atom will accept or grab electrons from other atoms.

A bond is a union between electron structures of atoms

Atoms bond to form molecules Molecules may contain atoms of only one

element -O₂ May contain more than one element – H₂O

The outer electrons are called valance electrons. They are the only electrons that will move. Think of curtains and the valance on top.

If an atom is “powerful” enough, it will take another electron’s electron completely.

Hydrogen bonds in a special way. It always shares its one electron in a covalent bond.

In ice, hydrogen bonds lock molecules in a lattice structure

Water molecules in lattice are spaced farther apart than those in liquid water

Air is trapped between the lattice spaces Ice is then less dense than water

Water is the universal solvent – it will eventually dissolve anything. It does this because of the oxygen and hydrogen that make up the molecule H2O

Functional Group Transfer Electron Transfer Rearrangement Condensation Cleavage or Hydrolysis

Form polymers from subunits Enzymes remove –OH (hydroxide) from one

molecule, H from another molecule, form bond between the leftovers

Extra H and O join to form water

Carbohydrates –long chains Proteins – chains of covalently bonded Lipids- fat blobs of chains Nucleic Acids – spiders in a bowl of

spaghetti

In your book, know how these look

break

Plant use sunlight to make their food. They are the only one who can! All other organisms rely on plants to take

from the sun. They use a process called photosynthesis to

change light into sugar.