Bioscience 2 Aug 5th 2008

Hi Everyone,

First, welcome to Bioscience 2. I hope you enjoy this second part of the course. As I said at the introduction, the level is slightly higher than Bioscience 1 and there is quite a lot of material to be covered. The format is essentialy the same as Bioscience 1 with course material published on Blackboard in both interactive and printable forms. There is a 15 question quiz for each of the 8 units, to be completed before it disappears a week after the new unit begins. Keep your eye on the timetable!

The first unit Cells and Tissues was due to start on Monday. It covers much of the same material as the equivalent unit in Bioscience 1, but you will note that there is more detail especially about active transport across the plasma membrane and cell cycles and there are few extra tissue types included.

However, I'm hoping that you will not need to take the full 2 weeks on this first unit, as the next one, the nervous system, is huge and covers much materia that will be completely new to most of you. There are 3 separate interactive (and printable) documents on Blackboard each dealing with different aspects of the nervous system. There is a short version of the worksheet and I am at present working on a longer and more comprehensive version which should be more useful as a study aid. I should get that up today.

There is a Bioscience 2 tutorial on Thursday at 1-2pm in H602 and I hope I will see as many of you as possible at that. It is your chance to talk about anything you are having problems understanding. I was thinking I would look at movement across the plasma membrane but am happy to cover anything you ask for--- within reason! So get reading the material and thinking about what you want me to cover. David is hoping to have an audio feed from the tutorial through Elluminate so you will be able to participate even if not on site and I suppose it also means there will be a recording you can listen to after the event. You will need to contact David about accessing these.

I am in my office most afternoons during the week (H528) and am accessible by phone or email so dont hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or comments,

Cheers, Ruth