Industrial pharmacy REPLICA LATINA

General expected learning outcomes Biology can be defined as the entire field of disciplines that study living organisms in all their manifestations and the natural laws that regulate them. Beyond the definitions, biology is one of the most dynamic and rapidly expanding fields of human activity and has repercussions that affect every aspect of our lives, from health to environmental issues. The research activity constantly carried out by biologists all over the world has allowed us to acquire a great knowledge of biological processes and to make ourselves more and more aware of our close interdependence with the great variety of organisms present in our planet. This course has mainly a propaedeutic purpose; taking into particular account the level of preparation of each student, the objective to be achieved is allowing the student to face the courses of the following years with the necessary basic knowledge and to know the aspects main topics of the study of biology. Specific expected learning outcomes 1. Knowledge and understanding In the course beyond a general knowledge of the fundamental topics of biology, we want to give appropriate importance to the concepts mainly related to professional training in the pharmaceutical field, as well as to the subsequent subjects of the Degree Course. For this reason we will follow a path that starts from the Chemistry of Life, and then, by deepening the constitution of living beings at the cellular level with references to the basic biochemical and genetic mechanisms, leads to the understanding of the higher organizational levels up to the organismic level of Biology, both for plants and animals, taking into account the evolutionary peculiarities, and with hints also to the ecological part. The course has been designed and implemented with the aim of making the numerous and complex aspects of Biology interesting and accessible: it is important that the students acquire a greater awareness of the variety of life forms, their enormous adaptability to the environment and their ecological and evolutionary correlations, understanding, at the same time, the dynamic way in which science works and make progress. The study of Plant Biology will focus on the peculiarities of plants, from the metabolic ones to the morpho-functional ones, in order to provide the basic notions useful in the degree course, with particular reference to the topics that will be further explored in the course of Pharmacognosy. The main objective of the study of Animal Biology will be the acquisition of basic knowledge on animal structures and functions at different levels of complexity, with emphasis on their adaptive meaning. We intend to highlight both the universality of evolutionary solutions, and the main alternative solutions to general problems of functionality of complex organic systems in the Man and in the main Phyla of the Metazoan. The teaching of Biology at the first-year level is congruent with the course of the student enrolled in the degree course in CTF, as it is intended to establish a solid base of scientific knowledge on which to build their professional skills, which include a wide range of disciplines, all closely related to each other. The logical path of the topics will be developed through five consecutive sections: a) Chemistry of Life. Science and Biology in the pharmaceutical context. Modern Biology and Systems Biology. Evolution of the scientific method. Also including elements of Primary and Secondary Metabolism. b) Cellular Biology, with the main elements of the cellular constitution and its functioning. Understanding diversity: systematics and phylogeny. Viruses and sub-viral agents. Bacteria. Archaea. Origin of Eukaryotes. Protists. c) Plant Biology, the main botanical aspects of plant organisms and related organisms. d) Formal Genetics and Molecular Biology. Chromosomes, cell cycle, mitosis and meiosis. DNA replication. From DNA to proteins: gene expression. Mutations. Regulation of gene expression. Genomes. Introduction to the Darwinian concept of evolution. The mechanisms of evolution: evolutionary changes in populations. Speciation. Macroevolution. Evolution of genes and genomes. e) Animal Biology. At the end of this section, the student acquires a general knowledge on the biology of animal organisms through the study of model groups. 2. Applying knowledge and understanding The evaluation of the student will be carried out mainly through a final written test, which will focus on all the topics of the program, testing the student's ability in a form that avoids the psychological difficulty arising from a university-type oral examination to which he/she is not still used to. 3. Making judgements The student will deepen what he learned during the lessons on the recommended texts, which have been written and thought mainly for the students of the pharmaceutical courses. This deepening will allow him to rediscover these topics in the future, when the memories of the concepts taught in the classroom will be partly forgotten. The texts will remain as a reference for the student who will know where to find detailed concepts, especially useful to pass the exam. The teaching of Vegetal and Animal Biology consists of lectures, with some final exercises to prepare the students for the exam. The lessons are all interactive: the teacher stimulates the students with questions to which they, based on their knowledge and what they have learned in class, can give an answer. This allows the teacher to evidence the links between the current course and the previous knowledge, fundamental to understand what is proposed in class. The continuous references to concepts of previous courses must make the student accustomed to study the proposed subject not as something closed, only aimed to pass the final exam and to be filed immediately afterwards, but intends to highlight a multidisciplinary study, absolutely required to face the university study. The student will find on the e-learning platform the slides and the teaching material (exam program, recommended texts) useful for the preparation of the exam. It is understood that the slides are a guide to the exam topics, but they can never absolutely replace the recommended texts and lectures given by the teacher. Attendance to the course is optional but strongly recommended. In fact, the percentage of students who pass the exam and with good grades is limited to those who have regularly attended, while is generally high the failure percentage among not attending students. 4. Communication skills The assessment methods of the course are characterized by an exam session set in the months of January, February and May, excluding the periods in which the lessons are held. The teacher is also available to hold, at the request of the students, additional appeals during the months of April and September, reserved for undergraduate and off-course students, in accordance with the provisions of the respective CCL. The objective of the test is to certify the student's knowledge and assimilation of the main topics that will then be the subject of further study in subsequent courses. The elements taken into consideration for the evaluation are: the knowledge of the subject, in all the main areas of Biology covered by the exam program, the ability of reasoning demonstrated in the choice of answers and the ability to study autonomously on the indicated texts. 5. Learning skills