This Course Guide has been taken from the most recent presentation of the course. It would be useful for reference purposes but please note that there may be updates for the following presentation.
BIOL S302
Animal and Plant Physiology
BIOL S302 Animal and Plant Physiology is a one-semester, 5-credit required course for the Bachelor of Science in Applied Science (Biology and Chemistry). The course presumes a solid foundational understanding of biological concepts such as those covered in SCI S122 A Foundation Course in Biology and Earth Science as well as BIOL S205 The Core of Life.
The rationale behind this course is to enable you to consolidate your knowledge of the biological concepts learnt in earlier courses and apply them to real-life situations. The term physiology is the study of mechanical, physical and biochemical functions of living systems. Traditionally, physiology has been divided into the study of plants and animals. However, despite the apparent structural and functional disparities between these two types of living system, the principles of physiology are universal. Exertion of parallel physiological roles through differential mechanisms frequently occurs. Whether this is related to a common ancestor or/and environmental adaptations as proposed by Darwin remains unknown. Evolution of differential physiological strategies and development of physiological roles essential for survival continues to be of immense interest.
BIOL S302 is delivered using a blended learning approach. This means that as well as the material you will be reading in your printed study units and your textbook, there will also be a strong emphasis on online content, most of which can be found on the MasteringBiology website which accompanies your textbook. This website has a variety of interactive animations and quizzes which can enhance your understanding of the principle concepts introduced. In addition, you will be expected to attend laboratory sessions and complete laboratory reports using standard experimental data. Thus, in this course you will learn face-to-face, online and through print materials.
Aims
The aims of this course are to:
Course learning outcomes
Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:
The following table gives a general overview of the course structure. It suggests the amount of time you should allow for completing units, and provides a broad schedule for you to plan your work. These times are intended as a guide only, so you should adjust them to fit your personal needs more closely.
| Unit | Unit title | Study time (weeks) | Assessment Activity (end of unit) |
| 1 | Body forms and functions | 2 | |
| 2 | Signal transduction | 3 | Assignment 1 |
| 3 | Circulatory and transport systems | 3 | |
| 4 | Osmoregulation and excretion | 3 | Assignment 2 (lab report on one of the day schools) |
| 5 | Immunology and self-defence systems | 4 | Assignment 3 |
| Revision | 1 | ||
| Total study weeks | 16 | ||
The course materials include this Course Guide, five study units, an Assignment File and other useful materials mentioned below.
Materials
In addition to this Course Guide, the course has the following important components. Please ensure that you have all of these materials.
Study units
Unit 1 Body forms and functions introduces the concept that despite being classified as eukaryotic and believed to originate from a common ancestry, plants and animals are undeniably different in terms of their body forms and functions. In the case of plants, they are said to be architecturally designed to exhibit radial symmetry with all their body parts arranged around a central axis. The obvious rationale behind such structural organization is related to their serenity. Radial symmetry enables plants to utilize all parts of their environment maximally. In contrast, animals are said to be mechanistically designed in the form of bilateral symmetry, which enables them to maximize movements through their environments. In this unit, differential body forms between plants and animals as well as the relationship between body forms and physiological functions will be introduced.
Unit 2 Signal transduction describes that in the subject of physiology, homeostasis is a fundamental process in maintaining the internal environments of all living systems constant via adjustments of physiological functions. In order to achieve internal stability, sensory systems must be available to offer a continuous surveillance of internal body conditions that may be altered by either internal or external stimuli. Despite the existence of enormous diversity between plants and animals, both types of organisms have adopted similar signal transduction pathways to provide a linkage between signal reception and response induction. In both plants and animals, both the nervous as well as the endocrine (hormonal) systems are indispensible in terms of their roles in homeostasis. In this study unit, the anatomies of the nervous and endocrine systems will be explored to reveal their relative importance in stabilizing the internal conditions of both plants and animals.
Unit 3 Circulatory and transport systems emphasizes that circulatory and transports systems are essential. No living organisms, regardless whether they are plants or animals, are totally self-sufficient. Instead, all are required to obtain substances such as water, nutrients and other vital minerals from their external environments to survive. Acquisition of essential nutrients in plants and animals requires efficient coupling systems of transportation for rapid distribution throughout the body of the organism. Although plants and animals have developed similarities in selected areas of physiology such as cellular signaling, these are likely to be the exception rather than the norm. Many physiological processes between plants and animals are distinctively different. In this unit, transportation of substances between plants and animals will be discussed and contrasted.
Unit 4 Osmoregulation and excretion describes the importance of osmoregulation and excretion. Osmoregulation is an important process in regulating the internal chemical composition of body fluids by maintaining the balance between loss and gain of water and solutes. It is a homeostatic mechanism in maintaining an optimal and constant osmotic pressure within living organisms, enabling normal physiological functions to be performed at the levels of cells, tissues as well as organs. Evolution of a range of osmoregulatory strategies in animals has reflected the severity of osmoregulatory challenges. In addition, animals also need to safeguard their internal fluids via excretion of toxic metabolites. Plants share with animals the problems of obtaining water, but unlike in animals, loss of water in plants is crucial to create a driving force to move nutrients from the soil to tissues. Whilst there are no specific osmoregulatory organs in higher plants, stomata are important in regulating water balance. On the cellular level the plant vacuole is crucial in regulating the concentration of solutes in the cytoplasm.
Unit 5 Immunology and self-defence systems focuses on the fact that plants and animals are continuously under pathogenic attacks. In response to this, specialized defence systems have evolved to resist such microscopic assaults. In animals, a series of efficient defence mechanisms is persistently on standby to fight against potential pathogenic infections. As primary producers and being positioned at the base of food webs, plants are not only subjected to pathogenic invasions but are also frequently threatened by herbivorous predation. For self- protection, a series of defense systems that are distinctively different from those of animals has evolved to deter herbivory as well as to combat pathogens.
Please be aware that to achieve the desired learning outcomes for each of these units, you are encouraged to do the following:
Set textbook
You are required to purchase the following set textbook:
Campbell, N A, Urry, L A, Cain, M L, Wasserman, S A, Minorsky, P V, Reece, J B and Orr, R A (2020) Biology: A Global Approach, Global Edition, 12th edn, Pearson.
[Print book + Pearson Modified MasteringBiology with Pearson eText. ISBN: 9781292345864]
Or you may choose to purchase the electronic version of the set textbook:
Pearson Modified MasteringBiology with Pearson eText Student Access Code – for Biology: A Global Approach, Global Edition, 12th edn.
[No print book included. ISBN: 9781292341750]
Web resources
When you buy the set textbook you will obtain an access code to an accompanying website: MasteringBiology. You will be referred to this website regularly throughout the course to complete interactive activities and watch animations which will support your understanding of course concepts. To register for and log in to the textbook website go to:
After you register, enter your username and password, and then click Sign in.
Assignment File
The Assignment File, available on the Online Learning Environment (OLE) provides you with guidelines for working on your assignments. You can refer to the Course Guide section 'Assessment' that follows, and to the Assignment File itself for more information.
Presentation Schedule
The Presentation Schedule (available on the OLE) is included in the course materials, and gives the dates for completing assignments, attending tutorials and day schools, and so on.
Reference books
The following are recommended reference books for the course:
Raven, Johnson, Losos and Singer (2008) Biology, 8th edn, McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Sadava, Heller, Orians, Purves and Heller (2008) Life: The Science of Biology, 8th edn, Sinauer Associates and W.H. Freeman & Co.
Equipment needed for supplementary media
You need to have at least the following equipment for the course:
Hardware
Minimum configuration:
Software
Assessment
There is informal and formal assessment in this course. The informal assessment includes self-assessed Web-based activities and self-tests stipulated in each unit. The formal assessment includes assignments and a final examination. Assignments must be submitted to your tutor for formal assessment according to the stated deadlines. The non-assessed activities are not part of your formal assessment, but it is very important that you complete all these activities as you work through the units.
The course uses assignments and a final examination as the means of formal assessment. Assignments serve as the overall continuous assessment (OCAS) component during the study period and account for 50% of the total course assessment. A final examination to be conducted at the end of the course accounts for the other 50% of the total course assessment. To pass the course, students are required to obtain at least 40% or above for OCAS and 40% or above in the final examination.
Other than the study units, you are required to attend two compulsory day schools planned for the course to enable face-to-face teaching in selected topics of physiology. The purpose of the day schools is to enable you to achieve hands-on experience in performing practical work, collecting and analysing experimental data and presenting your findings in the form of laboratory reports. The practical work you perform in the day schools will help to make the theoretical concepts you encounter in the study units more concrete. Outlines and rationales behind these day schools are given below.
Day school 1: Laboratory 1
The objective of this laboratory session is to enable you to gain experience in designing and carrying out your own experiments as well as to revise the important biological concept of transpiration.
Day school 2: Laboratory 2
In day school 2 you will investigate the effects of ions and neurotransmitters on the heart rate and contractility (force of contraction) of cardiac muscles using frogs as an experimental model.
Assignments
There are three assignments for the course, all of which are compulsory. Assignments 1 and 3 are based on the materials you cover in your study units, the textbook and the MasteringBiology website. Assignment 2 requires you to write a lab report on one of the compulsory day schools you will attend. There are two sections in this assignment and you are required to prepare an answer to one of these sections depending on which laboratory session you choose to report on. Upon receiving your assignments, your assigned tutor will mark and return them with his or her comments and feedback.
Assignment submission extension policy
The assignment policy of the university as stated in the Student Handbook should be observed. You are required to submit assignments for this course in accordance with the dates communicated by your Course Coordinator. You may apply for a submission extension on the grounds of illness, accident, disability, bereavement or other compassionate circumstances.
Applications for extensions of up to seven days should be submitted to the tutor. The tutor shall consider valid and unexpected emergencies on an individual basis. Normally, documented proof of the extenuating circumstances is not required for extensions of up to seven days. The tutor shall decide and advise you of the revised date for submission.
For extensions of over seven days, you should note the following:
If the assignment is posted to the tutor, it is your responsibility to check that the assignment has successfully arrived (see the Assignment File). Extension applications without supporting documents on the grounds of postal loss will not be accepted. The university cannot accept any responsibility for assignments that are not received by your tutor due to problems with the post. As a precaution, you are advised to keep a copy of each assignment you submit and obtain a certificate of posting from the post office when you post your assignment.
According to the University's policy, there is no extension of the due date for the final assignment.
Final examination
At the end of the course, you are required to attend a final examination. The examination aims to test your thorough understanding of the topics covered in the course. The examination will be of 3 hours' duration. It will consist of a mixture of essay questions and data interpretation. The total score of the examination paper contributes 50% of the total course mark.
Course marking scheme
| Assessment | Assessment area | Marks |
| Assignment 1 | Units 1–2 | 15% |
| Assignment 2 (Lab report) | Day school 1 or day school 2 | 20% |
| Assignment 3 | Units 3–5 | 15% |
| Final examination | 50% | |
| Total | 100% |
There are five units in this course. The units direct you to work on activities related to the material covered, which can both help you gauge your progress and reinforce your understanding of the material covered in the unit. More importantly, these activities give examples to help you fully understand the concepts presented in the textbook, and can assist you in applying these concepts and techniques beyond the textbook. Together with the assignments, these activities will assist you in achieving the learning objectives of the individual units of the course.
Please note that the biggest temptation that students face, when they are short of time, is just to read the course materials. When they get to an activity or self-test, they flip straight ahead or to the back of the unit to look at the feedback or suggested answers. This saves time and students get to know the correct answers, so it is an effective way to learn, right? Wrong! Terribly wrong! Many contemporary educationists believe that learning is not a process that happens when people listen to a lecture or read a book passively. They think that learning takes place as people actively construct knowledge. Do not take a shortcut that compromises your learning. Attempt the activities and self-tests presented in the study units.
When done properly, working with fellow students on difficult learning activities or assignments can be beneficial. However, doing so without acknowledging the contributions of other students in your own work is plagiarism. It has happened that after enough cosmetic changes had been made, the act of cheating was not caught by the tutor marking the assignment. But in such a case, the student's learning suffers and this will show in the final examination.
Apart from self-study, support is provided to you in two ways: direct personal contact and through electronic means.
Support through direct personal contact
Support through direct personal contact includes telephone tutoring, surgeries, tutorials and day schools.
Details of the dates, times and locations of tutorials as well as the name, email address and phone number of your tutor will be sent to you in due course.
Your tutor will mark and comment on your assignments, keep an eye on your progress and assist you if you encounter problems during the course. Marked assignments will be returned to you as soon as possible.
It is good practice to keep a copy of each assignment submitted for marking, so that you can refer to queries during discussion with the tutor. Please contact your tutor should the following arise:
While you may think you are studying on your own, it doesn't need to be that way. You can be in regular contact with your tutor and, once you've met for the first tutorial, you can be in contact with other students in the course. Make a point when you meet other students to exchange phone numbers or email addresses. In this way, you will be well on the way to developing a learning network of your own.
Telephone tutoring
Each tutor will allocate four to six hours per week in order to answer your telephone calls.
Surgeries
As a supplement to the telephone tutoring, the course includes surgery sessions that will be held every two or three weeks.
An on-duty tutor chairs each surgery. Each surgery aims to prove a face- to-face environment for consultation on individual students' study problem areas.
You may bring along questions on the study units, assignments and specimen examination papers when you consult the on-duty tutor.
Day schools
Two compulsory day schools will be provided to students. These will take the form of practical laboratory sessions and workshops. One of the course assignments will be based on the work done at these day schools.
Tutorials
Regular tutorial sessions will be provided in the course. They will involve a number of presentations and interactive learning activities.
Support through electronic means
You may submit any study problems to your assigned tutor through email. This channel provides flexibility to both tutors and students in overcoming the limitations of telephone tutoring in solving more technical issues.
OLE
This course is supported by HKMU's Online Learning Environment (OLE). You can find course materials and the latest course information from the OLE and use the discussion board to communicate with your tutor, the Course Coordinator and fellow students.
BIOL S302 Animal and Plant Physiology is a one-semester, higher-level course which takes you through the study of the mechanical, physical and biochemical functions of both plants and animals. The course is presented using a blend of print-based study units, a textbook, online activities and face-to-face teaching. Topics to be covered include body forms and functions; signal transduction; circulatory and transport systems; osmoregulation and excretion; and immunology and self- defence systems.
Assessment for the course takes the form of three assignments and a final examination. You will receive support throughout the course both online and face-to face.
Best wishes for your study of BIOL S302 Animal and Plant Physiology!
Dr Helen Cheung has obtained a B.Sc. (Hons.) Degree in Applied Biology from the University of East London, UK, and a PhD degree from Brookes University, Oxford, UK. She has worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at Fisons Pharmaceuticals, Rochester, US. Her teaching career began in 1996 when she was employed as a lecturer at the International Medical University (IMU), Malaysia. She is currently teaching at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). She has been a part-time tutor at HKMU since October 2004 and has been involved in the tutoring of BIOL S204 Biology: Uniformity and Diversity. She was also the developer of BIOL S205 The Core of Life.
