Course: Introduction to Biology Day 2 Topic: Biochemistry Introduction

1. Course: Introduction to Biology Day 2 Topic: Biochemistry Introduction Just one paragraph from the 50 minute lecture “If you were a biochemist and you purified a protein and you found out a chemical property that it had and you wondered what it did in the cell, you could sequence the protein and deduce what some of the DNA sequence was, find the gene, disable the gene in the organism, look and see if your idea was right. Or vice versa, if you were a geneticist and you found a mutant that had an interesting property and you wondered how it was working then you could clone the gene, look at the protein and try and figure it out.” What vocabulary do the freshmen in the class need to know just to have a chance during this lecture? What skills does this freshman need to be college ready? How do we get this freshman college ready?

2. Course: Introduction to Chemistry Lecture 9 Topic: Periodic trends One problem early in the lecture. What vocabulary do the freshmen in the class need to know just to have a chance during this lecture? What skills does this freshman need to be college ready? How do we get this freshman college ready?

3. Course: Linear Algebra, Day 1 Topic: The geometry of linear equations The two columns below are just an excerpt of the beginning of that lecture. And those are the rows and columns of a matrix. So the third -- the algebra way to look at the problem is the matrix form and using a matrix that I'll call A. Okay, so can I do an example? The whole semester will be examples and then see what's going on with the example. So, take an example. Two equations, two unknowns. So let me take 2x -y =0, let's say. And -x +2y=3. Okay. let me -- I can even say right away -- what's the matrix, that is, what's the coefficient matrix? The matrix that involves these numbers -- a matrix is just a rectangular array of numbers. Here it's two rows and two columns, so 2 and -- minus 1 in the first row minus 1 and 2 in the second row, that's the matrix. And the right-hand -- the, unknown -- well, we've got two unknowns. So we've got a vector, with two components, x and x, and we've got two right-hand sides that go into a vector 0 3 The fundamental problem of linear algebra, which is to solve a system of linear equations. So let's start with a case when we have some number of equations, say n equations and n unknowns. So an equal number of equations and unknowns. That's the normal, nice case. And what I want to do is -- with examples, of course -- to describe, first, what I call the Row picture. That's the picture of one equation at a time. It's the picture you've seen before in two by two equations where lines meet. So in a minute, you'll see lines meeting. The second picture, I'll put a star beside that, because that's such an important one. And maybe new to you is the picture -- a column at a time. What vocabulary do the freshmen in the class need to know just to have a chance during this lecture? What skills does this freshman need to be college ready? How do we get this freshman college ready?

4. Course: College Algebra, Lecture 9 Topic: Partial Fractions The two columns below are just an excerpt of the beginning of that lecture. In arithmetic, you learned how to add fractions. You found the least common denominator, and then multiplied both the numerator and denominator of each term by what was needed to complete the common denominator. In algebra, you have carried that process on to addition of rational expressions. You once again multiplied the numerator and denominator of each term by what was missing from the denominator of that term. With Partial Fraction Decomposition, we're going to reverse the process and decompose a rational expression into two or more simpler proper rational expressions that were added together. Partial Fraction Decomposition only works for proper rational expressions, that is, the degree of the numerator must be less than the degree of the denominator. If it is not, then you must perform long division first, and then perform the partial fraction decomposition on the rational part (the remainder over the divisor). After you've done the partial fraction decomposition, just add back in the quotient part from the long division. When discussing polynomials, we learned that every polynomial with real coefficients can be factored using only linear and irreducible quadratic factors. This means that there are only two types of factors that we have to worry about. If the partial fractions we're decomposing the rational expression into must be proper, then the only thing that can be over a linear factor is a constant. So, for every linear factor in the denominator, you will need a constant in over that in the numerator. What skills does this freshman need to be college ready? How do we get this freshman college ready? What vocabulary do the freshmen in the class need to know just to have a chance during this lecture?

5. Course: History 102 (US: Reconstruction to present) • Topic: Liberalism at High Noon: The New Deal • At the beginning of the lecture, the professor put this on the powerpoint: • Some questions to keep in mind: • What role did the unequal distribution of wealth play in sustaining the Depression? • What techniques did FDR use to boost his popularity? Was he successful? • Compare Hoover's philosophy of government to FDR's. Were there any salient differences? • Explain the concept of "the broker state." How did FDR go about doing the duties of a modern president? Are these typical of an introductory college history course? Are these typical of what ECHS students are asked in their college history course? Answer individually then discuss with 1 or 2 others in your group. What skills do we develop in world history and world geography to support students in their 11th grade endeavors ? What is one thing your ECHS can do during the freshmen/ sophomore years to help bridge the gap?

6. 1) Compared to a young woman living in a suburb of an Iranian city, a young woman who grew up in a small, American city in the Midwest would be more likely to A) place more importance on the family. B) care what her neighbors thought of her actions. C) have a stronger sense of individualism. D) choose a husband that pleased her family. 2) Places can best be thought of as A) independent. B) interdependent C) co-dependent. D) dependent. 3) After Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, A) the price of crude oil dropped. B) the price of gasoline rose. C) the New York Stock Exchange refused to trade stocks of companies partly owned by Saddam Hussein. D) none of the above. 4) The most important reason for European voyages of discovery was the desire A) for economic gain. B) to spread Christianity. C) to gain geographic knowledge. D) to spread European social and cultural values to the New World. 5) Globalization encompasses the increased interconnectedness of different parts of the world in which of the following processes? A) environmental change B) cultural change C) economic change D) all of the above E) none of the above Course: Geography 102 (Human Geography) To the right are only 5 of the review questions on the web page, identified for the 1st lecture. (point of reference – all of these topics are covered in high school world geography TEKS) Though many college courses use free response questions, larger universities with large introductory course do use multiple choice. This professor would consider these level 1 questions. What work are we doing in ECHSs to prepare for these kinds of questions?

7. Course: Intro to Humanities Discussion questions students must be prepared to answer, as provided by the professor. Iliad Discussion Questions: • Agamemnon and Achilles both want honor, but not the same kind of honor. How can we characterize the differences in what they want? In which passages do we see these differences most clearly? • Achilles wins immortal fame by killing Hector, thus defeating a worthy opponent. What else does a hero have to do to achieve this stature? • How does the character of Achilles change from the beginning of the story to the end? In which key scenes do we see evidence of this change? • In the ancient world people commonly trade valuable prisoners for an equivalent amount of treasure. Achilles and Agamemnon are both offered ransoms. Contrast the three specific scenes that illustrate how their responses differ. • Agamemnon, Achilles and Hector are all faced with a conflict between what they “should” do and what they feel like doing. Pick specific scenes that show how each man ultimately reconciles this conflict. What key vocabulary do you see in the questions (that is not content specific) that freshmen must thoroughly understand to be successful? Many ECHS teachers will discuss the questions to the right, or similar questions. What kind of accountability protocols do we need to put into place in order to adequately prepare a student to be successful were the questions to the right a mid-term?

8. Course: Spanish (various levels Go to http://www.laits.utexas.edu/spe/ Determine at what level a students who earned an A or B in your class will likely enter into a Spanish class at the university level. What skills does this ECHS junior need to be college ready? How do we get this junior college ready?

9. So today we're going to continue our focus on DNA which I'm personally enthusiastic about at least in terms of being such a fascinating molecule. And I told you the story last time of how we actually came to understand that DNA was the genetic material. And I still see comments that, oh, God, all this stuff is not relevant to the exam. We're trying to construct the exams in ways that test whether you got the concepts and not just whether you memorized every term that you ran into in the textbook. So I'm hoping that you will see some greater purpose in why I'm trying to talk about some of this. And also I'm sure some of you will forget the details of transformation, of DNA replication we're going to go into as we sort of burrow into it over the next lecture or so, but what I am hoping you may remember ten years from now, even those who don't go in biology, is how experiments are done, how real people do them. Prof. Graham Walker, Introduction to Biology