Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

BI112 is designed to prepare you for your future coursework by building a foundation of biological concepts and vocabulary. These are biology basics that you will be expected to know before taking any other biology courses.  If you take this course, you will learn the essentials of cell biology- the chemistry of cells, cell structure and function, how cells harness and utilize energy, and how they divide and pass on hereditary information.

Attendance, Class Meetings, and Workload

This section of BI112 is a "traditional" format course, or in-person. All our meetings are in person and on campus. You will need to use D2L, however, to access some course materials, to take online quizzes, and to turn in certain assignments.

Lecture is every Monday and Wednesday 11am- 12:50pm, and lab is every Monday from 8am - 10:50am. Attendance for both lecture and lab are required, and you must be on time.

NOTE: This lab starts early (8am). If you cannot be on time, in lab every Monday at 8am, at the latest, do not register for this section of bi112. You must be in lab at 8am to take a lab quiz every week. If you are late, you will not be allowed to take the quiz when you arrive, and you will lose those lab quiz points.

For a 5-credit science class, you should plan to spend about 20 hours a week at home reading, doing post-lab assignments, studying for lab quizzes and lecture exams, etc. Be prepared to eat, sleep, breath cell biology (you should be studying cell bio a bit every day). This course covers a lot of material in a short period of time- 13 chapters in 11 weeks.

Please do not overload your schedule. Do not take more than 12- 15 credits at a time. 

Grading Structure

The course is worth a total of 1000 points, 700 points from lecture and 300 from lab. Please note, lab attendance is required. If you miss more than 2 lab sessions you will receive a 0% for the lab section of the course. This means your maximum possible grade is a 70%.

 

Course Materials

Textbook: We use Campbell Biology in Focus 3rd edition. You can use the 2nd edition or the global/international edition of Biology in Focus, if you prefer.

Lab Manual: Cell biology for the health sciences lab manual (Winter 2026). You must have the lab manual on the first day. Make sure you get the lab manual from the Rock Creek bookstore; the manual sold on the other campuses is not exactly the same as ours. Also available on the class website as a printable PDF.

Scantrons: You will need 4 scantron sheets (882-E which have 50 questions per side). These are available at the bookstore.

Optional Resource

The online resource, Modified Mastering Biology, is optional. An access code is included with the purchase of a new textbook from the PCC bookstore.

A heads up that you can also purchase Modified Mastering Biology with an etext. The etext can be used instead of a physical textbook.