Course: Introduction to Biology — General Biology I (BIOL 101) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Castellano
Module: Week 1 of 16 · Fall 2026 · in-person, two 75-minute lectures + one weekly lab
Objective covered: Objective 1 — Describe the core practice of science in biology and explain evolution's role as biology's unifying theme.

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Module 1 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Welcome Announcement that drips out when the module opens. Dates below assume a Tuesday/Thursday lecture pattern with Week 1 meeting Tue Sep 1 and Thu Sep 3, a lab that same week, and end-of-week work due Sunday Sep 6, 11:59 p.m. Adjust the day-of-week and times to match your section.

(A) Module 1 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Week 1: The Science of Biology

This is your home base for the week. Read it first, then work the checklist below from top to bottom. Everything you need is linked inside the module.

This week is the foundation the whole course is built on. Before we study a single cell or gene, we have to answer two basic questions: what does it actually mean for something to be alive, and how do biologists figure out what's true instead of what merely sounds true? You've got intuitions about life — that fire "grows," that a hardy plant "likes" the sun — and biology's job is to replace the hand-waving with a real definition and a real way to test a claim. We'll also meet the one idea that connects every living thing on Earth: evolution.

The week's big question

"What makes something alive — and how do biologists know what's true rather than what merely sounds true?"

By Friday you'll be able to define life, lay out the levels of biological organization, design a clean controlled experiment, tell a hypothesis from a theory, and explain why evolution is biology's unifying theme.

By the end of this week, you can…

Use this as a checklist. If you can do all four out loud, you're ready for the quiz.

• [ ] List the characteristics of life (cells, energy use, growth, reproduction, response, homeostasis, evolution) — and use the whole set to decide whether something is alive.
• [ ] Climb the levels of organization — atom → molecule → cell → tissue → organ → organism → population → ecosystem — and explain emergent properties.
• [ ] Design a controlled experiment — name the independent, dependent, and controlled variables and the control group.
• [ ] Tell a hypothesis from a theory, and explain why evolution by natural selection ties all of biology together.

What's due this week, and when

Work these in order — each one gets you ready for the next.

Heads-up on the AI tools: you'll use a chatbot to draft and explain, and then you judge its work against what we cover in class. Chatbots routinely swap the independent and dependent variables or call the treatment group the "control." Catching the model is the point — in the tutorial, the assignment, and the lab.

Late policy reminder: 10% off per day late. If life happens, reach out before the deadline — I'd much rather hear from you early.

How to succeed this week

• Lead with the idea, not the jargon. Every term this week is a plain-English idea first (a hypothesis is just a testable guess; a control group is just the baseline you compare against). The vocabulary comes after the idea clicks.
• Memorize two tiny hooks. "Life is the whole checklist, not any one box." And "I change the Independent; the result Depends on it."
• Practice the experiment-design move. Pick any everyday question ("does music help me study?") and force the three variables and a control group. Doing it once makes the lab and the quiz easy.
• Remember the headline lesson: evidence beats intuition. "It just makes sense" is where bad biology comes from. A clean experiment is how we replace opinion with data.
• Treat the chatbot as a smart intern, not an oracle. It drafts; you check. That habit is the whole semester in miniature.

You don't need any background for this week — just curiosity and a willingness to question your own intuitions about what's alive and what's true. Come to class ready to argue about whether a virus is alive. See you Tuesday.

(B) Welcome Announcement — Module 1

Release setting: post on the module's start day (offset = 0 days), i.e., Tue Sep 1, 2026 — not before. If your platform won't preserve the scheduled date on import, post this as a draft labeled "Release: Tue Sep 1."

Subject: Welcome to Week 1 — is a virus alive? 🔬

Hi everyone, and welcome to General Biology I!

Quick warm-up before we start: is a virus alive? Is fire? Is a dormant seed? Fire grows, moves, and consumes fuel — yet no biologist calls it alive. A seed sits there doing almost nothing — yet it is. That puzzle is our way in: "it moves" or "it grows" can't be the test. This week we build a real definition of life, and — just as important — a real way to test claims instead of trusting our gut.

This week — The Science of Biology — we tackle the big question: What makes something alive, and how do biologists know what's true rather than what merely sounds true? By Friday you'll define life, design a clean experiment, tell a hypothesis from a theory, and meet the one idea that connects all of biology: evolution.

Three things not to miss:
1. Lecture Tutorial 1 — work through the week's ideas with one approved chatbot (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT) and submit the share link. You'll catch the model's mistakes, not just trust it. Due Sun Sep 6.
2. Lab 1 ("Drops on a Penny"), Quiz 1, Discussion 1, and Assignment 1 also close Sun Sep 6 — the lab is a real experiment you design and run, so start early.
3. Open the Start Here page first — it lays out everything in order with due dates.

One promise: this is a course about how living things work and how we know it — not about memorizing a glossary. We lead with plain-language ideas every single week. By Friday, the next time someone tells you what "obviously" makes living things tick, you'll know exactly what to ask: where's the controlled experiment?

Bring your curiosity (and maybe a strong opinion about whether a virus is alive) to class on Tuesday.

See you soon,
Prof. Castellano