BETHLEHEM UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF SCIENCE
COURSE OUTLINE

Course: Biology and Chemistry Fundamentals for Software Engineers

Semester: Fall 2020
Instructors: Dr. Ghassan Handal (Biology), Room S-111and
Dr. Michel Hanania (Chemistry), Room S-201.
Office Hours: Please see posted schedule outside the instructors’ office. Office hours
other than the posted ones, could be arranged per E-mail.

INTRODUCTION

This is a three-credit tailored course for the students enrolled in software engineering
program course aims to offer a general overview on the fundamentals of chemistry
and biology sciences. This course will be offered in Fall semester for first year
students and the course will be taught by both the Chemistry and Biology
Departments. In the first eight weeks of the semester students will take the biology
part, while chemistry part will be given afterwards.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

Biology Part
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
1. Understand that basic themes of biology include evolution, metabolism,
information transfer, and energy for life.
2. Understand that biological organization is hierarchical and includes chemical,
cell, tissue, organ, organ system, and organism levels; ecological organization
includes population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels.
3. Know that biologists ask questions, develop hypotheses, make predictions, and
collect data by careful observation and experiment.
4. Explain how the energy of an electron is transferred in a redox reaction.
5. Understand that carbohydrates are composed of sugar subunits
(monosaccharides), which can be joined to form disaccharides, storage
polysaccharides, and structural polysaccharides.
6. Know that lipids store energy (triacylglycerol) and are the main structural
components of cell membranes (phospholipids).
7. Know that proteins have multiple levels of structure and are composed of
amino acid subunits joined by peptide bonds.
8. Know that nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) are informational molecules
composed of long chains of nucleotide subunits. ATP and some other
nucleotides have a central role in energy metabolism.
9. Differentiate between Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes.
10. Discuss how Mitochondria and chloroplasts convert energy from one form to
another.

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 11. Explore the significance of chromosomes in terms of their information
content.
12. Explain the significance of and compare between mitosis, and describe the
process
13. Differentiate between asexual and sexual reproduction.
14. Sketch how nucleotide subunits link together to form a single DNA strand;
and how the base pairing is accomplished
15. Explain how DNA replicates, identify some unique features of the process
and observe complexities of DNA replication.

Chemistry Part
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
1. Know how the atoms are arranged in molecules and ions.
2. Name chemical compounds.
3. Balance chemical equations and use variety of problems.
4. Know properties of solutions.
5. Know energy changes with reactions.
6. Describe the electronic structure of atoms.
7. Know the properties of elements in the periodic table.
8. Differentiate between types of bonds.
9. Determine 3d shapes of molecules.

During the semester, the following topics will be covered:

No. Chapter No. Material Description
Biology
1 1 A view of life
2 2 Atoms and molecules: The chemical Basics of life
3 3 The chemistry of life: Organic compounds
4 4 Organization of the cell
5 10 Chromosomes, mitosis, and meiosis
6 12 DNA: the carrier of genetic information
Chemistry
1 1 Introduction
2 2 Atoms, molecules and moles
3 4 Periodic table and some properties of elements
4 7 Electronic structure and the periodic table
5 8 Chemical bonding: general concepts

TEXTBOOKS

Solomon E. P. et al, Biology, 9th edition, Cole/Cengage Learning, Belmont, CA.

2011.
Brady J. E., General Chemistry, Principles and Structure, 5th edition, J. Wiley and
Sons, N.Y. 1990.

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GRADING SYSTEM

During the semester there will be one hour exam and a “Final” in each part. This will
count as 50% of the total grade for each part. The final grade will be calculated as the
following:
Exams 2 x 25 %
Quizzes and Participation 2x5%
Final Exams 2 x 20 %

Total 100%