UG Newsletter

Undergraduate Newsletter
Department of Biology
April 2019 Issue

On behalf of all in Biology, Julie and Ken wish you the best for the April 2019 exam period and beyond!  The final exam period is undoubtedly a stressful time to finish up the year, so, as always, keep basic stress-busters in mind - sleep well, eat well, manage your time appropriately, and talk to others.  We are always here if you need to chat about various things. This includes planning your graduation and future endeavours!

We will also take this chance to wish the Class of 2019 all the best the world has to offer!  We will be following your successes and adventures for years to come, so please keep in touch and stay healthy.

1st Year students interested in a degree in BIOLOGY
We have exciting news to tell you!

The Second Year of the Biology Undergraduate curriculum is going through an exciting transformation this coming fall (September 2019).

The new second year curriculum will now give you more hands-on experience, more active learning, and a reduced workload compared to our old second year curriculum – advancing career-building skills even earlier.

Check out the details below and/or on the Queen’s Biology website at https://biology.queensu.ca/academics/undergraduate/changes-to-second-year/

Biological Foundations List - Updated (includes changes to 2nd year BIOL curriculum)
The Biological Foundations List is BIOL 102, 103, 200 (201, 202), 205, 206, 212, 300 (302, 303), 330, 334, 339, 341.

To be admitted to BIOL 400 and 500 level Biology courses you will need a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0 in any previously taken courses from this list.

It’s that time of year again… Exams
If you have questions please visit https://www.queensu.ca/artsci/undergrad-students/exams

4th Year Students
Congratulations to the BIOL 537 Poster award winners:
1st Place: Stephanie Pegler (Supervisor: J. Smol) and Eric Cheng (Supervisor: I. Chin-Sang)
2nd Place: Hayden Wainwright (Supervisor: D. Lefebvre)
3rd Place: Kristen Hayward (Supervisor: S, Lougheed), Mansuba Rana (Supervisor: J. Monaghan) and Nesar Safajou (Supervisor: I. Chin-Sang)

Please visit the Arts and Science web page for full details on how to apply to graduate
https://www.queensu.ca/artsci/undergrad-students/convocation-graduating

Thinking about applying for jobs or possibly graduate school or other adventures…visit Career Services for assistance with job searches, resume writing, interview skills and Graduate School Applications…visit https://careers.queensu.ca/


REMINDERS!
Biology Degree Plans
Review your degree plan requirements and make sure you are selecting courses you need.  Degree plan requirements can be found at: http://www.queensu.ca/artsci

BIOL 5XX Seminar Courses  2019-20
We are currently working on the BIOL 5XX teaching plan.  Offerings, course descriptions, and the application are scheduled for released in mid-April.   

BIOL 404 - Summer 2019
BIOL 404 will be offered this coming summer.  It will be offered twice, once in May and again in August.  Don't forget to register. This course fills fast!

BIOL 404/3.0 Techniques in Molecular Biology
Intensive laboratory work (8h/day) to be carried out over two and a half weeks in May. Practical work includes DNA isolations, DNA cloning, PCR, production of proteins, biochemical and immunological analysis of proteins. NOTE Priority to students registered in BIOL Major and Specialization degree Plans. See course website for details.
LEARNING HOURS 112.5 (100Lb;12.5P)
PREREQUISITE (BCHM 218/3.0 or BIOL 330/3.0) and a minimum GPA of 2.0 in the Biological Foundations List.

Follow us on our new MeWe BIOLOGY UNDERGRADUATE OFFICE network! 
mewe.com/i/juliefrench

You can follow us on matters related to your studies and careers, either on your computer and/or using the MeWe app!

Helpful Links
Information on Applying for a Course Prerequisite Waiver
Arts and Science Academic Deadlines
Arts and Science Calendar
Frequently Asked Questions

QUBS Quick Links
Website: https://qubs.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/QUBioStation
Twitter: https://twitter.com/QUBS_Director
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/qubsoutreach
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/QUBScam

Looking for a job?  Quick Link
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July 2018 Newsletter
Aug 2018 Newsletter
Sept. 2018 Newsletter
Oct. 2018 Newsletter
Nov. 2018 Newsletter
Dec. 2018 Newsletter
Jan. 2019 Newsletter
Mar. 2019 Newsletter

BIOLOGY Undergraduate Office
Mon to Friday 8:30 to noon and 1:00 to 3:00pm
Rm. 3109d, BIOSC Complex
613-533-6344

frenchj@queensu.ca

I've spent more time than many will believe [making microscopic observations], but I've done them with joy, and I've taken no notice those who have said why take so much trouble and what good is it?

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

It's a parts list... If I gave you the parts list for the Boeing 777 and it had 100,000 parts, I don't think you could screw it together and you certainly wouldn't understand why it flew

Eric Lander

What is true for E. coli is also true for the elephant

Jacques Monod

The world becomes full of organisms that have what it takes to become ancestors. That, in a sentence, is Darwinism

Richard Dawkins

Shall we conjecture that one and the same kind of living filaments is and has been the cause of all organic life?

Erasmus Darwin

Nature proceeds little by little from things lifeless to animal life in such a way that it's impossible to determine the line of demarcation

Aristotle

Cells let us walk, talk, think, make love, and realize the bath water is cold

Lorraine Lee Cudmore

In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history

Charles Darwin

It is my belief that the basic knowledge that we're providing to the world will have a profound impact on the human condition and the treatments for disease and our view of our place on the biological continuum

J. Craig Venter

Imagine a house coming together spontaneously from all the information contained in the bricks: that is how animal bodies are made

Neil Shubin

A grain in the balance will determine which individual shall live and which shall die - which variety or species shall increase in number, and which shall decrease, or finally become extinct

Charles Darwin

The stuff of life turned out to be not a quivering, glowing, wondrous gel but a contraption of tiny jigs, springs, hinges, rods, sheets, magnets, zippers, and trapdoors, assembled by a data tape whose information is copied, downloaded and scanned

Steven Pinker

We wish to discuss a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid. (D.N.A.). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biologic interest

Rosalind Franklin

We are biology. We are reminded of this at the beginning and the end, at birth and at death. In between we do what we can to forget

Mary Roach

The systems approach to biology will be the dominant theme in medicine

Leroy Hood

I've always been interested in animal behavior, and I keep reading about it because it's so surprising all the time - so many things are happening around us that we neglect to look at. Part of the passion I have for biology is based on this wonderment"

Isabella Rossellini

Because all of biology is connected, one can often make a breakthrough with an organism that exaggerates a particular phenomenon, and later explore the generality

Thomas Cech

Nothing in Biology makes sense except in the light of evolution

Theodosius Dobzhansky

Biology is now bigger than physics, as measured by the size of budgets, by the size of the workforce, or by the output of major discoveries; and biology is likely to remain the biggest part of science through the twenty-first century

- Freeman Dyson

Nothing can be more incorrect than the assumption one sometimes meets with, that physics has one method, chemistry another, and biology a third

- Thomas Huxley