Biology 100 Spring 2012
Biology 100: Concepts in Biology
Course Syllabus Spring 2012
Instructor: Paige M. Miller, Ph.D.
Contact information:
Office: EBS 212, Phone: 965-0581 X-2518
Email:
Office hours: Tuesday/Thursday 11 am-12 pm in Luria Library (near the Café) and by appointment.
Course overview: Welcome to Bio 100! This course is an introduction to the wonderful diversity of life on earth. We will cover many topics including the initial evolution and diversification of life, organismal interactions, and extinction (the ultimate fate of most species). The course is intended for non-biology majors, and my goal, as your instructor is to help you achieve a good understanding of the basic principles of life on earth. I also hope that you will develop a lifelong appreciation of biology – you will see for yourself that understanding biology makes the world a much more interesting place!
This course satisfies the SBCC general education requirement in Natural Sciences, and is transferable to both UC and CSU as a general education laboratory science course. Biology majors are welcome to take this course but it does not apply toward the Biology major at SBCC.
Textbook: Campbell Biology, Concepts and Connections, 7th edition by Reece, Taylor, Simon & Dickey. The textbook is required for the course. The bookstore has a special edition with selected chapters for SBCC at a reduced cost and the purchase of online access is possible. If you are comfortable studying online, this is an acceptable alternative to purchase of the textbook. Several copies are also available at the library.
Lab manual: Your lab manual, Biology 100 Concepts of Biology Laboratory Studies, includes all the content you will need for the lab portion of the course, including online labs and Plus Hour assignments. It is required and is available for purchase in the bookstore. When you attend lab each week you will bring the lab assignment included in the manual, so that you can successfully complete the lab experiments. It is your responsibility to turn in this work at the end of lab, if you fail to bring the lab assignment or to get it graded you will not receive credit for the lab. If you forget the lab assignment handout, you can access it through the biology website and print a copy to bring to lab. URL - http://www.biosbcc.net/.
Course Requirements and Expectations:
Class and Lab attendance: You are required to enroll in and attend both the lecture and lab portions of this course to receive course credit. You are expected to attend two 80-minute lectures (12:45-2:05 pm T/R) and a 3-hour lab each week. You must attend the lab, as well as the lecture, to pass this course.
Lecture: Your attendance in lecture will be monitored via a sign in sheet. You will be responsible for signing yourself in each day you attend class. If you forget, you will be considered absent. You may NOT retroactively sign yourself in for missed classes or those days when you may have forgotten to sign in. You absolutely may NOT sign in for anyone else! If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to obtain information and materials dispensed in that class period. A failure to attend more than three (3) lecture sessions may result in your being dropped from the class. PowerPoint materials from lecture may be accessed through pipeline using xythos. URL: http://wfs.sbcc.edu/xythoswfs/
Lab: Attendance in lab is mandatory. This course fulfills the general education laboratory science requirement. As such, you must pass the lab portion, as well as the lecture portion, to receive this credit. If you do not attend lab, you will NOT pass the class. You may only attend your scheduled lab time. If you need to attend an alternate lab time at some point during the semester, you must discuss it with me as soon as possible. If you need to attend another instructor’s lab for a make-up, you may do so with that instructor’s permission and you must take their lab quiz. A failure to attend more than three (3) lab sessions may result in your being dropped from the class.
Your grade: Your final grade will be based on the number of points you have earned over the course of the semester. For example, if you earn 90-100% of all possible points, you will receive an A. Each individual assignment is given a point total, not a letter grade. See below under “Final Course Grade” for instructions on how to calculate your grade at any time during this course.
Lecture Exams: Exams are a combination of multiple choice, short answer and short essay. There will be three (3) lecture exams, worth 100 points each. You will need to bring a long scantron to each quiz. The current SBCC policy states that no electronic translator’s or dictionaries may be used during any exams.
In-class Quizzes: There is a strong positive correlation between a student’s final grade and their attendance in lecture. Those students that regularly attend lectures tend to get the highest grades. To encourage attendance there will be five (5) unscheduled quizzes during lectures over the semester, there will be no make-ups for these quizzes. Quiz material will be based on information presented in lecture. Each quiz will be worth 10 points.
Final Exam: There will be a final exam worth 150 points. The exam will primarily cover material from lectures, although there may also be questions from the labs. A portion of the points on the final exam will be from material covered in the beginning of the course and a portion will be from new material covered since the previous exam.
Lab assignments: These exercises consist of worksheets with instructions, diagrams, and questions. Most of these worksheets involve performing experiments, watching demonstrations and learning a variety of procedures during the lab period. You will complete these worksheets during lab time. Lab assignments are graded at the end of lab. It is your responsibility to make sure you do not leave lab without completing the material and getting a grade.
Plus Hour lab assignments: These worksheets are due in the lab following the date listed for the assignment. Assignments turned in late will be assessed a 10% penalty per day late. No assignments will be accepted more than a week past their due date.
Lab Quizzes: Quizzes will be given at the beginning of lab and will evaluate your understanding of material covered during any completed labs, though the focus will be on the previous weeks lab session. Quizzes will take no more than 10 minutes; do not be late to lab. If you arrive after the quiz has begun, you will only be allowed the time remaining to take the quiz. If you arrive after the quiz has been collected, you will get a zero for that quiz. No make-up quizzes will be given. There will be a total of 11 quizzes worth 15 points each. Your lowest quiz score will be dropped.
Video Responses: We will watch several videos during the semester. These videos will help illustrate topics we’ve discussed in class. There will be two video responses assigned for which you will write an essay that explains how the content of the video relates to topics we’ve discussed in class. You need to clearly connect information and topics learned in class with examples discussed and illustrated in the video to receive a good score. You may also include your thoughts, feelings, and reaction to the video (e.g. if you liked it) but this is not required. Responses should be at least 250 words in length and no more than 500 words and are worth 25 points each. Grammar counts!
All video responses will be turned in via turnitin.com (see page 6 for directions how to do this). Responses must be submitted by the deadline date that will be given in lecture after the video presentation. You should be aware that the Turnitin site will evaluate your submission for plagiarism. Any score of greater than 10% copied (and not cited) material will result in your receiving a zero (0) for the assignment. Late video responses may be accepted under certain circumstances, but will incur a 10% point reduction for each day they are late.
The following rubric will be used to grade the video responses.
Use of correct, specific examples of materials from the video. / 3 or more / 2 only / 1 only / No examples OR examples not from the video we watched in class.
Statement of course topics that relate to video. / Course topics clearly stated and defined as content studied in class. / Course topics mentioned, but not clearly stated as content studied in class. / Course topics casually mentioned as part of a summary of the video. / No clear explanation of course topics OR incorrect course topics OR only summarized the video.
Connections made between topics from class and examples from video. / Clear and obvious connections made between course topics and how they relate to the video examples used in the response. / Connections between stated course topics and examples are loosely implied, but not clearly explained. / Vague connections made between course topics and examples from video OR connections made with course topics NOT stated above OR incorrect connections were made. / No connections made between course topics and examples OR used examples that were not from the correct video.
Length of essay / 250 – 500 words, not counting name, title, date, etc. / More than 500 words / 200 – 250 words / Less than 200 words
Use of correct English grammar. / Use of complete, coherent sentences, words used and spelled correctly. / Few (2-4) improper sentences, misused or misspelled words. / Many (5-10) improper sentences, misused or misspelled words. / Nearly incomprehensible. More than 10 improper, incoherent sentences, misused or misspelled words.
Completed rubrics and scores for these assignments will be available only on turnitin.com. You will not receive a hard copy of the completed rubric for this assignment. If you want to find out what score you got, you must check your account at turnitin.com.
Make-up policy: If you miss a quiz or exam in either lecture or lab, there are ONLY 2 valid reasons for which you will be allowed to make it up: 1) a death in the family; or 2) an illness or accident with a signed note from the doctor or the police. In addition, you (or someone allowed to speak for you) must inform me, via email, as soon as possible of your situation.
If you miss a quiz for any reason other than those stated above, there will be NO make-ups. Work schedules, family vacations, community service projects, hangovers, etc. are NOT valid excuses.
Biological Article analysis (Extra credit): There will be an option to submit an extra-credit article on turnitin.com. If you wish to complete an article analysis, you should discuss this assignment with the instructor first. In brief, you will choose an appropriate topic for biology, read four or five articles on that topic in science magazines, the popular press (newspapers, quality magazines), or use fact based websites to gain a greater understanding of the topic. You will relate the topic to different concepts we will cover in the class. You will cite your sources. The extra credit points earned (from 1 to 20 possible) will be determined by the quality of the completed analysis. Completed assignments must be received by the last lecture week.
Final Course Grade:
The total scores from lecture and lab will be weighted, so that lecture will total 65% of the final grade and lab will total 35% of the final grade. This means that the lecture total is worth 650 points and the lab total is worth 350 points from a total score of 1000.
Note: Total points available are subject to change during the semester.
Lecture. Points for the lecture portion of this course will be awarded for the following:
3 exams @ 100 points each 300 points (x ~1.182)= 355
Final exam 150 points (x ~1.182)= 177
2 video responses @ 25 points each 50 points (x ~1.182)= 59
In-class quizzes 50 points (x ~1.182)= 59
Total lecture 550 points (x ~1.182)= 650 (weighted)
Lab. Points for the lab portion will be awarded for the following:
15 lab exercises @ 10 points each 150 points
5 plus hour assignments @ 10 points each 50 points
10 lab quizzes @ 15 points each 150 points
Total lab 350 points
Total Raw Score 875 Total Weighted Score 1000
To calculate your grade at any time during the semester you can add your total lecture points up and multiply by 1.182, then add this to your total lab points earned and divide by the possible points that could have been earned at this point in the semester with perfect scores on all assignments. Use your percentage of this total to determine your current letter grade. For example, after the second exam with 5 lab exercises (each worth a possible 10 points) and 5 lab quizzes completed (each worth a possible 15 points), if you had the following grades:
100 points on the first exam
95 points on the second exam
115 points in lab
The total possible with perfect scores would be:
Lecture (200 * 1.182)= 236.4
Lab 125
Your grade would be calculated with this formula:
[(195 x 1.182) +115]/(236.4 + 125)=0.96 or 96% of the possible points and thus an “A.”
Your success: I want you to do well in this course. Please see me during office hours, if you have any questions or problems with the course or assignments. You may also email me, but often it is easier to address questions in person. I will always stay to the end of lab times to answer questions and you may schedule individual meetings with me. You should take advantage of opportunities to talk with your professors – we’re here to help you learn!