Email of TA: Office Hours:
General Zoology Lab Syllabus
Conduct:
-Zoology lab requires dissections as part of the learning process. This class is not for spectators… all students are expected to participate in the dissections.
-Students are also required to be respectful at all times, not only to the TA, but to fellow students as well. Please do not talk while the TA is talking, a student is asking questions, or during quizzes. Failure to abide by this rule will result in dismissal from the lab with no credit given for the day. Talking during a quiz or exam will result in a “0”.
-Do not have cell phones active during class time. Phones should be turned off or silenced and put away during lab.
-Students are expected to do their own work on exams. Any instances of cheating or suspected cheating will result in a grade of “0” for the day and will also require the involvement of your lecture professor.
-We have live animals in the classroom, DO NOT HANDLE OR FEED THESE ANIMALS WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THE TA!
-Class is not over until the TA dismisses the students… leaving early without TA consent will result in no credit for the day.
-All students are encouraged to ask questions… remember the only stupid question is the one you didn’t ask. (More than likely, someone else has the same question.)
Attire / Safety:
The lab can be a dangerous place if proper attire is not worn or safety rules not followed. Please follow these guidelines:
· No open-toed shoes or heels
· No short-shorts or short skirts
· Long hair should be tied back
· There is absolutely no food, drink, or gum in the lab
· All equipment must be handled, cleaned, and put away properly. Failure to do so could result in a loss of points on your binder grade.
· You will need to clean up your station before leaving the lab…this includes washing and drying your dissection tools, putting away your microscopes/slides/specimens, and wiping down your table with disinfectant before leaving. (Remember, if you don’t clean and dry your tools properly, they WILL rust. This could mean a loss of points from your binder grade.)
Grading:
The lab is 25% of your overall grade for Zoology. The lab grade consists of:
· Quizzes (given daily)… 15%-----8 questions covering the previous week’s lab, and 2 questions about the lab you will be doing that day. These are given at the beginning of class (don’t be late!!) and will be of collegiate level.
· Midterm… 30%-----50 questions [all fill in the blank].
The test is a practical exam, with at least 25 stations that utilize the microscope and dissections.
· Final…30%------Same format as midterm.
· Poster…15%---- You will be required to assemble and present a poster about any animal or protist that was not covered in lecture class or lab.
o Posters will be assembled and presented by student groups. Groups will be constructed by random selection to develop fair, unbiased groupings of students.
o Poster construction guidelines will be made available on a separate handout. Format follows that of basic published scientific literature.
o Construction of the posters will require work in searching the scientific literature and gathering information concerning the organism in question.
o Students will form a hypothesis concerning some aspect of the organism and provide evidence to base conclusions about that hypothesis.
o At least four sources of scientific literature used in the poster presentation will be properly listed in a “Literature Cited” section on the poster.
o Poster aesthetics to convey visual communication will form a component of the grade.
o Teamwork will form a substantial component of the grading of this project. You will provide a student evaluation of the members of your group that worked together on your poster presentation as well as a self-assessment of your personal work as a team. This evaluation will comprise both a quantitative and qualitative assessment of teamwork that form a component of your grade for the poster presentation
· Teamwork…10%------Your ability to work successfully in a group will also form a component of the grade in lab. Throughout the semester, you will often be working in groups while performing observations of preserved and living protist and animal specimens under the microscope as well as while conducting dissections of select animal specimens. Your TA will observe students’ group performance over the course of the semester and will subjectively assess that performance based on observations of each student in order to assign a grade for teamwork at the end of the semester. You will need to make a concentrated effort to work to contribute to teamwork each week because you will never know which weeks in which your single group will be assessed by the TA.
Attendance:
Attendance of lab is not only beneficial, it’s mandatory. Any student with more than 3 absences will automatically be dropped from both the lecture and the lab. If you miss a lab due to illness, your TA must have documentation of why you missed lab. Without documentation, no make up quizzes will be issued unless you attend an alternative lab. You may go to an alternative lab if, and only if, you have acquired permission from your TA and he/she has verified that it is okay with the TA whose lab you will be attending. The following are BIOL 1144 General Zoology lab days/times:
M / 10:00 – 11:50 AMM / 1:00 – 2:50 PM
M / 3:00 – 4:50 PM
T / 1:00 – 2:50 PM
T / 3:00 – 4:50 PM
T / 5:30-7:20 PM
W / 1:00 – 2:50 PM
W / 3:00 – 4:50 PM
General Zoology Lab Schedule
WEEK of: Lab Material CHAPTER(S)
Aug. 23-25 Introduction, The Microscope, Animal Morphology 1
Aug. 30-Sep. 1 Metrics/Scientific Method handout
Sep. 6-8 Labor Day
Sep. 13 -15 Protozoa 5
Sep. 20 -23 Porifera/Cnidaria 6, 7
Sep. 27 -29 Platyhelminthes/Mollusca 8, 10
Oct. 4-6 MIDTERM
Oct. 11 -13 Annelida 11
Oct. 18 -20 Nematoda 9
Oct. 25 -27 Arthropoda 12
Nov. 1-3 Echinodermata 13
Nov. 8-10 Chordata 14-20
Nov. 15-17 Student Poster Presentations
Nov. 22-24 Thanksgiving Break
Nov. 29-Dec. 1 FINAL (Not Comprehensive)