Course Schedule - Spring 2007

Assigned readings that are two or fewer pages are not included.

¹Wilson, E.O. 1992 The Diversity of Life. W.W. Norton & Company, New York, pp. 35-50.

Are you in the right course?

Bio 1101 serves as the first course for students majoring in biology. It is not intended for students desiring to fulfill general education requirements for a science course. Students who desire a biology course that fulfills the general education "Sci" requirement should enroll in one of the Topics in Biology courses, numbered Bio 10XX.

Course Theme: HOW is Biology done?

Introductory textbooks summarize the major conclusions of research, but say little about how people arrive at these conclusions. This course aims to involve you in discussion with biologists about how biology is done: how we develop and refine our understanding of the living world and how we communicate that information to others. Each week we will examine the scientific process in an important area of Biology. Indeed you will need to know some of the content of each of these weekly topics, but make sure you understand the process by which that content was derived. Each week after a convocation you should be able to answer the following questions:

1.      What observations led to the asking of questions?

2.      What are the logical questions?

3.      What are the possible answers to the questions using our previous knowledge and logic?

4.      What experimentation was done to answer the question?

5.      How conclusive were the results of the experimentation in answering the questions?

Resources:

Required to be purchased at the bookstore:

1.      Life: the Science of Biologyby Purves, Orians, Heller, and Sadava. This text is also used in the next two UMM biological courses (Cell Biology and Evolution of Biodiversity).

2.      A Short Guide to Writing about Biology by Jan Pechenik.

3.      Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms by Donald J. Borror.

4.      Science and Creationism: A View from the National Academy of Sciences.

5.      A threering binder.

Course Web Page: http://www.morris.umn.edu/academic/biology/biol1101.html

Here you will find primarily the syllabus and links to web readings. Print out all web readings.

Study Guides/Viewing Guides/Readings/Handouts:

These items will be periodically distributed in class. Look for them on the tables as you enter the Auditorium.

Electronic Documents: (Password: principles)

Some articles are available online. Click on the documents link on the syllabus, and when it asks for the password, enter "principles". You will then see a list of articles that can be downloaded and read.

Credits and Expectations:

For undergraduate courses, one credit is defined as equivalent to an average of three hours of learning effort per week (over a full semester) necessary for an average student to achieve an average grade in the course. Biological Principles 1101 is a three-credit course, thus you are expected to spend 9 hours of learning effort per week on this course. Since we have 2-3 hours in class time per week, the expectation is that, on average, you spend 6-7 hours per week outside of class on this course.

Learning from Scientific Movies: Some weeks the course may involve a scientific video presentation. Such presentations allow for visual interpretation that is difficult to achieve by standard lecture presentation. However, one must be careful to not view such video as you would the video of "Titanic". You are expected to gain information from these videos, particularly "HOW is biological science is done." We expect that for every video, you should be able to answer the questions mentioned above under "Course Theme". Unless you have a photographic/tape-recordic memory, you will need to take notes. The video is not like a book where you have a chance to go back and review before a test. Your notes will be crucial to you. Sometimes we will provide a viewing guide for you to help you take notes - sometimes we will not (because we want you to learn how to do this on your own). Even with a viewing guide, you will need to note more information than is asked for. Be prepared to show your instructors your notes, if asked.

Notebook: It's a good idea to be organized, and we recommend that you use a three ring binder for this course. All of the course materials will have holes punched in them for you to put in your binder. Keep this binder organized. Bring it to every convocation and Discussion section. All of your assignments, notes, and graded materials should be in this binder.

Study Recommendations: A good strategy for mastering the material is to form a study group, and we encourage you to get together with your classmates to review. When you meet, go over the convocation and the video guides, making sure you can answer the questions under "Course Theme" from above. Also discuss what you have learned in your discussion section. Make sure you discuss any issues/concepts you may not have understood. Seek out help from faculty, the library, or the internet, if you have questions or difficulty understanding the material.

Grading:

Your final grade will be based on your performance on the following assignments and activities. Different discussion sections will have different point values for specific assignments, but the overall distribution will be:

Quizzes (7) 30% (43 points each)

Writing Assignments* 40% (320 points)

Participation in Discussion 15% (120 points)

Comprehensive Final Exam 15% (120 points)

Please note that there is much more to participation than merely showing up in class. You must show up prepared. It is critical that you read the assigned readings before coming to the discussion section, and it is a good idea to read them before the convocation.

^* You will receive handouts or detailed instructions that explain the nature of the writing assignments and their due dates. Late assignments will be penalized 10% for each day they are late.

University Grading Standards:

A: achievement that is outstanding relative to the level necessary to meet course requirements.

B: achievement that is significantly above the level necessary to meet course requirements.

C: achievement that meets the course requirements in every respect.

D: achievement that is worthy of credit even though it fails to meet fully the course requirements.

F: work was either (1) completed but at a level of achievement that is not worthy of credit or (2) was not completed and there was no agreement between the instructor and the student that the student would be awarded an I.

+/-: Plus and minus are used to fine tune grades.

I (Incomplete): Assigned at the discretion of the instructor when, due to extraordinary circumstances, e.g., hospitalization, a student is prevented from completing the work of the course on time. Requires a written agreement between instructor and student. An "I" grade automatically becomes an "F" if not completed the following term.

Attendance:

Convocations: Attendance is expected and essential. Attendance will be periodically taken. Since there are only 15 convocations, missing one convocation is like missing 7% of the course. A 7% reduction in information is almost a drop of a full letter grade.

Discussion sections: The same goes for discussion sections, and missing a discussion section will obviously reduce your discussion participation grade. (On occasion, you may make arrangements to attend another discussion section if there is a conflict with your usual section or you missed your usual section due to an excused absence).

Senior Seminar:You must attend one senior seminar during the semester. From this you will turn in an attendance sheet (which requires you to write a brief critique) to your discussion leader (this is one of the writing assignments). The schedule can be found at: http://www.morris.umn.edu/academic/biology/sensem/srsemsch.html

Missed Quiz Policy:

If you miss a quiz: to make up a quiz, you should contact your section leader.

Any make-up quiz must be taken beforethe graded quizzes are returned to the class (generally the Thursday after they are taken).

Academic Dishonesty:

Academic dishonesty in any portion of the academic work for a course shall be grounds for awarding a grade of F or N for the entire course. You are often encouraged to study in groups, but the final product MUST be your own creation (e.g. you may not copy from each other). Plagiarism is copying materials from existing sources without crediting the sources, and is not accepted. Paraphrasing is changing a few words in a sentence to make it sound like your own, but the structure of the sentence, paragraph and document the work of someone else. Plagiarism and paraphrasing are cheating, and are considered a high crime in academia. Plagiarism may result in failing the course. In summary, you need to develop and formulate your ownthoughts with the information you have obtained.