BIO 1104: Biology Concepts

 

I.                   General information:

a.       Program affiliation: Biology

b.      Course number and title:  BIO 1104 Lec 01 and 02:  Biology Concepts

c.       Meeting times:  MWF 9:00-9:50 R 1-3 (Lec 01) or 3-5 (Lec 02)

d.      Rooms: S-129 & S-110

e.       Professor: Dr. Sean T. Coleman  Office: S-222  Phone: 979-1364  Email: scolema@ozarks.edu

f.        Office Hrs: MWF: 10:00-11:00 MTWF: 1:00-2:00

g.       Last Day to Drop: November 4th 

h.       Course web-sites:  http://ozarks.ucompass.com and http://departments.ozarks.edu/msc/Biology/courses.htm

 

II.    Textbook:

a.       Biology Today: An Issues Approach. Minkoff, EC and Baker, PJ. 2001. Garland Publishing New York, New York.

 

III. Catalog Description:  Biology Concepts is an introductory course which deals with basic biological ideas.  Topics include the nature of science, the cell, genetics, evolution, ecology, and plant and animal structure, function, and development.  This course satisfies the minimum requirements in general education and is the basic prerequisite for all biology courses.  There is one 2-hour laboratory per week.

 

IV.  Goals:  The goals of this course are to introduce students to the scientific method and the major concepts of biology, and enhance their appreciation for the intricacy and diversity of life.

 

V.     Intended Student Outcomes: Students completing this course will-

 

1.      Students will communicate effectively

b.      use effective strategies to organize thoughts, develop a message and document sources for article reviews and the Biology discussion web

c.       learn to present a message skillfully in Biology article reviews

d.      clearly and effectively express ideas and actively listen to the ideas of others during Biology discussion

 

2.      Students will think critically

a.       read Biology articles and text with comprehension

d.      evaluate and analyze arguments from more than one perspective in order to prepare for biology debates and discussions.

e.       recognize and form interpretations, generalizations, or causal explanations appropriate to Biology.

3.      Students will have knowledge of human culture

a.       identify, describe and use the salient methods, skills or ways of knowing in the fine arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics and natural sciences

e.       use available technologies to gather and process information effectively

 

4.      Students will be aware of their responsibilities to themselves, to humanity, to their planet and to their creator

a.       examine personal lifestyle, ethics, integrity, values and priorities

b.      respect individuals with beliefs, backgrounds or abilities different from their own

c.       contribute to the welfare of their community and ecosystem

           

VI.  Attendance:  You are expected to attend every lecture.  Roll will be taken randomly throughout the semester.  Exam questions are taken primarily from the book, discussion and thought questions as well as notes from discussions held in class.  In addition, you are expected to be prepared for, and participate in, classroom discussions.  Attendance and participation will be determining factors for assigning the final grade to students whose total points fall near a borderline.

 

The LABORATORY is required of all students.  Attendance is mandatory.  Three absences will result in a failing grade for the entire course.  Scheduling a doctor's appointment or job interview during the lab will not be considered an excused absence.  The laboratory period is a flexible forum for students where activities will be performed to reinforce lecture material with hands-on experience.  About 10-20% of the questions on the exams will be selected from lab information.

 

MAKEUP LECTURE EXAMS ARE GIVEN AT THE PROFESSOR'S DISCRETION AND CONVENIENCE!  In the case of illness, emergency, or other excusable absence on the day of a lecture exam, contact the Professor as soon as possible.  If you know ahead of time that you will miss an exam, contact the professor before you are absent.  Make-up exams may be all essay and are generally more difficult than the regular exam

 

The student is responsible for all assignments, late assignments will be docked a minimum of 10% per day late.  The student must complete all assignments.  If an assignment is not turned in by the final day of class (for the semester) the professor can dock the student’s overall course grade one full grade for each missed assignment or exam.  This is on top of the zero points received for that assignment.

 

VII.           Academic Honesty:  CHEATING WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!!!  The minimum penalty for cheating will be a zero (0) for that quiz, exam, or assignment.  Other penalties may include, but are not limited to, the following:  failing the entire course, academic probation, and/or suspension from the University.  Refer to the student handbook for University policies and procedures

 

Using words verbatim from articles, books, or other copyrighted sources without proper notation and credit is plagiarism - a form of stealing.  Plagiarism will result in a minimum of 10% of the points being deducted from an assignment, and may result in the penalties listed above for cheating.  Even when working in groups, each person will be responsible for completing and handing in their own work, in their own words.

 

Written assignments from this class cannot be used in other classes, nor can reports from other classes be used in this one, without written permission from both professors.

 

VIII.        ADA STATEMENT:  If any member of the class has a documented disability and needs special accommodations, the instructor will work with the student and the office of Student Support Services or the Jones Learning Center to provide reasonable accommodation to ensure the student a fair opportunity to perform in this class.  In order to plan for optimum success, please advise the instructor of the disability and the desired accommodations as soon as possible.  Students are strongly encouraged to notify the instructor during the first week of classes.  Without ample planning / preparation time, we cannot assure the availability of needed accommodations in a timely manner.

 

IX.              Evaluation:  Assignments, Exams, Labs and Quizzes.

a.       Written assignments:  Please see main syllabus.

 

Daily Written Assignment:  Every discussion period requires that the student come prepared to discuss the three discussion questions and the thought question.  A written answer must be completed to at least the student’s one assigned discussion question, the thought question as well as a question the student had about the reading assignment.   These will be checked during class by the professor and 5 pts awarded to the student for conscientious completion of the assignment, as decided by the professor.  This written work will be worth five points per day for a total of approximately 185 points.

 

Unit assignments:  There may be one assignment per unit, this assignment will be explained at that time and may include writing and/or answering chapter problems as well as group work problems.  Each assignment will be worth a minimum of 10 points to a maximum of 50 points.

 

b.      Participation in discussions via a world wide web-based bulletin board:  Participation in these group discussions will be worth up to 100 points.  Failure to participate and/or not taking participation seriously will be worth a loss in some or all points for that discussion.  Further information on registering will be given by the professor.

 

c.       Pre-chapter quiz:  A quiz will be administered before the beginning of each new chapter over the information contained in the book.  The quizzes will be worth approximately 10-20 points each.  These quizzes may be found on the website for the class and must be taken before we start the new chapter.

 

d.      Lecture exams:  There will be four exams given on the days indicated.  They will be composed of short and long answer essay questions, multiple choice, fill in the blank, matching and label the figure questions may also be included.  The majority of the exam will come from the book and class discussions; some questions based on lab material will also make up a portion of the exam.  Exams will be 100 points except for the final, which will be worth 100-200 points.  The final exam will be either a unit test, cumulative or a mixture of the two. 

 

Exam I:  September 29th

Exam II:  October 31st

Exam III:  November 24th

Final Exam:  Monday December 15th, 2:00 to 4:30.

 

e.       Lab Grade:  Preparation for and conscientious participation in lab will be graded.  Five points (per lab) will be available based on your attendance, preparation for and participation in lab (approximate total of 65 points).

 

f.        Weekly Quizzes:  A quiz will be given in class every week (except weeks with an exam) the quiz will be over that days reading (approximately 10 points).  Furthermore, periodic quizzes may be given in lecture or lab when students are not participating or seem unprepared for class (up to 10 points).

 

g.       Extra Credit is not given, unless it is announced in class and everyone has an opportunity to receive it.

 

h.       Final grades:  The final grades will be based on a scale of the total points earned in the class.  The most stringent scale will be 90-100% an A, 80-89% a B, 70-79% a C, 60-69% a D and 59% and less an F.  Any grade near the borderline may be raised at the professor’s discretion.  Letter grades announced for individual exams are purely estimates of your general ranking for that exam.  Only your final numerical average will be considered in assigning your final grade.

 

X.                 Course Units and Reading assignments:

 

Week

Discussion

Lab

Aug 25th             Mon.  

Wed.

Fri.

No Class

Syllabus

Group Dynamics

No Lab

Sept 1st               Mon.

Wed.

Fri.

No Class

Ch. 1: Theories

Ch. 1: Revolutionary Science

Black Box

 

 

Sept 8th             Mon.

Wed.

Fri.

Ch. 1: Ethics

Ch. 2: Genotype/Phenotype

Ch. 2: Chromosomes

Electrophoreses

 

 

Sept 15th         Mon.

Wed.

Fri.

Ch. 2: Molecular

Ch. 2: Transcription/Translation

Ch. 3: Sex Chromosomes

Mitosis/Meiosis

Sept 22nd           Mon.

Wed.

Fri.

Ch. 3: Disease Inheritance

Ch. 3: Techniques

Ch. 3: Use of Genetic Info

Molecular Genetics

 

 

Sept 29th            Mon.

Wed.

Fri.

Exam I

Assignment 1.

Assignment 1.

Human Genetics

 

 

Oct 6th            Mon.

Wed.

Fri.

Ch. 4: Darwin Paradigm

Ch. 4: Speciation

Ch. 4: Cell Structure

Assignment Presentations

 

Oct 13th              Mon.

Wed.

Fri.

Ch. 4: Eucaryotic Diversity

Ch. 5: Human Variation

Ch. 5: Population Genetics

Evidences of Evolution

 

Oct 20th              Mon.

Wed.

Fri.

Ch. 5: Disease Agents of Natural Selection

Ch. 6: Demography

No Class

No Lab

 

 

Oct 27th              Mon.

Wed.

Fri.

Ch. 6: Reproduction

Ch. 6: Population Growth

Exam II

Natural Selection

 

 

Nov 3rd               Mon.

Wed.

Fri.

Ch. 8: Digestion

Ch. 8: Circulatory System

Ch. 8: Dietary Requirements

Microscopy

 

 

Nov 10th             Mon.

Wed.

Fri.

Ch. 8: Energy Conversion

Ch. 8: Malnutrition

Students Choice

Osmosis

 

 

Nov 17th             Mon.

Wed.

Fri.

Students Choice

Students Choice

Students Choice

Homeopathy

 

 

Nov 24th             Mon.

Wed.

Fri.

Exam III

No Class

No Class

No Lab

 

 

Dec 1st                Mon.

Wed.

Fri.

Assignment 2.

Assignment 2.

Assignment 2.

Movie

 

 

Dec 8th                Mon.

Wed.

Fri.

Ch. 15: Biodiversity

Ch. 15: Habitats are Threatened

Ch. 15: Pollution

Review

 

 

 

XI.              Most Importantly Ask Questions:  If you have any questions about this syllabus, the material, exams or assignments ask the professor.

 

XII.           This Syllabus is Subject to Change at the Discretion of the Professor.