General Biology: BI 101 (Online)



General Biology: BI 101 (Online)

LBCC, Winter 2012

CRN: 37221 One time orientation: Monday 1/9/12 3-4:20 in WOH 212

Section: INTNET

Credits: 4 credits

Instructor: Diana Wheat Instructor: Miranda Dudzik

Office: WOH 207 Office: WOH 220

Phone: (541) 917-4772 Phone: (541) 917 - 4967

Email: WHEATD@linnbenton.edu Email:DUDZIKm@linnbenton.edu

Office Hours: Office Hours:

Monday 11:30 – 12 Monday: 5-6 pm

Wednesday 12 – 1 pm Wednesday: 5-6 pm

Friday 8:30 - 10 am

Appointments outside of these office hours are also possible;

24 hour notice required via by email or by direct phone contact.

Introduction:

General Biology 101 is a course designed to introduce the student to basic concepts of biology and ecology, including the process of science and hypothesis testing. This course aims to increase the student’s level of ecological literacy, develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of the diversity of life with which we share our planet. This course is designed for students at Linn-Benton Community College who are non-science majors. Students typically have little to no science background, yet are enrolled in this course to fulfill requirements needed for a degree and/or who seek to transfer this credit to a four year institution as well as those who desire to expand their knowledge and appreciation of the biological sciences. Students are not permitted to take two different BI 101 courses to fulfill graduation or transfer requirements. If a student has taken a different BI 101 course e.g. Environmental issues, Oregon Ecology, Marine Biology etc. then this General biology class will not gain the student credit – talk with the instructor for any necessary clarification.

Prerequisite: MTH 065 (Elementary Algebra)

This course is taught as a discrete and separate course in biology. It is not necessary to have any other biology courses before taking this course for non-majors.

Text & Resources:

• Biology: Life on Earth with Physiology (BI 101) 9th ed. by Audesirk, Audesirk & Byers publisher – Pearson (2011 ed) – Required

ISBN-10:1-256-29815-8 / ISBN-13:978-1-256-29815-1

• Lab Book BI 101: NOT required - All of our labs are administered in the course area, each week under the lab header line. This is a savings to the student, since the student in an online class must purchase the lab kit and Simbiotic product. (See below)

• Custom built lab kit: available only in the LBCC Bookstore, compiled by the LBCC Biology department. Purchase this resource by the end of the first week of the course.

• Simbiotic Software: The student must purchase an access card (with the associated web portal url) at the LBCC bookstore, for those that need to use financial aid or those students that do not have a credit card.

OR

The online website is at where the course modules can be purchased with a credit card, but the student must email one of the instructors to gain access to the course code through simbiotic publishers.

Modules needed for the course are:

> Lab: Isle Royale

> Lab: Nutrient Pollution (note this in different than nutrient cycling)

Note: You will need to create an account and update your browser if necessary to have the module run properly. You will also need to print out the workbook, that comes with the subscription for each module. You cannot just fill in the blanks electronically, so be aware that you may need to make a trip to campus to print out the worksheet and it is a sizeable set (approximately 20 pages for each).

• Additional supplies needed for home use: small metric ruler & calculator

• See the “At home” supplies inventory list for additional things you will need to gather to make the labs work. This is supplied in the entry portal block of the course.

I. Lectures

Fully on-line – you decide when to view & learn.

Lectures for each week will be posted on Monday for the respective week by 8 am and will not turn off until the end of the term – these will be found in the course area each week and are posted in Power point format, additionally a "lecture guide" to answer questions as you view the lecture is provided to help you know what to focus on. The instructor strongly advises printing out this lecture guide and filling in the blanks or outline of lecture notes as you view the lecture. Lecture format may also include viewing a film online. (Be aware that if you have limited bandwidth it may be necessary to view the film on a networked library or computer lab computer from time to time). Video Guides i.e. documents to fill out, while you view the film will be provided in the lecture area to help you focus on the most relevant points. These video guide sheets are for the learner’s benefit and are not turned into the instructor. Lectures and films are considered “testable” material. Lectures will also include handouts and sometimes worksheets or review sheets that can be printed to help you master the material. Lecture guide sheets are not turned into the instructor for grading.

II. Lab:

Done at home using the lab kit OR the Simbiotic Internet site.

Labs become activated at 8 am Mondays for a given week – you decide when to do the lab, they are designed to be approximately 2 hour long activities – parallel to the on-campus experience.

Lab Due Dates: Lab reports are due no later than Saturday noon for a given week, unless your instructor communicates otherwise, via the assignment area of the course. Each week there will be an entry line that states "To Turn In" that shows where to post your lab report for a given week. This is used instead of the dropbox so that comments can be made on your lab.

Your lab report should be submitted in Microsoft Word format, submit only the answers to questions in the lab, you do not need to copy in the questions or entire lab, because including the entire lab makes the file size large & unwieldy; resulting in delayed turn-around time for your instructors to grade your work. No late labs will be accepted, keep in mind that campus based sections require the students to do their labs in 2 hours, Online students will have the flexibility of the entire week, so no extensions are granted for lack of planning or a delay in reporting your data/results. Some labs require an Excel file; so if you do not have Excel then you may need to make a trip to a campus computer to open such a file. It is recommended that you view the lab early on in the week, especially making note of the bold faced hints for planning purposes so that you don’t run into time crunch issues. Should you have difficulties submitting the report, due to technical difficulties, contact the Moodle support AND send your instructor your documented notification via email, in order to “time stamp” the report to verify that it was completed on time. Do not assume that because you could not attach the file that it will be accepted later send your instructor your report if you cannot attach the file for whatever reason in the Moodle area.

Grading: Final grades for the course will be determined by each student’s cumulative point total by the end of the term. This is an approximation of points for each category, and it is subject to be changed, as deemed appropriate by the instructors.

Assessments:

Revised set

2 midterms @ 40 pts each = 80 pts

10 weekly quizzes at 5 pts each = 50 pts (lowest score on one quiz dropped)

10 Lab Activities @ 10 pts each = 100 points

10 Threaded Discussions @ 3 pts = 30 points (one dropped score if missed)

Final Comprehensive exam = 50 points

Total = 300* points Approx.

*Lowest weekly reading quiz and one missed TD will reduce the points to around 302 points. If a student makes all 10 TD's then extra credit will be applied.

Grading Scheme:

90 - 100% ( A, 80 – 89% ( B, 70 – 79% ( C, 60 – 69% ( D, Below 59.5% (F

General Policies

Lecture Availability: Each week, the new lecture will become activated by 8 am on Mondays, for a given week, and will stay in the course area until the end of the term, so that you can view the Powerpoint lecture & lecture guide/outline. I will endeavor to have the full format of the Powerpoint as well as a pdf version of the same lecture; thereby making it possible for you to print off 6 slides per page if you want to see the lecture materials in hand, but you may still need to view the actual Powerpoint lecture to see the full range of text. Additionally, a lecture outline with supplemental information e.g. vocabulary and examples will be provided. Generally speaking your instructors will endeavor to keep the lectures quite similar to the content that the campus sections receive in order to maintain consistency, quality and fairness. What is different in the online environment is that the delivery method for content is much more “self directed” and the opportunity for the student to ask a question is shifted to the discussion board area or email. You can view the lecture, and films if available at any time in the week that it activates, but you should do so BEFORE performing the lab activity, since the vocabulary from lecture and readings will be assumed for the lab. Threaded discussions may reflect lecture, films, activities etc. so it is generally best to view the TD topic early in the week to know what to prepare for so that your discussions with classmates will be meaningful.

Lab: As much as possible the lab content has been made parallel to the “on-campus” experience, but with some modifications. Microscopes and technical equipment such as Spec 20’s and multitudes of live/preserved specimens cannot be easily translated to the distance education environment, because of cost and practicality. Your lab kit, therefore, has been especially designed for the LBCC online GB 101 class. It must be purchased from our campus bookstore and is not available from an online vendor, used bookstore outlet or a third party. This kit has almost all of the equipment needs that a person would not normally have at home including materials to culture microbes, some properly identified plant material, hand held lenses (to substitute for microscope work) etc.

Some additional items need to be supplied by the student and are typically found at home or easily purchased e.g. marking tape, pens, a flower specimen etc. Every effort has been made to find and compile a lab kit that will adequately meet the student’s needs while keeping costs to a minimum. When you purchase your kit there will be an inventory list in the box. If any items are missing it is the student’s responsibility to contact the instructor(s) and let them know ASAP, so that a replacement item can be obtained – this will likely require a visit to campus to pick up the missing item. We don’t ship items to you, but with adequate warning our lab prep team can help you replace any missing or damaged items.

Week 1 does not require the lab kit items, but your kit should be purchased in Week 1. Inside the cover of the lab kits is a special code that you must report in week 1 to the instructor. This reporting will be done with your first lab submission on the “Biodiversity in Crisis” lab – which is a paper based lab that all BI 101 students do in the on-campus sections (write the number of the kit below your name in the upper right hand corner of your lab report). Notice: No labs (including the first lab) will be graded unless this kit code number is reported first to your instructor. The reason for this policy is simple – in the past students that delayed purchasing the kits generally found it difficult to keep up with the labs and often felt disheartened after 2 or 3 weeks in the course. In purchasing the kit and reporting the registration number it indicates commitment and follow-through on the part of the student to fully engage the course and stick with it, students that didn’t purchase the kits right away, in the past, sometimes dropped the course and this led to lost opportunity for those students that really wanted into the class. No labs will be graded until this lab kit number has been reported to your instructor – no exceptions to this rule.

This course is a transfer course to any university and as such receiving universities expect a high level of lab experience from a lab course. Therefore it is expected that a student will have carried out a minimum of 60% of all lab work to receive a passing grade. Any student that misses more than four labs will fail the course regardless of the percentage scored on exams.

Exams: Objective tests consisting of multiple choice, matching, labeling, true/false, and possibly graph interpretation and short answer. The exams will be administered entirely online. They are closed book and closed note, just as on campus, but obviously a high level of integrity on the part of the student is expected because exams are not proctored when you take them at home. Academic honesty is assumed. Exams are timed, and you are given approximately 1 minute per question to complete the exam with 5 minutes additional for checking your work. This means that because the tests are worth 40 points that you will be given 45 minutes to complete the test. There is no time to look up answers and this is considered a breach of ethics, if you have adequately prepared then 45 minutes is more than sufficient to answer all questions. When exams are activated, you will have 3 days to take the exam, in order to accommodate your schedule – see the course schedule for activation dates. Tests are scrambled for security reasons so that no two students receive the exact same sequence of questions. No late takes are granted, if you should have an emergency arise that prevents you from taking the exam within the allotted time frame you must contact the instructor before the exam expires to have the ability to retake the test and this will need to occur in the instructor’s office – so plan accordingly, do not wait until the last possible hour of the exam to avoid technical issues e.g. the internet being down. The exam settings will not allow retakes, so plan your test time to be a 45 minute period without interruption. Before you begin the test be sure to close all windows or documents on the current desktop and at no time should you click outside of the Moodle window to avoid being kicked out of the exam.

Make up exams:

There will be NO make-up exams unless we are informed, in writing, PRIOR to the exam that you will need to miss it for a “documentable” reason. This is the same policy as all on-campus courses. Keep in mind though that on-campus classes only have one class period to take the exam, you will have the flexibility of 3 days. You need to talk with Diana Wheat directly for approval to make up an exam, exceptions are rare, but I do understand complications that can make it impossible to meet an exam date e.g. funerals, jury duty, military duty, scheduled surgeries etc. Approved late takes must be made up by a time agreed upon by the student and instructor. We do not drop any exam grades. If you miss an exam, the grade is a zero, no retro-activation of exams will be made if the student did not contact the instructor. Early exams will not be allowed for any reason (including the booking of airline or event tickets) – so please plan accordingly. The instructor reserves the right to require the student to take the exam on campus if technical issues impair the ability of the student to finish the exam by the deadline date.

Discussions – Each week by noon on Monday there will be a posted topic for discussion for the week. Participation in the discussions is considered an important and vital part of the course to allow students time to interact and reflect, it also helps to alleviate some of the feelings of isolation that can occur in a distance education course. To facilitate timely discussions, please check the topic out for the week early in the week. Sometimes the topic will reflect lab activities or films and if you do not complete these activities until the last possible date, you may not have much to contribute. Each week you will gain up to three points for submitting a discussion statement, or a response to another student's posting. Because the Winter 2012 class is a double section with 48 students, submitting one meaningful discussion statement/opinion is sufficient, no extra points will be granted for numerous posts, but to contribute to the learning environment and exciting class participation you are encouraged to check in and respond to students – just be aware that extra points are not gained by multiple entries, this allows for many students to contribute to the discussions. Your grade for the threaded discussions will be reported typically within one week, so that you will have assurance of your credit applied in the grade book area. Leniency for one missed TD is built into the course, so if a life situation prevents your timely participation, be aware that one TD is considered a "drop" but if a student completes and participates in all 10 TD's then there will be 3 pts of built in buffer for the overall grade. Please see the paragraph later in this document about respect for others that is expected for this activity. College environments are a market place of ideas, and everyone is free to represent their viewpoint, but the instructor encourages thoughtful and kind communications with an understanding that we may not always agree on all topics, but we all support the rights of others to have their unique perspectives.

III. Special Circumstances:

Orientation: This class is entirely online, but the first day of the course, Monday 1/09/12 we will meet for a one time orientation session in WOH 212 on campus from

3:00-4:20 pm to address materials, expectations, requirements and any student concerns that may arise. This orientation is considered mandatory, so that you can get started on a good turn in the course. There are some special considerations for labs that require early set up, in week one, so this is the time to hear that message and collect your necessary materials to avoid any last minute panics once the course is fully activated. It is also an opportunity to meet one other person in the class to place a face to the threaded discussions that you will participate in, so this helps in forming our learning community. Orientation will take roll, and this is when you have assurance that you are confirmed in the class, no one will be dropped if they don't attend orientation, assuming they are regular rostered, but be aware that students that have missed orientation in the past often feel a bit overwhelmed or lost and frequently drop the course if they miss orientation, especially if this is their first online lab based class.

Late Adds: No student will be added to the course after the first week of classes. All material covered the first week, including labs, is subject to being on the unit exams. Missing more than one week is very detrimental to a student’s grade. If a person adds by the last day of the first week, that student must make an appointment with one of the instructors to get caught up with the lectures and lab and only then will the instructor of record (Diana Wheat) sign the add form. Should a student miss the orientation session, it is very important that the student contact one of the instructors in person, with an office visit to receive “in-person” details about the course – see the paragraph above about the orientation.

Incomplete Policy: An incomplete (IN) will only be issued when a student is unable to complete the last exam by the end of the term, and each incomplete grade will be accompanied by a signed contract specifying the conditions necessary to complete the course. Incompletes are not granted for failure to do the labs or activities, this is only granted for special circumstances e.g. surgery the week of finals. An incomplete contract will be made (via a department form) that will be signed by the student and the instructor and placed on file in the Division office. The Y grade can only be issued if the student has attended no more than 25% of class time and less than 25% of the course work was submitted. The deadline to drop the course is the end of the 7th week.

Special Accommodations: As required by federal and state laws, we will be happy to make accommodations for students with disabilities or those with special needs. It is the student’s responsibility to make any needs known to Diana Wheat within the first week of the quarter, in writing, so that we can give appropriate accommodation. This includes but is not limited to disabilities of visual, hearing, learning, dates needed for religious holidays, court dates, interviews etc.

Withdrawing from Classes (Dropping a Class After the Refund Deadline)

To drop a class or withdraw from school, you may turn in a Schedule Change form at the Registration Counter or use the SIS system. (For classes that meet four to seven weeks, you must process the withdrawal by 5 p.m. on the Friday before the last week of the class. If a student withdraws from a course after the refund deadline, he/she will receive a "W" grade in the class, and forfeit all claims to refunds. The student will be financially responsible for any tuition and fees. Failure to drop a class may impact your grade point average and financial aid eligibility. Note: For classes meeting eight or more weeks, the deadline to withdraw from the class is 5 p.m. on Friday of the seventh week of the term (sixth week of the term for Summer Term.) 

Instructor Academic Drop Option: Students that have not purchased and reported the lab kit code number by the end of week 1 may be dropped by the instructor if no communication from the student to the instructor occurs by the first Saturday (midnight) following the start of the course, this is to make space for waitlisted students that want into the class and are able to be fully vested in the class, before we begin week 2. The reason for these policies is that the online course section often has a very deep wait list and numerous students wanting into this course who truly want to learn at a distance or want the flexibility of an online course.

It is strongly advised to purchase the Simbiotic material the first week, once your enrollment is confirmed in the orientation, but if necessary you could delay the purchase of this material. Be aware that if you need to contact Simbiotic – the company that produces the online software, their customer service reps are not directly available on weekends and you may not be able to submit your lab if you wait until the due date to purchase the software material or if you run into technical difficulties. Week three requires the first Simbiotic computer lab supplement, so delay in purchasing this online resource typically results in low performance on Exam #1, which will occur in week four of the term. Instructors are not able to resolve purchasing or technical issues related to Simbiotic material, this is something that requires contact with the online vendor.

III. Behavioral Expectations:

Academic Misconduct: This will not be tolerated and includes any form of cheating. The student is encouraged to read the student code of conduct for further details. If a student is found to have cheated on an exam or lab, after due process the resulting grade may be a zero on the given exam or lab. Each student must submit their own interpretations on labs, copied labs will result in disciplinary action that can include receiving a failed grade for the course.

Extra Credit: On a few occasions on the exams or in some labs there may be extra credit, which will be high-challenge questions that can supplement your score. Even if you do not know the answer you are encouraged to try. This credit will generally not influence a grade more than 2-4% for the overall grade, but it could make a big difference in borderline grade situations. Extra Credit will NOT be issued or allowed for missed work – there are no exceptions to this rule. Our general policy for all students is that “We cannot do for one student what we cannot do for all students.” Please do not ask for exceptions due to poor performance, no extra credit work will be granted.

Late Work: Will NOT be accepted without supporting documentation to show your inability to meet deadlines e.g. a doctor’s note or hospital admission form. This course already has much more flexible time increments than the on-campus courses, so please be aware that your planning and follow through are important to meet the assignment and exam deadlines.

Respect: This course will include discussion groups/threaded discussions. It is vitally important to maintain a professional voice, tone and appropriate communication in these endeavors through the internet format. Please see the guide to Discussion Groups included as a separate attachment on this topic.

Deadlines:

1) Reading Quizzes are due by Friday at 6 pm (the reason for this different deadline is to ensure that students are keeping up with the reading for the week and are not falling behind).

2) Labs are due: Saturday by noon

3) Threaded Discussions contributions are due: Saturday by noon

Expected Turn-around of graded work:

Generally speaking, we will typically begin grading the labs on the weekend that they are due so in some instances it will seem immediate. Our general pace is to grade ~5-10 labs a day (Saturday – Thursday). All labs for a given week should be completed by Thursday night following their turn in at the very latest, in many cases it will be much sooner. One week you may have your lab submission graded first, though in subsequent weeks it may be in the later set. We will vary the starting point on the roster each week so that those with last names late in the alphabet are not always graded the latest – this is for the sake of fairness.

Email Policy:

In general during the week, email may be checked about 3-5 times a day, and you will generally get a reply to your email within a few hours (during regular daytime hours). If you need immediate response it is best to call during office hours. Diana Wheat often checks email in the evenings, but as a general rule of thumb if email is sent after 5 pm it will receive a response first thing the next morning. On weekends, which are generally spent on family time and grading the prior week’s submissions email may only be checked once or twice over the course of the weekend. To avoid frustration it is best to email Diana or Miranda about lab questions on Friday by 3 pm if you anticipate problems or have procedural questions. Diana Wheat leaves campus shortly after 4 pm most days.

It is advisable to send your email to both instructors, with a header of "Online BI 101" which will allow us to target your email as a priority, especially at the end of the day.

Specific Course Proficiencies:

• The student will be able to extract, interpret, critically evaluate and apply biological information from various media, such as books, articles, lectures and the Internet.

• The student will be able to safely and skillfully use basic biological equipment and techniques to collect and evaluate data. This includes but is not limited to microscopes, ph meters, pipettes, computer spreadsheets and models.

• The student will be able to organize data into tables and graphs, to extract information and find patterns to draw sound conclusions.

• The student will be expected to apply the scientific method, by using experiments that test a proposed hypothesis and then draw conclusions based on data acquisition.

• The learner will discover and appreciate the unity, diversity, complexity and interdependence of life.

• Describe where common organisms fit in the species-domain taxonomic scheme, and key features that differentiate these organisms from organisms in other taxa.

• Apply the species concept to common organisms, and describe biodiversity in terms of number of species and list the criteria by which a species might be classified.

• Explain the factors that affect the reasons that ecosystems might occur in a particular place, and then relate adaptive traits of organisms that exist in such ecosystems.

• The learner will be able to list and describe the overall trophic structure (producers, consumers, decomposers) of a given ecosystem, and outline how energy and nutrients flow and cycle through the system.

• Identify key parameters that affect populations of organisms e.g. dispersion, growth rate, carrying capacity, competition and resource availability.

• The student will be able to report how humans interact with and depend upon the environment, and be able to identify major impacts of human population and technology on the environment, and then be able to relate how humans can minimize detrimental impacts on ecosystems and the organisms that are within them.

General Lab Science Outcomes:

1. Recognize, understand and use fundamental concepts of science to explain natural phenomena.

2. Utilize critical thinking and effective problem-solving skills as well as gather and evaluate information to systematically approach challenges as an individual and as a contributing member of a team.

3. Recognize, understand, and use the methods of science (collection of data, designing experiments, testing hypotheses, drawing conclusions) to solve problems and answer questions about natural phenomena.

4. Demonstrate an interest in, an appreciation of, and confidence in using science and technology as a way of understanding natural phenomena.

5. Effectively communicate concepts related to basic science using a variety of methods, such as writing, graphics, computers and the spoken word.

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