COURSE INFOPrinter copy of COURSE INFORMATION. Printer copy of COURSE CALENDAR. Link to QUIZ SCHEDULE. GENERAL INFORMATION FOR BIOG 101 (The Lecture Course)PURPOSE AND CONTENT OF COURSEThe goal of this course is to convey the basic principles and conceptual framework of contemporary biological science. We expect that students will come away from the course with an understanding of the concepts that integrate modern biology and the ability to think critically about the application of biological information. The course is intended primarily for students who plan to specialize in a biological science, but it is also appropriate for students who want to obtain a strong introduction to biology as part of their general education. Many issues of the day, such as advances in biomedical research and environmental concerns are better viewed through a biological understanding. LECTURESGeneral. BioG 101 meets MWF at 9:05 and 10:10 AM. You may attend either lecture, although the 10:10 AM lecture is often more crowded. All lectures will be held in Uris Hall Auditorium. The schedule of lectures is attached to the end of this document and is posted on the course website. You are expected to be in lecture. If you arrive late to class, please enter at the rear of the hall and do not disturb fellow students who arrived on time. There are no make-up lectures. If you miss a lecture, you should consult one of your fellow students to obtain a copy of their notes taken in lecture. All lectures are recorded in digital format and made available on the course website. Do not expect the professors or TAs to lend you their notes. The classroom lectures and readings in the text are complementary materials; neither alone is sufficient for this course. Do not assume that attending lecture is a substitute for the assigned readings in the text or visa versa. Lectures will augment topics in the text and will not simply be a repetition of the material covered in the readings. Come to class. Any questions associated with lecture materials should be directed to Dr. Gilbert or the Lecture Assistant, Dr. Gardner. Please keep in mind that the time immediately after lecture is relatively constrained, especially after the 9:05 lecture. Questions are best addressed during office hours (listed below and on the course website) or via e-mail to the course email address (biology_101@cornell.edu). See the section on getting help below for additional resources that are available to students who need assistance. Come to the evening session on Tuesday, August 28 for suggestions on how to do well in this course. Lecture Materials. The schedule of lecture topics for the semester is given on the BioG 101-103 schedule that is attached at the end of this handout. On the course website (see below) there will be a page that lists all of the lecture topics and provides links to materials that are relevant to each lecture. Lecture Format. Lectures will include traditional presentations of concepts and examples. We will include use of a wireless Personal Response System (clickers) that are available for purchase in the Campus Store. These clickers are used in other Cornell courses, such as some chemistry, physics and math courses. Purchase of the biology textbook (Campbell and Reece, 7th edition) provides a rebate on the clicker. We intend to ask ‘clicker questions’ in lectures based on your reading and preparation of the study questions included in the lecture outlines. REQUIRED TEXTS and CLICKERThe textbook for both the first and second semester courses: Campbell, N.A., Reece, J.B., Biology, 7th edition. San Francisco, CA: Pearson-Benjamin/Cummings 2005. Bundled with the text will be the rebate for the clickers that students will use to answer questions in lecture. In addition, an optional study guide is also available: Taylor, M.R. Students Study Guide for Biology, 7th edition. San Francisco, CA: Pearson-Benjamin/Cummings 2005. Use of the study guide is at the student’s discretion. The bundled text, study guide and clicker may be purchased at the Cornell Campus Bookstore and at other bookstores in college town. Please note that no additional texts will be required for the second semester of the course (BioG 102). Extensive reading assignments are made in the text; most of the book will have been read by the end of the second semester. Questions for examinations are based mainly on the concepts derived from application of factual material from the texts and lectures to relevant problems in biology. Clicker. Students should also purchase a personal response system (the i-clicker) that will be used for in-lecture polling and quizzes. Clickers are available through the campus store and a rebate is available for students who purchase new textbooks. Because each clicker carries a unique identification code, each student will need to use his/her own unit in order to receive credit for in-class quiz questions. The i-clicker will be used in numerous other classes; students need purchase only one clicker. Registering your clicker. In order to register your clicker for BioG 101, please do the following:
This information will be downloaded to our course database and your student ID is now tied to your unique i–clicker ID. If you forget your clicker, you can not borrow someone else’s clicker to answer a question. It is your responsibility to bring your clicker to class every day. Any questions about clickers should be directed to Dr. Gardner. Clicker questions during lecture. On many days we will ask a Good Morning question at the beginning of lecture. These may have some biological content or may simply address some other topical issue, e.g., how the Big Red football/hockey/lacrosse team did over the weekend, etc. There are no points associated with this question, but please register an answer upon entering lecture. That way you'll have your clicker out and turned on and you'll be ready for class. Later during lecture, there will be additional questions based on your reading, preparation of study questions included in the lecture outlines, or material just presented in lecture. These clicker questions will count for 5% of your total course grade. The lowest 3 scores during the semester will be dropped from the calculation of the final grade. These may days when your head was just not into class or perhaps days that you forgot to bring your clicker to class and thus registered zero. HANDOUTSAny lecture handouts will be placed on tables near the rear doors of the lecture hall. Please limit yourself to one copy. All handouts are also available on the course Website at: http://biog-101-104.bio.cornell.edu/BioG101_104/default.html Materials specific to the Lecture Course (101 only) will be posted on the Lecture Course website: http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/biog101/ Hard copies of most handouts can also be obtained from the box in the hallway across from the course office (1140 Comstock Hall). Your laboratory section will also meet on the first floor in Comstock Hall, so it will not be difficult to pick up handouts. COURSE WEB SITEThe WWW site for our course is http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/biog101/. Use this site to download lecture materials and exam information, to review handouts, web-based reference materials and supplemental information. Students should be aware of the resources available on the website and consult them for each lecture. You should check this site regularly as important announcements will also be posted. Our web-based quizzes will also be accessed through the course website. Instructions for accessing password-protected parts of the site will be provided in lecture. GRADESThe laboratory is a separate course. Grades for the lecture course will be based on each student’s performance on the two evening prelim (midterm) examinations and the final exam, web-based quizzes, in-lecture quiz questions using the ‘clickers’, and participation in the Explorations Program. Each is described in more detail in this handout. The mid-semester lecture grade, required by some colleges, will be determined entirely by the first prelim exam. The percentage of the final grade assigned to each of these is as follows:
Only numerical grades (% correct) will be given for the examinations and quizzes; letter grades will only be assigned after the final averages for all students have been calculated. Do not ask us during the semester to convert numerical grades to letter grades. Cornell guidelines suggest cutoffs of 90%, 80%, and 70% for A’s, B’s, and C’s, etc, but these are only guidelines. You will be informed of the grade distribution (mean and standard deviation) for each exam and you can estimate your standing relative to the guideline and to the rest of the class. In previous years, the median grade in this course has been a B-. We expect a similar performance this year. We will not curve the class letter grade downward if the mean is higher than a B-, but we reserve the right to curve the grades upward if we find that exam questions are too hard or if we do not adequately cover the material in lectures. EXAMINATIONSAll exams are multiple choice in format; in addition, the final exam will have two short essay questions. Questions are intended to test concepts, reasoning, and broad factual areas of biology. We will not examine you on picky factual details that you can look up in any biology textbook. Instead, we will focus on important concepts. To give you an idea of the type of question we will ask, we provide web quizzes which are based on previous year’s exams. We recommend that students use questions from the 2005-06 academic year in preparation for this year’s exams as the lectures were similar in subject and in scope. EXAMINATIONSAll prelim exams are multiple choice in format; the final exam will also be multiple choice, but in addition, will have two short essay questions. Questions are intended to test concepts, reasoning, and broad factual areas of biology. We will not examine you on picky factual details that you can look up in any biology textbook. Instead, we will focus on important concepts. To give you an idea of the type of question we will ask on the exams, we provide web quizzes which are based on previous year’s exams. We recommend that students use questions from the 2006-07 academic year in preparation for this year’s exams as the lectures were similar in subject and in scope (see past exams). IMPORTANT DATES TO RESERVEExam 1: Thursday, 20 September 2007, 7:30-9:00 PMExam 2: Tuesday, 30 October 2007, 7:30-9:00 PMFinal Exam: Friday, 7 December, 2007, 9:00-11:30 AMMAKE-UP EXAMINATIONSMake-up exams will be given only to those persons having legitimate excuses IN ADVANCE of the exam; the course Administrative Assistants (Comstock 1140) or the Lecture Assistant, Dr. Gardner, must be contacted in advance of, and not after, the time of the regular exams. Refer to the handout distributed in lecture prior to each exam for the deadline to request a makeup exam. Do not simply skip an exam and assume that we will automatically accept your excuse. Persons having a prolonged illness who wish to take the make-up exam must obtain a note from their doctor or sign a release authorization form at Gannett Clinic and have copies of their “Office Notes” either mailed or hand-carried to our course office. The form that Gannett Clinic gives patients, which says “This is not an excuse” is not sufficient to document an illness. Other legitimate excuses are family emergencies, conflicts with other exams or Cornell-sponsored events. In all cases, appropriate documentation of your absence is absolutely required before you will be admitted to a make-up exam. This and a few other policies are necessary in order to be fair and equitable to all students. We want to help you do your best on the exams, so please come to us in advance if you see a difficulty with the scheduled exam time. Make-up exams are like regular lecture exams in content and format; the grading of them is suitably adjusted so that scores correspond to those on the regular exams. They are administered only once at a pre-set date and time (see syllabus), usually 5-8 days after the regular exam. WEB QUIZZESEach week, starting on the first full week of classes, there will be a web-based quiz covering the subject matter of the previous week's lecture material. Web quizzes will be administered through a special page on the course website. Each quiz will consist of about 10 questions in multiple-choice format similar to those used in the exams. Taking quizzes will be excellent preparation for the prelim exams, because the questions are all drawn from exams given in previous years in this course. A schedule for the quizzes appears below in this handout. Each quiz will cover the subject matter from several lectures (usually two or three) listed on the quiz schedule. To receive credit for a web quiz, a student must complete the quiz by the designated deadline. The deadline dates and times are listed on the handout. After the deadline for completion, the quiz will remain accessible on the website for study purposes only. For every question, each possible answer (correct or incorrect) will have a comment, which will help explain why the answer is correct or incorrect and provide pointers for additional help. Only the first answer selected for each question will count towards the quiz grade, but after the first answer is selected, you may review all possible answers and comments if you desire - this may be an effective study technique for many students. Scores on each question will be reported to you when the question is completed. You may close an incomplete quiz and return to it anytime before the deadline. Web quizzes may be done “open book” or in study groups of several students. However they provide the most useful preparation for exams if you complete them by yourself with the book closed, as that situation is most similar to the exams. Like homework assignments which are collected and graded, the primary intent of the quizzes is to encourage keeping pace with the assigned reading and study of lecture materials. They are also a means of self-evaluation for each topic. We encourage you to use good study habits to prepare for and complete each quiz on time. You may use the text as a reference while taking a quiz, but the questions will usually require synthesis of an entire chapter, not simply looking up a definition or fact. You may wish to discuss questions and alternative answers with a study group with other students in this course, but you should be aware that students who simply receive answers from others without understanding the concept or reasoning behind the question will be unprepared for the course examinations. The average of your lecture quiz scores will count for 15% of the final grade in the course. EXPLORATIONSAll students must sign-up for and attend one Exploration each semester. The Explorations program is described in a separate booklet to be handed out in lecture on Friday, 7 September. On-time registration for, attending, and submitting an acceptable evaluation form for your Exploration will contribute a total of 3% of the points in your final grade this semester. We cannot emphasize how important it is for you to register for Explorations on time! You will be informed of your Exploration assignment in laboratory the week of 17 September. POLICY CONCERNING S/U GRADES AND INCOMPLETESIt is advisable to enroll in this course for a letter grade. No one for whom this course constitutes a College or Major requirement may opt for Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U) grades. By University policy, we cannot sign grade change slips for students wishing to change from one grading system to another after 14 September (or other college-designated date). For those who choose to be graded S/U, a course average equivalent to a letter grade of C- or higher will result in a grade of S. Averages equivalent to a letter grade of D+ or lower will result in U. Students should be forewarned that in Cornell's S/U system, point averages in the D range will result in the student receiving no credit for the course. Moreover, students with such an average may not change back to the letter grade system at the end of the semester in an effort to salvage credit. Similarly, students registered in the S/U system who discover late in the semester that they have an average grade that would have earned an A or B may not change in order to receive such a grade. An Incomplete grade (I) is ordinarily given only for persons having a prolonged illness that prevents them from completing the course. According to University policy, an Incomplete is possible only when the student is in good academic standing. Any person desiring an incomplete for a grade must contact Dr. Gilbert before 30 November. ACADEMIC INTEGRITYEach student in this course is expected to abide by the Cornell University Code of Academic Integrity. Any work submitted by a student in this course for academic credit must be the student’s own work. Web quizzes, as discussed above, may be addressed by study groups, but are more valuable when taken individually. You, and only you, are responsible for answering your clicker questions in class; do not enter answers using someone else’s clicker. Violations of the Code of Academic Integrity are taken very seriously and can result in a failing grade in the course or worse. LOST AND FOUNDAny personal belongings left behind after lecture will be taken to Uris Hall G-33 or to the Cornell Police Lost and Found (basement of Barton Hall) where they may be picked up. Personal belongings left in lab may be picked up at the Introductory Biology course office in Comstock 1140. GETTING HELPFor many students, BioG 101 will be a challenging class. Your success in this class depends upon your ability to understand the conceptual framework that integrates the materials presented in the lecture and text, not simply to memorize details and facts of biology. If you are having difficulty with any of the materials covered, or need assistance in improving your study skills, you are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the many opportunities for assistance provided by the Introductory Biology course staff. Regularly scheduled office hours are as follows:
BIOLOGY DININGFinally, Dr. Gilbert and Dr. Carl Hopkins, who has taught the lecture course for the past two years, will host a biology dinner every Monday evening, 5:45 - 7:00 PM, in the North Star dining room, 302A, at the Appel Center on North Campus. These will be relaxed opportunities for you to meet with Drs. Gilbert and Hopkins to discuss any issues, biological or otherwise, that are of interest to you. We will be joined by weekly guests, including Cornell President David Skorton, who is a biologist, and other Cornell scientists to talk informally about their areas of interest. See Dining Discussions for more information. We look forward to a fun and exciting year of biological exploration with you. Cole Gilbert and the BioG 101 Course StaffAugust, 2007
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