This course is designed to accompany first semester general biology, which
is the first part of two semesters of general biology. The course covers
cellular biology and genetics.
Two basic categories of learning techniques are passive and
active. Passive learning techniques are those which involve taking in
information, but not manipulating the information. Examples of passive
learning techniques are listening, memorizing, reading, and recording
notes. Active learning techniques are those which require manipulation
and processing of information. Examples are answering questions, writing
papers, participating in discussions, experimentation, and analyzing data.
Lecture classes typically involve mostly passive learning techniques. In
many lecture classes, the students will come to class, listen to the
lecture, record notes, and outside of class the student will read the
textbook. Maybe occasionally the student will participate in discussions
with his/her peers and answer questions in the textbook. Laboratories, on
the other hand, are designed to involve students with active learning
processes. Instead of listening, recording notes and reading the
textbook, laboratories involve experimentation, data analysis, writing
papers, and class discussions. Through these active learning techniques,
students should gain more insights into the field of study, be able to
apply their knowledge to a greater extent and exhibit a greater level of
understanding of course material. The down side of active learning
techniques is that they require more time invested by the students to
cover the same amount of material.
1. This course is designed to incorporate active learning techniques
to the study of biology.
2. This is a science majors lab, and as such, incorporates components essential in a major's science curriculum. Of utmost importance is practice with the scientific method. The scientific method is emphasized in this laboratory curriculum. By the time you complete this course, you should be able to clearly identify problems, derive hypotheses and predictions, test the predictions, and come to appropriate conclusions from the information. This course is designed to give you the building blocks and guidance to apply the scientific method to a variety of different questions in biology.
3. This class is designed to reinforce basic scientific practices: math, graphing, writing, critical thinking, data collection, and data analysis. Of particular importance are statistics. Understanding and using statistics is a vital part of being a science major. All too often students graduate without a good working knowledge of statistics and sometimes no exposure to statistics at all; therefore, statistics are an important part of this laboratory curriculum.
4. This laboratory also gives you practical knowledge of the use of scientific tools and techniques used in biology. In this lab you will gain experience with the use of compound microscopes, dissecting microscopes, spectrophotometers, and computers. You will also practice the use of tools of measure; pipettes, pipettors, rulers, scales, as well as metric conversions. You will also be introduced to techniques of chromatography, electrophoresis and microbiology.
5. Many introductory courses are designed to inspire students to pursue the major. This course is designed to inspire you to pursue biology as a major, at the same time, to give you a realistic view of what the science of biology is all about. It would be a shame to have students get an unrealistic picture of biology the first year and then change majors two or even three years into their education.
Biology, as any science, is a difficult subject and is not all fun
and games. You must have a good background in math, chemistry, and
physics to become a competent biologist. Currently, there is such great
competition for jobs that students graduating from any program need to be
well prepared for life after school in order to compete. Thus, many of
the labs are difficult in nature and are designed to give you a more
realistic view of what biology is all about. This is a challenging lab
curriculum, but if you can master it, you will have a strong background in
the fundamentals of biology and you will be able to pursue and be
successful in a diversity of future pathways.
For Summer Session A (2008), the total number of points possible is 250 points. The point distribution follows.
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Grades in this course are determined by students demonstrating a certain level of knowledge about the subject. This is accomplished in several ways, lab reports, a project presentation, quizzes, and an exam on the scientific method. Grades in this class will not be curved. If all of the students in the class demonstrate an "A" level of learning then all of the students will receive an "A" in the course. Likewise, grades of B, C, D, and F will be given based upon the level of learning demonstrated by the student.
This course is a special course because three teaching
assistants (TAs) teach it; therefore, maintaining equal grading standards
between TAs is difficult. Many methods to standardize grades have been
implemented in the past. The method used during this semester is the
method I think works the best. Evidence on scores from standardized tests
indicates that in classes of 16 up to 48 students, there is a greater
difference in student composition than in instruction given by TAs.
Therefore, I do not curve overall class grades for individual TAs.
Evidence also indicates that there is a great difference in TA grading
standards among lab reports;
therefore, I
require TAs to go through work-shops on grading the lab reports before final grading is performed.
This may add a little time to the turnover time from handing in your
reports to the time you get them back with a grade, but overall grading
should be more equal.
Each lab report will be worth 10 points. Lab reports are designed for you to use active learning techniques to investigate the subject. You will give the lab reports to your TA for evaluation at the end of the lab. All graphs, tables and questions in the lab report should be completed. TAs will mark off points for any part of the manual that is incomplete or completed incorrectly.
At the end of the semester, you will do group experiments that you design yourselves. Associated with these group experiments is a 10-point group presentation. Each member of the group is required to present their portion of the project.
Daily quizzes will be worth 10 points each. They will be given during the first 10 minutes of class. If you are late to class you will have less time to take the quiz. Approximately 60% of the quiz qill cover material from the previous lab, 20% will cover any of the previous labs over the course of the semester and 20% will cover the upcoming lab. Questions on the upcoming lab should cover the broad concepts so that reading over the lab prior to class should be sufficient.
Near the end of the semester there will be a 30 point exam. The exam will take approximately an hour to complete. The exam will cover the scientific method.
Students with disabilities who qualify for academic accommodations must
provide
a letter from Disability Services (DS) and discuss specific needs with
the
professor, preferably during the first two weeks of class. DS
determines
accommodations based on documented disabilities (303-492-8671, Willard
322,
www.colorado.edu/sacs/disabilityservices)
In this class, I will make reasonable and appropriate
accommodations
for students who have conflicts between religious observance dates
and course
examinations or assignments. The
campus policy
can be viewed at(http://www.colorado.edu/policies/index.html).
As a result of extensive discussions with and recommendations from
faculty and students, a new classroom behavior policy and associated
new
procedures have been adopted. Please refer to the following web site
(http://www.colorado.edu/policies/index.html).
Examine the following site for information concerning the Student Honor
Code and plagiarism (http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/).
Last update:
May 30, 2008