Enrollment:

Bio 120 is a required course for freshman biology and biochemistry majors and minors. If you are not in the biology major or minor program or the biochemistry major, then you should drop this course immediately. It does not meet the GER nor the LAC requirements for any other students! It is likely that you should be simultaneously registered for Chemistry II lecture and lab (CHE 211 and 213) or perhaps Organic Chemistry II with lab (CHE 217) and Math (MAT 130 or 243, but NOT MAT 135!!) as well. You might also be finishing up the courses needed for the first 30 credits at ECSU: HPE 130, LAP 130, ENG 100.

Objectives:

In this course, the structure and function of organisms is the focus. After a passage through the clade of living organisms, we will consider the basic problems faced by all living organisms. For each problem, we will compare the diverse solutions that have evolved among bacteria, archaea, protists, chromists, rhodophytes, plants, fungi, and animals. The fundamental problems will include: obtaining minerals and nutrients, exchanging gases, transporting materials, maintaining temperature, balancing solutes, chemical signaling, reproduction, environmental sensing, and movement. Weekly laboratory exercises and other activities complement these studies.

Resources:

There are two required textbooks for this course. The department has selected the Scott Freeman, Biological Science, third edition 2008, Benjamin Cummings/Pearson Education, Inc. textbook to be used in Bio 120, 130, 220, and 230. So while this is an expensive book, you will use it for four semesters of required majors courses! The department has also selected the Jan Pechenik, A Short Guide to Writing About Biology, seventh edition 2010, Longman/Pearson Education, Inc. book as the style manual for all writing in its courses, including the four core courses mentioned above as well as in all upper-level majors courses. So this purchase will also help you in all future Biology courses at ECSU. So you DO need to purchase both books unless you already have them in your bookcase. Freeman is $202.65 new and $152.00 used at our bookstore. Freeman is $35-$75 brand new at half.com etc. Pechenik is $45.60 new and $34.20 used at our bookstore. Pechenik us $34.89 new at amazon.com and the previous edition is less than $10 new on half.com. You don't need the textbook for the first week, so we suggest you save some money; just get going on it!

Much of the content of this course will be provided on our course website at http://plantphys.info/organismal/ The username:__________________ and password:____________________ required for access to some of the on-line material will be provided in class.

The individual laboratory exercises will be handed out as needed. Replacements for "lost" copies must be obtained by printing out a replacement from the course website. You will need a 2-inch 3-ring binder to organize your course material and a zipper case in your binder to hold other materials. Buy a pencil, mechanical preferred, with eraser; as all work in ink receives a 10% grading penalty. You will need a laptop computer or a USB/Flash/Jump Drive for some of your laboratory work. You will find a simple (+−×÷=) calculator and colored pencils useful. For your safety, students with long hair are required to use a scrunchie for lab days when we have open flames in use.

Quizzes:

Quizzes will be given, usually at the beginning of the laboratory time slot. When the last quiz is turned in by students who arrived to laboratory on time, the rest of the incomplete quizzes will be collected. Do not be late to laboratory class! Quizzes may cover all course material (lecture and laboratory). You can expect a variety of question types: multiple choice, matching, diagrams to draw and/or label, charts, structured essays, etc. The mix of question types on a quiz will not be announced ahead of time, so it is up to you to anticipate and be ready for any kind of question on each quiz. Quiz grades will be determined by straight scale: 90%=A, 80%=B, 70%=C, 60%=D. Graded quizzes will be returned at the next laboratory meeting. Quizzes provide 30% of the final course grade.

Laboratory Worksheets:

For each laboratory class you must bring the laboratory exercise worksheet. The completed worksheets (always requiring work outside of classtime) or other reports required are due at the beginning of lecture class as announced. Papers received during or after class on that day will be penalized as one-day late. Late papers will receive a penalty of 10% per day late. Moreover, after the instructor has returned the first graded paper to one student, all late papers receive a grade of 0%! There are no make-up laboratory sessions and absence from any laboratory exercise will not be excused and a grade of 0 will be recorded in the gradebook. Laboratory exercise grades will be determined by straight scale. Graded laboratory worksheets will be returned at the next laboratory meeting. Laboratory exercise worksheets provide 30% of the course grade.

Writing Projects:

During the semester, five writing projects will be assigned beyond the exercise worksheets. The first will be given out in the first lecture meeting. The Figuring Biological Data, Archaealogy and More, and Seed Germination exercises will be the foundation for you to write some portions of a formal laboratory report in this course. The drafts for writing will be due as shown in orange highlight in the on-line syllabus. Writing assignments must be computer generated and printed out in hard-copy; electronic submissions are not acceptable. Late papers will receive a penalty of 10% per day late. After the first graded paper is returned to any student, all late papers receive a grade of 0%. Graded writing assigments will be returned at the next laboratory meeting. If a writing assignment is scored at or below 65%, then it must be revised and resubmitted by the deadlines until it meets this benchmark. However, only the first score will count in the grading...so your first submission should not be a first draft! Failing to submit (and resubmit by the deadlines as needed) any one of the writing projects will result in course failure. If all writing projects have been submitted (and promptly resubmitted if needed) and ultimately exceed the 65% benchmark, then the initial scores on writing assignments provide 20% of the course grade.

Written communication is important for continued success within any discipline. Biology majors are expected to meet the University's intermediate writing requirement (Bio 050) within the four core courses (Bio 120, 130, 220, 230). Students may earn 0-2 points from Bio 120 and from Bio 130 and 0-4 points for Bio 220 and for Bio 230. Bio 050 credit is awarded when you earn at least 8 total points. The Bio 050 standard must be met prior to registering for Bio 466 (Senior Seminar). For this course, the writing focus is the materials and methods and results section of the standard laboratory report. This is why so much effort is focused on learning how to make professional-quality figures and tables. If the average of your first submissions of the writing assignments is 80% or better, you will receive 2 points. If that first-submission writing average is between 65 and 80% you will receive 1 point. If the first-submission writing average is below 65%, or if any writing assignment is not submitted, you will receive 0 points. It is important for you to put forth your best effort on these writing assignments on the first submission!

Final Examination:

The course ends on the date of the final exam as assigned according to the official ECSU final exam schedule for our laboratory meeting time. Any remaining graded papers will be returned to you. You will then be given a comprehensive examination covering all topics in the semester--both lecture and laboratory. You must be careful to arrange your travel, work, or other schedules around this date and time! The kinds of questions to expect will be announced near the end of the semester. The comprehensive final examination provides 20% of the course grade.

Final Course Grade:

As described above, your final grade is calculated based on weightings of 30% for quizzes, 30% for worksheets, 20% for writing assignment first submissions, and 20% comprehensive final exam. Your final course grade will need to be C- or better to continue as a pre-Biology major. You cannot become a full Biology major unless your transcript shows a C- or better for all four core courses (Bio 120, 130, 220, 230). Retaking a core course requires the approval of the Biology department chairperson! So you need to take this course seriously, work hard, and do well in this course!

Participation:

The instructors will do their level best to grade your work as fairly and as objectively as possible. They are open to your suggestions about fairness. They are open to reconsidering any grading that you may feel was unfair within one week of a graded quiz or other paper's return to you. They cannot address concerns that go unexpressed, so they invite you to their office hours to discuss every concern you may have in this course. Two students who compare grading on their separate papers and believe they have found an example of special treatment, should come in together to discuss it objectively. Instructors will never take points away from any points awarded on a paper. However, it may be that two answers that seem to be "the same" are, in fact, different-enough that one is correct and the other is wrong. It may only be the addition of a single word that makes a difference between a point and no point. It may be that the point was not awarded in one case because the word was not connected properly to a structure on a diagram, etc. Please come in to discuss your concerns; the instructors are happy to explain their grading to you and to make any adjustments as are correct and fair.

The university and the instructors expect you to attend all 6 class hours per week, and to study and complete course assignments for an additional 12 hours per week at home in this one course! It is very unlikely that any laboratory assignment will be completed in class. It is critical that you learn to avoid initiating homework during laboratory class. Lab exercises are not designed to allow you to complete homework in class!

The biology department and the instructors in this course expect you to monitor your university email address for important communications from the university, from the department, and from your biology instructors. In this course, the official syllabus is the on-line version as modified during the semester; you are expected to check the syllabus frequently and regularly for changes, especially due dates for assignments.

The instructor's estimates of your participation in the course may provide leverage or barrier should your earned grade fall near a grade border. Without prior notice to you, lecture handouts or other materials may be distributed and/or collected to inform the instructors of the level of your participation. Attendance, attitude, and attention are three strong components to the participation factor in the final grade. Staying on-task, remaining engaged in class discussion, and performing as an effective team-member in laboratory are also critical. You will receive substantial penalties for relying upon data that you did not help to collect. As an adult, you are expected to bring all required materials to class, to be on time, etc. The instructors are especially unsympathetic to those who are routinely late to classes. Extra credit assignments will not be given to anyone for any reason. There may be bonus points provided for everyone to earn, however.

If you are a commuter to our campus, you should remember that parking is often hard to find and leave extra time for the search, and for the walking that may be required once you are parked. Also, you need to think about alternatives should you have vehicle problems. Is there a family member who can give you a ride? Do you have contacts for other ECSU students from your town with whom you might carpool? Are your tires good enough for the driving conditions that New England weather will present? Commuters need to be courageous about driving in snow, on glare ice, in torrential rain, etc.

Copying or plagiarism will not be tolerated. While you will work together to obtain data in the laboratory, your own observations, your own Excel calculations, and your own graphics must be shown on the quizzes, worksheets and writing projects. The computer technique of copy-paste or using your lab partner's computer file is perhaps the easiest and fastest way to become a plagiarist. The ECSU plagiarism penalty is expulsion.

If you believe you will need special accommodations for this class, please contact the Office of AccessAbility Services at (860) 465-5573. The instructors cannot provide accommodations until they have received an accommodation letter from the Office of AccessAbility Services.

Students having difficulty in this course are advised to use the office hours of the instructors, to seek the help of the teaching assistants, and are encouraged to use the tutoring, math, and writing support offered by the Academic Services Center located on the ground floor of the Library. If you need these services, you should seek help before it is too late to make a difference in the course outcome.

Nick Mills is a biology tutor available at the ASC; his availability hours are Mondays 9:30-11:30 AM, Tuesdays 2-6 PM and Wednesdays 12-3 PM.