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Biology 251 Syllabus

Fall 2011

 

Instructor:                  Dr. Patrick A. Carter

Office:                        Heald 217

Office Hours:             Tues & Thurs 1:15 to 2:00; Thurs 3:00 to 4:00; or by appointment               

Textbook Bundle: Stanfield. Principles of Human Physiology, 4th Edition.  PhysioEx 9.0 lab book & cd, and Interactive Physiology 10 System Suite cd, bundled with the textbook. Available at the Bookie or Crimson and Gray. 

Laboratory Manual: Zoo 251 Lab Manual. Available at the Bookie or Crimson and Gray.

Course Web Page: http://www.wsu.edu/~biol251/

Instructor email: pacarter@wsu.edu

Syllabus: Click Here

Statement on plagiarism and cheating: Click Here

TA Office Hours and Contact Information: Click Here

 

Interested in being a Biology 251 Tutor in Fall 2012?  Visit this web site: http://mss.wsu.edu/default.asp?PageID=1922

 

Final Grades

 

Click the link below to see your final grades.  You will see your final letter grade, your final class average, the points you earned on each exam (the points, not the percentage), your final lab grade, your lab curve (2 points for labs 1 and 8, 4 points for lab 11, and 0 points for all other labs) and the 5 points of extra credit that all students received for the survey.  Remember that Exams 1 and 2 were out of 66 points, Exam 3 was out of 90 points, Exam 4 was out of 78 points, Exam 5 was out of 100 points and the lab was out of 100 points. 

 

Final Grade

 

 

Final Exam Information:

 

The mean on Final Exam is a 69%; thus a one point curve correction was added.  This was added directly to your Final Exam score.  Also please note that for Question 5 on Exam W and Question 6 on Exam G that all students received full credit because I used the term "Citric Acid Cycle" instead of "Krebs Cycle"; in class and in the notes, I used only the term "Krebs Cycle" and should have used that term on the exam.

 

Exam 4 Information:

 

The mean on Exam 4 is a 66%, thus a curve correction is needed.  3 points were added directly to your raw score. 

 

Exam 3 Information:

 

The mean on Exam 2 is a 75%, thus no curve correction is needed.

 

Exam 2 Information:

 

The mean on Exam 2 is a 72%, thus no curve correction is needed

 

Exam 1 Information:

 

The mean on Exam is a 78% , thus no curve correction is needed. 

 

Exams and Grades:  Your final grade will be determined from exam scores and from the laboratory score; you will be assigned a final letter grade based on your total course points.  The total number of points available is 500: 300 of these come from semester exams, 100 come from the cumulative final, and 100 come from the lab.  No extra credit points are offered.

 

All grading scales are “curved”.  Traditionally, the mean score plus or minus one standard deviation is given a grade of C, scores between plus 1 and plus 2 standard deviations are given a B, scores greater than plus 2 standard deviations are given an A, scores between minus 1 and minus 2 standard deviations are given a D and scores less than minus 2 standard deviations are given an F.

 

I use a slight variant of this system that offers a big incentive to students to do well and that is easy to understand.  I only curve “up”, and when I do, I adjust the mean to a 70% to facilitate translation of the curved scale to the letter scale with which most students are familiar.  So, for example, if the mean score is 65%, all students have 5% added to their scores to bring the mean up to a 70%.  However, I never curve “down”; if the mean is an 80%, I leave it at 80%; I do NOT take 10% away from each student’s score.  This means that all students in the class could earn A’s and B’s.  In addition, score standard deviations in the class tend to be large, so the “C range” is larger than in a traditional system.

 

Once the curve has been adjusted (if needed), letter grades are assigned as follows:

 

A = 92.50% and up

A- = 90.0% to 92.49%

B+ = 87.50% to 89.99%

B = 82.50% to 87.49%

B- = 80.0% to 82.49%

C+ = 75.0% to 79.99%

C = 65.0% to 74.99%

C- = 60.0% to 64.99%

D = 50.0% to 59.99%

F = 49.99% or less

 

You will have four 75 minute in-class semester multiple-choice exams that will be worth a grand total of 300 points.  Each of these exams will cover between 5 and 7 topics worth of material and will be scored according to the amount of material.  Exam 1 will cover 5 topics, will have 33 multiple choice questions and be worth 66 points.  Exam 2 will cover 5 topics, will have 33 multiple choice questions and be worth 66 points.  Exam 3 will cover 7 topics, will have 45 multiple choice questions and be worth 90 points.  Exam 4 will cover 6 topics, will have 39 multiple choice questions and be worth 78 points.  Exam questions will be written from material covered in lecture; I will also give several questions on every exam that will require you to integrate or apply knowledge in novel ways.

 

Exam 1 will be given and graded prior to September 20th, the last day of the semester to drop a class without record.  If you perform poorly on the first exam (a D or an F) you may wish to consider dropping the class and trying again in the future.

 

The final exam will be on Monday 12 December from 7:00 to 9:00 PM, will be in multiple choice format, and will be worth 100 points.  You will have 2 hours to complete the final exam.

Review sessions will be held prior to each semester exam and before the final exam.  Dates and times will be announced the second week of class.  Review questions from previous exams will be provided prior to all semester exams and the final exam. 

 

If you miss an exam, you will receive a score of 0 for that exam.  If you have what I consider to be a legitimate excuse for missing an exam, and if you inform me of this before the exam, you will be allowed to take a cumulative make-up exam on Thursday 8 December at 3:00 PM in Heald 201. NO make-up for the final exam will be given.  Missing more than 1 exam will result in a grade of F or I for the course. 

 

The laboratory is worth 100 points, which is 20% of your total grade. This grade will be determined from quizzes and assignments given during lab and from a formal lab report which is worth 25% of your lab grade.  Laboratory scores are normalized across TAs at the end of the semester so that no students are at a disadvantage for differences in TA grading styles.  A passing grade in the laboratory is required to pass the course.

 

Cheating on an exam or a laboratory assignment (including plagiarism) will result in a grade of F for the entire course and will result in additional disciplinary action by the University.  Cell phones must be stowed in a backpack or pocket during an exam; a visible cell phone during an exam will be considered hard evidence of cheating and will result in a grade of F for the entire course and will result in additional disciplinary action by the University.  The instructors assume you have read and understand the plagiarism policy posted on the course web page.

 

Disabilities:  Reasonable accommodations are available for students with a documented disability. If you have a disability and may need accommodations to fully participate in this class, please visit the Access Center (Washington Building 217) to schedule an appointment with an Access Advisor. All accommodations MUST be approved through the Access Center.  If you have a documented disability,  please see me so that we can make any needed arrangements.

 

Departmental and University Policies:  The School of Biological Sciences offers Biology 251 in the Fall and Summer semesters only.  Students may only attempt the course twice; using an uncontested withdraw does NOT count as one of these attempts.  If a grade of C or better is earned on the first attempt, the course may NOT be taken a second time.  A student taking the course for the second time may be excused from the lab portion of the course if and only if the lab grade during the first attempt was an 80% or higher AND the average on all exams except the final was a 50% or higher.