Course Philosophy and Policies
Biology 101 is the first semester of a two semester introductory biology sequence and is designed to help you become familiar with the distinctive ideas, perspectives, and ways of asking and answering questions that have emerged from the scientific discipline of biology. Our belief is that these ideas, perspectives and methodologies are of general human significance, are accessible to everyone and belong in the background of every educated person.
Biology 101 is a course predicated on and structured in terms of the fundamental activities of science itself, a process in which facts (observations) motivate ideas, which in turn motivate observations which in turn motivate ideas in a continuing recurring interaction. One immediate consequence of this is that Biology 101 will place on you somewhat more responsibility for your own education than you have become used to from previous science courses. Material in this course will be presented in the context of a conceptual framework, using concrete examples to illustrate each concept. There will be a strong emphasis on learning a core body of information and the vocabulary used by biologists to describe this information. In addition, you will be asked to synthesize information putting it into a broader conceptual framework. Consequently, you should turn your critical thinking skills to an understanding of the inter-relationships of the facts of biology. You will know you have mastered the material at the appropriate level when you can recreate the facts that support a particular line of argument, and see connections between pieces of information. We will invite you to listen to, to read about, and to work through in your own mind the basic concepts of biology. We also encourage you to contribute to an ongoing discussion of the relationship between observations and ideas in biology. It is our belief that the experience of having you make biology make sense to yourself is the most valuable thing you can take from this course and also the most effective way to define what you wish to learn.
Depending on your prior experiences with science courses (and other courses), Biology 101 may or may not require some modification of your study habits. Your instructors would be happy to discuss appropriate study skills for this course if you are concerned. Basically, you will not find it particularly helpful to make lists of points and try to memorize them. Instead, you should think over what you have heard or read, not once but several times. The first go through should be an uncritical thinking through of what the material was generally about and what its relation was to anything else you know. The second go through should include an effort to distinguish observations and ideas (including an analysis of which are new to you) and a characterization of the relations among them for the particular material at hand. Subsequent run- throughs should bring you at least to the point where you understand why the material was presented as it was, and where you could, entirely in your own words, duplicate the material in terms of its organization. For any material in which you are particularly interested, you are, of course, encouraged to move beyond this point to both criticism and improvement.
Course Content and Reading. This course consists of lectures and laboratory sessions, a reference textbook of biology which you should purchase (Biology, 6th Edition, by Neil A. Campbell and Jane B. Reece) and supplementary readings, including materials available on electronic reserves. Our text is an excellent reference textbook, but like all textbooks, treats many subjects at a greater level of detail than we believe either necessary or appropriate for the objectives of this course. The same is true of suggestions for supplementary reading. You should take the material in lectures and laboratory sessions as the defining feature of the core content of the course. In thinking through this material, however, you will find it helpful to supplement the lecture and laboratory material with significant reading of the reference textbook and additional material. On occassion, appropriate problem sets and/or review questions will also be posted on the course web site to guide your study.
Friday Afternoon Review Sessions (optional)The Tutors will conduct weekly review sessions on Friday afternoons from 4:00-5:00 pm in Room 229 in the Park Science Complex. This session is an opportunity to revisit material covered in recent lectures and to discuss problem sets and/or review questions. Attendence is voluntary.
Office Hours. Faculty members have scheduled office hours each week. You are encouraged to consult individually with a faculty member if you have unanswered questions about course material. Please consult the sign-up sheets posted weekly on each faculty member's office door for their office hour schedule.
Examinations. Consistent with the philosophy of this course, the examinations will be structured to encourage you to consider the relations between observations and ideas. In general, you will be required to display the kind of concern for concrete observations that is fundamental to scientific discourse which, necessarily, also requires a basic understanding of the vocabulary of the science of biology. Usually, exam questions will be of a problem solving type, including multiple choice, short answer and short essay formats, and will include questions on the problem sets. "Hour exams" are designed to be completed during the regular 50 minute class period. The final exam will be written to take approximately two to two and one-half hours to finish although you will have three hours to complete the exam.
Students with Learning Differences. Students with learning differences who desire accommodations should consult with Stephanie Bell, the Accessibility Coordinator to arrange for and complete the necessary documentation. Ms. Bell's telephone number is extension 7351 and her office is in Canwyll House. In addition, requests for accommodations for examinations or for other course work should be made directly to the responsible faculty member at least one week prior to the scheduled date so that appropriate arrangements can be made.
Grading Policy. Diversity is fundamental to biological systems at all levels of organization (including that of human societies). It follows necessarily from this that no single measure can adequately reflect the distinctive efforts and achievements of any individual taking a given course, nor can your grade in any given course be taken as an adequate indicator of your performance in other contexts. The grade you receive for this course will be based on your performance on a series of hour examinations, a cumulative scheduled final exam, and your laboratory performance. Each of the three hour exams is worth 15% (3 X 15 = 45%); the cumulative, scheduled final exam is also worth 30%. The laboratory component of the course is worth 25% of your final grade for Biology 101. During the semester, grades will be reported as percentages of available points. Since your grade is not affected by how others do, we do not post class averages for examinations. It has been our experience that final percentages in the range of 92% and above have in the past typically translated into final grades of 4.0, those in the range of 80% into grades of 3.0, those in the vicinity of 64% into grades of 2.0 and those in the range of 50% into grades of 1.0. Grades below 50% are considered as failing. You should take this score as only one measure of your performance, taking into account, as well, your distinctive objectives and your own sense of what you have achieved in relation to them. Should you have questions about the significance of your grades in relation to career objectives, faculty members would be happy to discuss these with you. However, our general experience is that extended discussions of the legitimacy of particular grades is not only unproductive but detracts from the broad perspective on life and its challenges which this course is intended to encourage.
Examination Review Policy. When each hour examination is returned to you, please take time immediately to examine it for mathematical accuracy. Also read the comments provided by your instructor. If you should have any questions about how your answers were graded, please consult the posted answer key. If you still have questions, or if you have detected a mathematical error, you will have ONE WEEK from the time each examination is returned to contact your instructor for possible adjustments. After the one week time frame, the percentage values for any particular hour examination will be considered final.
Make-Up Examinations. Because of the number of students enrolled in this course, it is not possible to make individual arrangements for make-up examinations.
