Lectures: MWF 12:00-12:50 PM Goddard 100
Laboratory: R 8-11, 11-2, 2-5 Shafer 215
I am Ross Koning, a professor of biology at ECSU and will be the instructor for this semester. As you can see from our syllabus, I am reachable at my cell phone number 933-2712 at least when we are not meeting in lecture or laboratory. In the evenings I often have rehearsals for chorus or band, so I am unlikely to answer then as well. I have office hours in Media 224 on MWF at 11-11:50 AM and 1:00-1:50 PM so you can drop in to see me at those times. If those times are not convenient for you, we can meet at other times by appointment (arrange it with me before or after class for a time when we both can meet). You may also reach me by email one of two ways: my ECSU email address is koning@easternct.edu and my home email address is rkoning@snet.net. I earned my PhD degree in botany at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1981. I am known for my work on growth and development of flower parts and more recently in studies of genetic aspects of development of leaves. However I have been called by my name, Ross, all my life...and since I do not deliver babies or make house calls, please just call me Ross...rather than Doctor Koning. THANKS!
Everyone in this class should be either majoring or minoring in biology. This course is NOT for the GER or the LAP or the LAC or whatever it goes by this year. It is not a formal part of the first-year program even though it is required by freshmen in the biology major and minor programs. This could change in the future, but we would need to alter the course dramatically back to its original liberal arts size and configuration to do that. Instead, starting this fall, this course will be taught in the research university model because of lack of adequate staffing and funding in Biology. I understand that this may be a disappointment to you, it certainly is to me, and I am sorry that our departmental situation forces this approach upon us.
This course is designed to expose you to biology by focusing on the structure and function of the organisms...the subjects of biology. You will learn about classification of organisms from a modern phylogeny (cladistics) approach. In the laboratory you will work experimentally with living organisms. We will study the diverse array of solutions organisms have evolved to the common problems all organisms face in living on our planet. Some of these problems include: obtaining minerals and water, energy and food, exchanging gases, transporting materials around the body, maintaining body temperature, chemically signaling various body parts into action, reproducing, sensing the environment, moving, and so on. While there will be some very limited writing in this semester, the class size no longer permits this course to provide you with meaningful writing and revising (authentic biology writing) experiences.
You do not need to purchase any books at the bookstore as there are no books published that come even close to supporting this course. The leading publishers are dictating the scope and sequence of materials in all first-year biology textbooks nationwide, and the only maverick publisher, Norton, has pulled the plug on both Gould and Keeton (last edition was the 6th edition of 2000) and Cain, et al. (2nd edition of 2002 was the last unique edition). So if you do want to have a book, I suggest looking for these old Norton titles on half.com or other venues for used books. Instead, these webpages serve as your textbook for our course. The beauty of this is that you get your book here for free. You only need a username and password, which will be given out in class. This protects the author's and publisher's rights for the limited "fair-use" materials that I select to show you that are copyrighted. Be sure to write down the username and password in class today!
In a similar way, you will not need to purchase a laboratory manual. Your laboratory worksheets will be duplicated and provided to you in class. If you lose your worksheet after it has been handed out, you will need to download the file from the server here and reprint it. I will NOT have a second copy for you...the department cannot afford to pay for your losses.
However, you do need to have a couple of things for class...though they need not be purchased new. You will need about a 1-inch three-ring binder to hold together all of the lab sheets, class notes, etc. so you have everything you need with you in class at each meeting. I recommended getting a zipper pouch for your binder so you can keep your mechanical pencil, eraser, maybe some colored pencils, and a simple calculator (NOT some fancy TI-8*, just something to do simple add, subtract, multiply, and divide calculations...anything more complex than that will be done on departmental computers using Excel) for laboratory each lab day.
You will want to check the on-line syllabus frequently and regularly as the course is still being revised to accommodate the changes in class size and also to bring it into conformity with departmental wishes. So remember, the printed syllabus is a very rough guide and the on-line syllabus will have updated information (for example: due dates for assignments, and topic coverage for quizzes!).
Each week you will have a quiz and an activity worksheet. The quiz and the worksheet carry equal weight in the course grade. The quizzes and the worksheets will be graded on a straight scale...so 90% or higher will be some kind of A grade...an average between 80 and 90% will be some kind of B, and so on. I will drop your lowest quiz score prior to determining your final grade as a kind of "safety net". I will not drop the lowest lab exercise as you can always ask me questions about the worksheets before handing them in. You should all get 100% on the lab worksheets! The quizzes will be mostly multiple-choice, true-false, and matching. However there could be diagrams to label and/or short answers to give too. There will likely be no essay questions...there are too many students in this class.
There will be no make-up quizzes or make-up laboratory exercises...be there! Late lab assignments cost you a 10% penalty each day they are late and, when a graded lab assignment has been returned to your classmates, your late paper is no longer acceptable and will be scored as 0%. Again, I will drop the lowest quiz so if you are late to lab and miss it, well, that will simply be the one you get dropped. Any that you miss after that count into your grade as a 0%.
How about participation in the determination of grades? I have not included a formal participation component. However, I will use my observations of your participation to provide leverage or barrier to a higher grade should your final score fall near a borderline. Imagine you get 89.9 as a final score on all of your papers; to decide whether you might get an A-, I will look at your attendance, your attention in an out of class, your attitude toward learning, how well you stay on-task in laboratory, how engaged you are in discussion (asking and answering questions), how effective you are in contributing to your laboratory team activities, if you bring all the required materials with you to class each week, and how often you are on-time to class meetings. If all of these are favorable, your 89.9 might be an A-...but if I have evidence that you are not putting in your best effort...well...the B+ is what you earned.
If you are a student with a disability and believe you will need accommodations for this course, it is your responsibility to contact the Office of AccessAbility Services (860-465-5573) to obtain accommodations in a timely manner. Please understand that I cannot provide any special accommodations for anyone without first receiving a letter from the office of AccessAbility Services authorizing them!
There is no extra credit for any one for any reason at any time in this course. And copying or plagiarism is completely prohibited. We will share our data but only with those who helped collect them. We will never share calculated results or written answers to questions. However, among those who have DONE the calculations, comparisons are suggested to help diagnose errors ONLY! Lazy math folks will NOT be "given" answers by those who do the math.
I am from the question authority generation, so if you have any concern...especially a concern that you are not being treated fairly...I hope you will visit me privately. It is my intention to giver you every tenth of a point that you earn!
This page © Ross E. Koning 1994.
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