Objectives:
This course satisfies one of the upper-level lab course requirements for the biology major. It is designed to provide you with comprehensive exposure to the subject of botany. You will learn about the structure, life history, and evolution of plants. Physiology and ecology will be kept to a minimum as ECSU offers comprehensive courses on these subjects and this course will prepare you well for taking those courses. This course will assist you in answering 30-50% of the questions on the GRE biology exam. The course covers three of the six biological "kingdoms" and spans 3 billion years of the history of life on planet Earth. If you are a person who has over-specialized in zoology, ecology, or cellular and molecular biology, this course will expand your horizons significantly. As a study of producers, this course will examine those organisms so important because of their position at the energy and elemental intake portion of the energy pyramid and the food web! This course should bring you to a better appreciation of plants, upon which we depend completely for our very survival.

Since this course focuses upon plant structures, life histories, and evolution, you are advised that the differences among the organisms known as plants are expressed most extensively and differentially in their reproductive structures, functions, and evolution. You are forewarned that this course necessarily has strong sexual content. If you are uncomfortable discussing, dissecting, and studying the sexual aspects of plants and their conspecifics, perhaps you should consider a different course for this semester.

Resources:
There is no book required for this course. Last year 20% of students commented in the course evaluation that a book should be required for this course. If your learning style requires a formal book to guide your studies, then here is a list of standard botany books by price from Amazon.com (observed in late-May 2010).

• Raven, P. H., R. F. Evert, and S. E. Eichhorn. 2005. Biology of Plants. 7th ed. Macmillan/W. H. Freeman. $105.22
• Bidlack, J. E., K. R. Stern, S. Jansky. 2010. Introductory Plant Biology. 12th ed. McGraw-Hill Publishing. $109.16
• Mauseth, J. D. 2009. Botany: An Introduction to Plant Biology. 4th ed. Jones and Bartlett Publishers. $117.72
• Rost, T. L., M. G. Barbour, R. C. Stocking. 2005. Plant Biology. 2nd ed. Cengage Learning. $133.21
• Graham, L, J. Graham, L. Wilcox. 2005. Plant Biology. 2nd ed. Pearson Publishers. $138.47

My lecture notes, PowerPoint slides, study guide handouts, and other materials are linked on the course schedule above for your study. I hope you appreciate the $aving$! Likewise there is no required lab manual to purchase, but lab handouts will be provided for each week. These are also linked above so you can download a lab handout for reprinting should you need a spare copy. I recommend that you purchase a large three-ring binder for these and for your notes, with zipper pouch containing: Small Scissors, Metric Rule, Fine Forceps, Mechanical Pencil, Leads, Eraser, Colored Pencils, and a USB Flash Drive or other storage device for whatever computer you like to use. Because I abhor grading inky-messes, there is a 10% penalty for all laboratory papers and quizzes completed in ink; buy your pencil, keep it in your zipper pouch, and use it well.

Grading:
Your course grade will be based on 1000 points divided between 350 points for weekly quizzes, 350 points for the various lab components, 100 points for the term project, and 200 points for the comprehensive final exam.

A quiz will be given at the beginning of each laboratory period. Quizzes will cover lectures, readings, and laboratory material from the previous portions of the course. Most quizzes will consist of a variety of question types; it is your responsibility to be prepared for all forms of questions (MC, TF, FI, Drawing, Essay). THERE WILL BE NO MAKE-UP QUIZZES! When the students who arrived to laboratory on time are finished with the quiz, all other quiz papers will be collected (finished or not). Do not be late to laboratory! If you have a written excuse for missing one quiz, it will be excused. Missing an additional quiz will not be excused and will put a 0 score to be calculated into your grade....whether you provide a written excuse or not. If you have not missed one quiz all semester, then your lowest quiz score will be dropped from grading.

Lab worksheets or other exercises will be due at the beginning of the lecture on the announced due date. A paper turned in during or after that lecture will be scored as one-day late. Late papers will receive a penalty of 10% per day late; and after the first graded paper is returned to any one of your classmates, your late work is not acceptable and will be scored as a 0. You will need to make many sketches and write much about what you have learned during each part of the course to stay "up to date." These materials include on-line anatomy exercises that are just as important as any other part of the lab work!

Lab worksheets or other exercises will be due at the beginning of the lecture on the announced due date. A paper turned in during or after that lecture will be scored as one-day late. Late papers will receive a penalty of 10% per day late; and after the first graded paper is returned to any one of your classmates, your late work is not acceptable and will be scored as a 0. You will need to make many sketches and write much about what you have learned during each part of the course to stay "up to date." These materials include on-line anatomy exercises that are just as important as any other part of the lab work!

The Term Project will be to announced later in the semester with a due date of at least one week in the future. The late penalty for worksheets described above applies to this term project report as well!

The Final Exam is a comprehensive examination of the entire course. Both lecture and laboratory material will be integrated into this exam. The Exam will be short answer and short essay with sketches, etc. Questions are likely to be focused longitudinally through the course rather than horizontally through each group of plants. "Seeing the forest" will be more important than "knowing the trees" for this exam. It will be given during the final exam week on the day specifically assigned to our laboratory (not lecture) time...so we have access to the laboratory for the final. Please be sure to work your travel, work and other schedules around this date and time!

I will do my level best to grade student work as fairly and as objectively as I know to try. I am open to your suggestions about fairness. I am 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. I cannot address concerns that go unexpressed, so I invite you to my 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. I 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; I am happy to explain my grading to you and to make any adjustments as are correct and fair.

Participation:
Participation in this laboratory course is essential but, due to its subjective nature, is not given grading credit in a specific numerical sense. However, should your course grade come near a grading border, my sense of your participation in this course will be used as leverage into or barrier from the next-higher grade. Being on-time to all classes, having all materials needed for class, turning in assignments on time or early, being thorough in your laboratory work, being attentive in both lab and lecture classes, working efficiently and cooperatively with lab partners, asking pertinent questions, having answers to my questions in lectures, etc. are all good ways to impress me about your committment to learning botany. If you are a person who procrastinates, who does only the minimum, who is tardy with papers, who complains about academic workloads, who watches lab partners doing the work, who sleeps in class, who can not or will not do simple math, or who answers cell phone calls or text-messaging in class...well...you will get exactly what you earn...and only what you earn.

A few students are under the mistaken impression that laboratory exercises are or should be initiated and completed, including all calculations and answering of thought questions, within the 3-hour laboratory class period. I remind you that the university and I are in agreement that, for the three hours of lab time each week, you are also expected to spend at least six hours each week on your own time completing the laboratory course work! Failing to distinguish what to do during laboratory time vs homework time is one reason students often claim that the laboratory exercises in my courses are too long. It is important to identify and complete data collection in class and to avoid breaking out calculators or computers in laboratory time to do the homework thinking and homework calculations. It is also good practice to spend no laboratory time in social conversation...as much fun and as tempting as that activity may be.

The biology department and I 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.

Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated. Using data that you did not help to collect will be discounted completely. Attendance is critical to good performance, particularly in laboratory. Keeping up in reading the website, studying, etc. is important. If you lack time-management skills, ask me how to learn them.

If you are a student with a disability and believe you need accommodations for this class, it is your responsibility to immediately contact the Office of AccessAbility Services. I cannot provide accommodations based upon disability until I have received a directive letter from that office.

This page © Ross E. Koning 1994.

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Send comments and bug reports to Ross Koning at rkoning@snet.net.