Grades for the semester will be based on the following:

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1 Class: BIOL 101 General Biology (5 credits), Online via Blackboard Instructor: Office: EC 102F Office Hours: Phone: Please use the Messages link in Blackboard to send the instructor . Text: Concepts of Biology, 3rd Ed.; S. Mader (ISBN ) Web Resources: bboard.mcckc.edu, websites and web materials referenced within Concepts of Biology, 2nd Ed. are not used within the course. If you have purchased and EBook version of the text, please contact the seller and/or publisher for support. MCC Online Biol 101 Lab Kit (provided by instructor) Course Description: Biological principles applied to selected groups of plants and animals. Grades for the semester will be based on the following: Exams Comprehensive Final Syllabus Quiz Orientation CE Paper Lab quizzes Group Project Class Participation TOTAL 400 pts 100 pts 10 pts 10 pts 50 pts 90 pts 100 pts 50 pts 810 pts

2 Grading Scale: % (A), 80-89% (B), 70-79% (C), 60-69% (D), 59% and below (F) Class and College Policies Mission Statement: Preparing Students, Serving Communities and Creating Opportunities. Attendance Policy Although there is no classroom attendance required for this class, there is an expectation that each student will regularly login to the class and keep up with the progress of the course. If a student has not logged into the course after the second week of class or does not log in for any given 10 day period, the instructor reserves the right to drop them from the class. Class participation points will be deducted if a student does not regularly login for class. Communication Everyone enrolled in this class will utilize the internal system included in Blackboard. To send internal go to the Communication section and select the Messages link. This will put you into the system. Select the envelope icon to send a new message. Push the To: button to select recipients. Click on the desired user(s) and use the right arrow button to move highlighted users to the recipients window then push the submit button to add those addresses to your message. When sending or posting messages to the Discussion Board students should maintain civil discourse and identify themselves to the instructor or the class (i.e. do not post things anonymously). It is my policy to try to respond to every Message within 24 hours of its receipt when those Messages are received during the work week. Messages sent during the weekend may not be answered until the following Monday. Exams

3 Four (4) unit exams and a comprehensive final exam will be given during the semester. All exams will be found in their corresponding Learning Unit during the dates indicated in the course schedule. No make-up exams will be given. Exams will be open for 6 days beginning on a Friday at 12:00 am and closing on the following Wednesday at 11:55 pm. Any exams missed will be recorded as a zero (0). If a student misses the final exam without prior arrangements or without an acceptable excuse, the student will receive a failing grade for the course. Exams will be available on the course website between the dates indicated in the course schedule. The exams will be timed and you will have 90 minutes to complete each test. If you exceed the time limit Blackboard still permits you to submit your exam. However, it notifies the instructor of the exceeded time limit. The following table indicates potential penalties for exceeding exam time limits: Time over limit Points deducted 1-30 minutes 0-5 pts minutes 15 pts minutes 25 pts Over 90 minutes 50 pts The instructor and MCC are not responsible for the quality of your internet connection unless you are using a computer in a MCC computer lab. If you believe that your internet access is unreliable it is recommended that you take your exams at MCC computer labs (if you have problems with internet service there it will be documented and easier to address). Exams are set to allow you to save the exam and resume at a later time. This is to avoid problems that arise when people lose their internet connection during an exam. If this happens to you, simply log back into the exam and it will take you to the last question you were answering. Note: The timer runs continuously from the first time you enter the exam and will record the time until the exam is complete and finally submitted. Don t start an exam and decide that you can finish it tomorrow. Your time will be well beyond the 90 minute limit. You are held on your honor to complete your own work in this class. It is expected that exams reflect your own work. You should not take the exam with other students or provide other students with copies of the exam. For security reasons, backtracking is not allowed on the exams. Once you have submitted a question you will not have the opportunity to go back and change your answer. Make sure you are confident about your answer and that you have fully answered the question before going on to the next question. Copying and pasting text from any source to provide answers for short answer questions on quizzes or exams is plagiarism and will not be accepted. Any question answers that have been plagiarized will earn zero (0) points. Repeated acts of plagiarism may result in a zero (0) for the entire exam or quiz. Current Events Paper

4 Each student will write one current event paper this semester. Students may select any biological topic they are interested in as the subject of their paper. This paper is not simply a book report. It is important to provide a critical analysis of the topic and any information you find for that topic. This analysis can be performed using the Scientific Method. See the Critical Analysis document located in Course Documents for details on using the Scientific Method to analyze sources and information concerning your chosen topic. The CE paper should be 3-4 pages in length, double spaced with 1 inch margins and saved in either Microsoft Office Word format (.doc) or Rich Text Format (.rtf). You should use/analyze a minimum of 3 sources for each paper and provide a complete bibliography with your submission. Papers should be submitted by 11:55 pm on the due date listed in the course schedule. No late papers will be accepted. This paper is worth 50 points. In the Course Orientation link you will find a link to Student Support which contains links to library resources including online databases that provide access to many scientific publications. These are generally considered to be reliable sources for information and should be used to confirm/contradict information found on the web, in magazines, on TV or other less reliable sources. Class Participation/Discussion Board Class discussions are an integral part of the learning experience in this class. All students will be expected to participate in these discussions. These discussions will involve the analysis of topics selected by the instructor. Student participation in these discussions will be worth fifty points (50) for the semester and will be earned by fully participating in the discussion groups. Each student is expected to submit comments on the discussion board at least twice a week. Submissions should include both original comments and responses to other students submissions. Full participation also includes reading other students submissions to the Discussion Board and will be considered in calculation of the Class Participation points. Use the information in the Critical Analysis document found in Course Documents as a basis of formulating submissions and analyzing the topics provided by the instructor. The Help Discussion Board can be used to quickly get answers to common questions. I will closely monitor this forum and provide answers to the questions posed. Students should also answer any questions to which they know the answer. By checking this forum you may find that the question you have has already been answered and you will not have to wait on the Instructor to get back to you. Postings and answers on this Discussion Board do not count as part of your weekly requirement to post comments to the Discussion Board. Lab

5 The lab component of the class will be performed at home by each student enrolled in the class. Labs can be completed with items easily found at home or in local stores. Students will be expected to provide supplies for the completion of the lab activities. These items will be readily available at local stores if not already found in the home. The lab activities folder can be found in the Assignments link of the online course. Laboratory activities will be a combination of hands-on activities and computer simulations. Lab activities will be done each week. Each lab activity will be followed by a lab quiz. Each lab quiz will be worth 10 points. For the online Biol 101 class all of the lab activities will be open the entire session (Labs 1-13). Quizzes will open on a weekly basis when they are due. There will be one or two lab quizzes due each week. Typically, lab quizzes will open at midnight on Saturday and be available until 11:55 pm the following Friday. Students are free to work ahead on the lab activities but will have to take each quiz as it becomes available. The lab quiz schedule is posted in the Schedule link. Group Presentations Students will be required to complete a group research project and presentation. Each group will be required to develop a presentation on a topic selected by the instructor. This presentation will focus on an international issue in biology and students will prepare the presentation to provide information and analyses of the issue in regard to both the US and abroad. Each group will submit a PowerPoint presentation to the instructor and those presentations will be posted for all class members to view. Details for the assignment will be found in the Assignments link. The group presentation will be worth 100 points. Groups will be assigned by the instructor. Grades will be individually determined for the group project (you can t just ride on someone else s coat tails). Points earned by the group become the pool from which each group member will be awarded a grade. Individual grades will be based on 3 things: the instructor s evaluation of each individual, a self-evaluation completed by each individual and the group s evaluation of each person in the group. For example: if the group earns all 100 points but the three components of your evaluation indicate that you earned an 85% then you will receive 85 points. Grading Policies I will make every effort to grade exams and assignments within one week of the due date or closing date of the assessment. Comments and feedback will be left for each assessment and can be accessed by clicking on the score for each assessment in the My Grades link. I will post a score sheet for your Group Project in your group s file exchange. The score sheet will contain

6 your group s score for each component of the group project as well as comments for each component. Class participation points will be posted near the end of the semester. Academic Honesty Policy Cheating in any way will not be tolerated. Violations will be referred to the Dean of Instruction and may lead to an F on the assignment and/or an F for the semester. Assistance through the American Disabilities Act If any student is in need of any assistance for this class due to a disability, please contact Victorie Hollwell in the Access Office at (Independence). Sexual Harassment Sexual harassment is prohibited by Federal and State law, as well as MCC s Board of Trustee policy. If you feel that you, as a student, have been subjected to sexual harassment, please discuss this with the Dean of Students. Procedures for Students to Voice a Complaint in the Area of Instruction: 1. The student must first make an effort to resolve the problem with the instructor. 2. If the matter cannot be resolved with the instructor, the student should then see the appropriate Division Chair. 3. If the issue is still unresolved, the student may submit his/her complaint, in writing, to the office of the Dean of Instructional Services. You may use a formal complaint form available from the Instructional Services Office or you may simply write a letter using your own words. Note that only individual complaints will be accepted. All complaint letters should include: your name, student number, name of instructor, class name, date and time. Upon receipt of the complaint, the Dean of Instructional Services will:

7 1. inform the instructor and the Division Chair that a complaint has been lodged and give them an opportunity to respond; 2. Take all factors into consideration and provide a response, in writing, to the student and the instructor. 3. If the student feels the issue is still not resolved, he/she may request that the matter be reviewed by an appeals committee. A committee review and subsequent decision will be the final step.