Florida International University

Department of Biological Science

Biscayne Bay Campus

BSC-2011L – General Biology II Lab

Spring 2020

Updated March 18th 6pm

Lab coordinator : Dr. Richard Brinn - brinnr@fiu.edu - faculty.fiu.edu/~brinnr

Head TA: Megan Kelley - mkell009@fiu.edu  (Phd student from the Biological Sciences department)  

Schedule and Syllabus

Dates below depend on what section you are attending.

Dates	Topic	Assignments	Handouts
Jan 6,7,8	Lab 1 What is the scientific method, hypothesis testing, and experimental design? Introduction, Lab rules, Syllabus. Lab Reviews	·       Reflection	Don't Print these:
Jan 13, 14, 15	Lab 2: Diversity of Life 1: Microbes, Protist, Fungi, Systematics and Taxonomy (overview of classification)	·       Review 1 Due - Quiz 1
Jan 20, 21, 22	NO CLASSES ALLL WEEK - MLK DAY	·
Jan 27, 28, 29	Lab 3: Diversity of life II: Plants and Invertebrates	·   Review 2 Due - Quiz 2 ·
Feb 3, 4, 5	Lab 4: Diversity of life III: Invertebrates and Vertebrates	·       Review 3 Due - Quiz 3 ·
Feb 10, 11, 12	Lab 5: Ecosystems and life history (overview of ecology); South Florida environment. Project Introduction: paper and presentation expectations. Reading,writing and communicating science	·       Review 4 Due - Quiz 4 ·
Feb 17, 18, 19	Lab 6: Field methods: aquatic sampling, quadrat, and transect sampling techniques, journaling, photography, abiotic measurements (Vernier Probes) *Boat Field Sampling.	Review 5 Due - Quiz 5
Feb 24, 25, 26	NO CLASSES ALL WEEK. - SPRING BREAK	·
Mar 2, 3, 4	Lab 7: Data analysis and statistics workshop for team projects; research questions and hypotheses; methodology.  * Back up Boat and Field Sampling Day.	Project Outline Due Review 6 due
Mar 9, 10, 11	MIDTERM EXAM!	·       ·
Mar 16, 17, 18	TA Planning Week	·
Mar 23, 24, 25	Data Collection Week 1	·       ·       Habitat Observation/Description Due (Individual) ·       Updated Project Proposal Due (Group)
Mar 30, 31, Apr 1	Data Collection Week 2	·    ·       Journal Entry 1 Due (Individual) Upload group data to Canvas (Group)
Apr 6, 7, 8	Data Collection Week 3	·       Journal Entry 2 Due (Individual) Upload group data to Canvas (Group)
Apr 13, 14 ,15	Finalization of Data, Paper, and Presentation	Journal Entry 3 Due (Individual)
Apr 20, 21, 22	Group presentations and critiques	Group Paper and Presentation Due (Group)

Instructor: Depends on the section .

Required texts: No lab manual required just print handouts!!! You must have handouts printed before each lab!!!!

Email: By default all email messages sent by the Instructor, Head TA or the Lab coordinator to the students will be sent to their FIU email account. Please make sure you always check your FIU email account as well.   

Summary:  This course is complementary to the Gen Bio II lecture. It uses biological concepts to simultaneously teach basic scientific principles and study skills. Students attend one three-hour lab every week, except weeks with holidays. Arrive at every lab with a lab coat, goggles, long pants, closed shoes, the week’s handouts printed, and be ready to focus. You must also be prepared for any field activities including wearing appropriate attire and bringing a field notebook. You are required to read the handouts before lab and will be regularly quizzed over their content. You will earn your participation grade through attendance and your ability to be active and engaged each lab. To review class content and graded materials, come to TA office hours.

Course description: This is the second half of the general biology laboratories offered at Florida International University, and provides practical learning to compliment topics covered in the General Biology II lecture (BSC 1011).  This introductory laboratory course investigates the diversity of organisms in the world beginning with bacteria and extends through the animal kingdom.  Each lab focuses on the structural complexity of particular phyla and provides students with an understanding of the relationship between phyla and a comprehensive overview of phylogeny and evolutionary differences across taxa.  This course is intended for biology majors, especially for those taking BSC 1011 during the same semester, and may be difficult for non-science majors.

Personal supplies required: For your safety you will be required to wear goggles and a lab coat to participate in lab activities. You will be required to follow the proper lab attire described in the Laboratory Safety Rules (download on course website) including closed-toe shoes and long pants. You must have all of this equipment by the second lab. If you do not have your equipment, you will not be allowed into the lab. Lab goggles can be purchased at a reasonable price from the science club in Ac2- 340 or elsewhere. You must also have a lab and field journal. Write-in-the-rain and other weather-proof journal brands are encouraged. Field work may require a diverse set of clothes ranging from swimsuits, long pants and rain gear. Your TA will instruct you as to what attire is required before each lab. A personal laptop will be needed for most labs.

Reading assignments: You are required to read each lab’s handouts before lab period. Reading the handouts 10 minutes before the lab starts will be a guarantee of bad quiz grades so make sure you study a couple of days before the lab.

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Exams:  There will be a midterm and final presentation on the dates listed on the schedule.  There will be no make-up exams given.  In the event of an emergency (listed in the syllabus) and excused absence, the student and TA will coordinate with the lab coordinator (Dr. Brinn) for an alternative solution for the exam grade.  Excuses for missing both exams during the semester will not be accepted.

Quizzes: There will be pop quizzes at the beginning of certain labs except for the first and last lab of the semester. The material may cover the previous lab, as well as information for that day’s lab. You will receive a grade 0 if you arrive late for the lab quiz. There will be no make-up quizzes given. Proof of excused absences must be provided to the Head TA within a week of the missed lab otherwise the absence will be considered unexcused and will automatically be given a zero. You will only be allowed one excused absence per semester due to a documented extreme/emergency situation.

Participation grade: You will be working in groups during the semester so group cooperation and group effort will be encouraged. Grades will be based on conducting the experiments and working with your group members. You will be graded on your ability to function as a group in performing the lab tasks and creating a project. Each group member will be graded individually. Participation points may be lost from all group members for uncleanliness, disrespect, and violation of other lab rules.

Attendance:  Please note that each lab section will meet once a week in and thus it is critical that students attend all classes.

Handouts:  You will be required to maintain your handout and notebook containing your observations and results. Handouts will be available on the website, and must be printed out and read prior to class in order to effectively cover all of the material in lab. Each lab group will be responsible for cleaning up after themselves after each lab, including, but not limited to, glassware, lab counter tops, sinks, and all other materials used.

Help:  If you need additional assistance with the information presented in this course, seek the assistance of the TA. He/she is more than willing to help those students that want to do well in this lab.  Please take advantage of his/her office hours and make appointments to see him/her. If the office hours on the Biscayne Bay Campus are inconvenient other arrangements can be made.

Sexual Harassment Policy:  The Faculty Senate voted to require each professor to include a statement about this in the syllabus. FIU’s sexual harassment policy is available online:     https://diversity.fiu.edu/services-view/title-ix/

Cheating or plagiarism will not be tolerated!!!:  Cheating (including plagiarism) is unacceptable and will be reported to University Officials. See the Student Handbook and PLAGIARISM POLICY regarding the FIU policies.

Important Information:  You will need to follow all policies as stated in the university handbook. Failure to do so will result in dismissal from the class and the course.  If you are not familiar with these policies and/or have never read them, we strongly encourage you to do so. You must be registered for the section that you plan on attending and you must attend ALL of the labs. The material for each lab is scheduled to take the duration of the class time. If you decide to stop coming to lab, you must drop yourself from the lab. We cannot drop you from the lab. Students will only be given ‘incompletes’ based on University policy. No food or drinks are allowed in the lab. Beepers and cellular phones must be turned off during the lab period. You are required to get a FIU email account ASAP since emails will only be sent to this account.

Corequisite - Gen Bio II lecture needs to be taken at the same time. If you drop lecture or lab, the other will be dropped.

Grades:

Project - 30% (Research Paper 10%**, Presentation 10%**, Updated project proposal 5%**, Habitat Observation/Description 5%*)

Quizzes - 20%*

Midterm - 25%* 

Review Questions and Journal Entries - 15%*

Participation - 10%*

* Individual assignemnt

**Group assignment

Grade Scale:

Emergency and Excused Absence:  This section covers situations that prevent you for attending the class. For this course, ‘Emergency’ is determined as an unpreventable event that impedes your attendance to the laboratory class.

Emergency situations are:

1. Medical emergency with Medical Doctor’s note/emergency room.
2. Automobile accident with police report (lack of ride is NOT an emergency case).
3. Death of immediate family members.

You will only be excuse of your absence if an email is sent to either the Head TA,  your Instructor or the Lab Coordinator within one week of the occurrence. This should be followed by the proper documentation. Emergency also covers natural events such as hurricanes, floods, or fires that causes the closure of FIU-BBC. Please note that the lab will be closed for the whole week if one of the week’s lab sections is closed/affected. Your instructor will do his/her best to inform you in advance via email. But it is your responsibility to find out the status of emergency. You may contact following numbers for information campus-wide, not specific to Biology Department.

National Hurricane Center (305) 229-4470

Emergency situation also include problems with late registration. Sometimes, paper work causes the delay in class registration. In such event, make-up for the missing labs can be applied. However, your instructor reserves his/her right to deny you to seat in this course.

Campus Operator (305) 919-5000

                              (305) 348-2000

Observance of Religious Holidays: It is university policy that instructors reasonably accommodate students because of observation of religious holy days. The student shall be given a reasonable amount of time to complete coursework and/or assignments missed during their approved absence. The approved make-up assignment must be equivalent in content, type, and grading scale to the missed coursework and/or assignment.  A student who desires to be excused from class to observe a holy day of his or her religious faith should notify all of his or her instructors preferably upon receipt or access to the syllabus, and no later than two weeks before the religious holy day. If a student feels that an instructor has not complied with this policy, he/she may file a complaint of discrimination with the Office of Equal Opportunity Program and Diversity in accordance with FIU Regulation 105. This policy and related procedures will be included in the Student Handbook, Undergraduate Catalog, Faculty Handbook, and Graduate Catalog

Fieldwork: Some areas we will work in may have ticks and mosquitoes. It is relatively unlikely that these arthropods will carry a disease to infect you, however there are things you can do to reduce your chances. You may want to wear light colored clothing, long pants and sleeves, or some individuals protect themselves using DEET (please read the warning labels on any products you use). Some areas may also harbor dangerous plants and, most commonly, poison ivy which grows as a shrub or vine and has leaves of three with a pointed tip. There may also be exposure to bees, wasps, and even marine fauna which can inflict stings and bites. Please use caution and always be aware of your surroundings. South Florida experiences a variety of weather throughout the semester including heavy rain, intense heat, and the occasional streak of “cold” weather. This is a field-intensive course, and students will be expected to participate in lab activities regardless of weather (unless conditions are deemed inclement by the TA, Head TA, or Lab Coordinator). Exceptions will be made where medically necessary by a doctor’s or clinic note.

 THIS SYLLABUS IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AS DEEMED NECESSARY