Biology 251 Syllabus
Fall 2007
Instructor: Dr. Patrick A. Carter
Office: 217 Heald Hall
Office Hours: Tues, Wed & Thurs
Instructor email: pacarter@wsu.edu
Textbook: Germann & Stanfield. 2007. Principles of Human Physiology, 2nd Custom Edition for WSU. PhysioEx laboratory book and cd bundled with the textbook. Available at the Bookie or Crimson and Gray.
Laboratory Manual: Zoo 251 Lab Manual. Available at the Bookie or Crimson and Gray.
Course Web Page: http://www.wsu.edu/~biol251/
Printer Friendly
Version of Course syllabus: syllabus
Course plagiarism
statement: cheating
TA Contact Information and Office Hours: TA
Final Grades
Click the link below to see your final grades. You will see your final letter grade, your final class average, the points you earned on each exam (the points, not the percentage), the Exam 5 curve, your final lab grade and the lab curve. Remember that Exams 1 and 2 were out of 66 points, Exam 3 was out of 90 points, Exam 4 was out of 78 points, Exam 5 was out of 100 points and the lab was out of 100 points. The lab curve is 5 points for all students and the Exam 5 curve is 5 points for all students who took Exam 5. The class grading scale is further down this page.
Final Exam (Exam 5)
The mean on Exam 5
is a 65%. There is a 5 point curve correction.
Exam 4
The mean on Exam 4
is a 74%. No curve correction is
required.
The key to Exam 4 is posted outside Heald 217.
Exam 3
The mean on Exam 3
is a 75%. No curve correction is
required.
Answers to Practice Exam 3 (with question 12 corrected)
Exam 2
The mean on Exam 2 is 75%. No curve correction is required.
The key to Exam 1 is posted outside Heald 217.
Exam 1
The mean on Exam 1 is an 80%. No curve correction is required.
The key to Exam 1 is posted in the glass case in the lab room, Heald 201.
Biology 251 Topics
Fall 2007
Click on the topic
links below to get lecture notes for that topic. Notes will be ready no later than 5 PM the
day before the lecture.
Date
|
Week
|
Topic
|
Subject
|
|
Lab
|
|
|
|
|
CELL PHYSIOLOGY |
|
|
|
21 Aug |
1 |
1 |
Ch 1 |
Check In- Attendance Mandatory |
|
|
23 Aug |
1 |
2 |
22-45; 75-86 |
||
|
28 Aug |
2 |
3 |
32-36; Chp 4 |
Diffusion and Osmosis |
|
|
30 Aug |
2 |
4 |
Ch 7 |
||
|
4 Sep |
3 |
5 |
Ch 8 |
Membrane Transport |
|
|
|
|
|
CONTROL SYSTEMS |
|
|
|
6 Sep |
3 |
6 |
Ch 9 |
||
|
11 Sep |
4 |
|
EXAM 1 Topics 1 to 5 (66 points) |
|
Spike |
|
13 Sep |
4 |
7 |
252-269; 293-299 |
||
18
Sep*
|
5 |
8 |
Peripheral Nervous System: Efferent Division AND Sex Response Figs |
Ch 11 |
Sensory Responses |
|
20 Sep |
5 |
9 |
Ch 6 |
||
25
Sep
|
6 |
10 |
623-625; 639-653; |
Reflexes |
|
|
|
|
|
MUSCLES AND THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM |
|
|
|
27 Sep |
6 |
11 |
322-334 |
||
|
2 Oct |
7 |
12 |
344-350 |
PhysioEx: The Endocrine System |
|
|
4 Oct |
7 |
|
EXAM 2 Topics 6 to 10 (66 points) |
|
|
|
9 Oct |
8 |
13 |
350-357 |
Skeletal Muscle |
|
|
11 Oct |
8 |
14 |
Cardiovascular System: Anatomy & Electrical Activity of Heart |
360-378 |
* Last day to drop class without record
|
16 Oct |
9 |
15 |
379-392 |
Smooth Muscle |
|
|
18 Oct |
9 |
16 |
395-422 |
||
|
23 Oct |
10 |
17 |
422-433; Ch 15 |
HR, BP & ECG |
|
|
|
|
|
RESPIRATORY AND
URINARY SYSTEMS |
|
|
|
25 Oct |
10 |
18 |
Ch 16 |
||
|
30 Oct |
11 |
19 |
Ch 17 |
Animal Heart Rate |
|
1 Nov
|
11 |
|
EXAM 3 Topics 11 to 17 (90 points) |
|
|
|
6 Nov |
12 |
20 |
510-522 |
Respiration + Library Session Owen 319D |
|
|
8 Nov |
12
|
21 |
Urinary System: Reabsorption,
Secretion, & Excretion
|
523-533 |
|
|
13 Nov |
13 |
22
|
536-556 |
PhysioEx: The Kidney. |
|
|
15 Nov |
13 |
23 |
556-566 |
||
|
20 Nov |
|
|
Thanksgiving Break |
|
No Labs Thanksgiving Break |
|
22 Nov |
|
|
Thanksgiving Break |
|
|
|
|
|
|
THANKSGIVING
LEFTOVERS |
|
|
|
27 Nov |
14 |
|
Review of Acid Base & Fluid Balance |
|
PhysioEx: Acid Base Balance |
29 Nov
|
14 |
|
EXAM 4: Topics 18 -
23 (78 points) |
|
|
|
4 Dec |
15 |
24 |
Ch 23 |
Mandatory Attendance: Final Grade Check |
|
|
6 Dec |
15 |
25 |
Health Challenges of the 21st Century Fig (the figure is the only handout) |
No reading |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
11 Dec |
|
|
EXAM 5: Cumulative
Final Topics 1 – 26 (100 pts) 7 to 9 PM |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Goals of Course: Most students in Biology 251 are pursuing careers in Health or Exercise Sciences. For many of you, Biology 251 will be your primary exposure to human physiology while an undergraduate. You need to learn how the healthy human body functions before you can learn in future classes how exercise, disease and injury alter function. My objective in teaching this course is to ensure that you learn human physiology well enough to be successful in future classes, professional exams, and careers. Your task is to read the assigned pages in the textbook, attend lectures and laboratories and study and THINK about the material. By doing this, you will be able to perform well on lecture exams and laboratory quizzes, you will learn the material well enough to be able to use it in your future classes and career, and you will make this course a satisfying intellectual experience.
Class Notes:
My lecture notes for each class meeting will be available on the course web
page (http://www.wsu.edu/~biol251/)
by
Exams and Grades: Your final grade will be determined from exam scores and from the laboratory score; you will be assigned a final letter grade based on your total course points. The total number of points available is 500: 300 of these come from semester exams, 100 come from the cumulative final, and 100 come from the lab. No extra credit points are offered.
All grading scales are “curved”. Traditionally, the mean score plus or minus one standard deviation is given a grade of C, scores between plus 1 and plus 2 standard deviations are given a B, scores greater than plus 2 standard deviations are given an A, scores between minus 1 and minus 2 standard deviations are given a D and scores less than minus 2 standard deviations are given an F.
I use a slight variant of this system that offers a big incentive to students to do well and that is easy to understand. I only curve “up”, and when I do, I adjust the mean to a 70% to facilitate translation of the curved scale to the letter scale with which most students are familiar. So, for example, if the mean score is 65%, all students have 5% added to their scores to bring the mean up to a 70%. However, I never curve “down”; if the mean is an 80%, I leave it at 80%; I do NOT take 10% away from each student’s score. This means that all students in the class could earn A’s and B’s. In addition, score standard deviations in the class tend to be large, so the “C range” is larger than in a traditional system.
Once the curve has been adjusted (if needed), letter grades are assigned as follows:
A = 92.50% and up
A- = 90.0% to 92.49%
B+ = 87.50% to 89.99%
B = 82.50% to 87.49%
B- = 80.0% to 82.49%
C+ = 75.0% to 79.99%
C = 65.0% to 77.49%
C- = 60.0% to 64.99%
D = 50.0% to 59.99%
F = 49.99% or less
You will have four 75 minute in-class semester multiple-choice exams that will be worth a grand total of 300 points. Each of these exams will cover between 5 and 7 topics worth of material and will be scored according to the amount of material. Exam 1 will cover 5 topics, will have 33 multiple choice questions and be worth 66 points. Exam 2 will cover 5 topics, will have 33 multiple choice questions and be worth 66 points. Exam 3 will cover 7 topics, will have 45 multiple choice questions and be worth 90 points. Exam 4 will cover 6 topics, will have 39 multiple choice questions and be worth 78 points. Exam questions will be written from material covered in lecture; I will also give several questions on every exam that will require you to integrate or apply knowledge in novel ways.
Exam 1 will be given and graded prior to the last day of the semester to drop a class without record (September 18th). If you do poorly on the first exam (a D or an F) you may wish to consider dropping the class and trying again later in the future.
The final exam
will be on Tuesday 11 December from 7 to 9 PM, will be in multiple choice
format, and will be worth 100 points.
You will have one hour and 50 minutes to complete the final exam.
Review sessions will be held prior
to each semester exam in Heald Auditorium, the regular classroom. Review session dates and times are 5:10 to 7
PM on 10 September; and 4:10 to 6:00 PM on October 2nd, October 30th
and November 27th. The review
session for the final exam will be scheduled later in the semester. Review
questions from previous exams will be provided prior to all semester exams
and the final exam.
If you miss an exam, you will receive a score of 0 for that exam. If you have what I consider to be a legitimate excuse for missing an exam, and if you inform me of this before the exam, you will be allowed to take a cumulative make-up exam on Thursday 6 December at 3:00 PM. NO make-up for the final exam will be given. Missing more than 1 exam will result in a grade of F or I for the course.
The laboratory is worth 100 points, which is 20% of your total grade. This grade will be determined from quizzes and assignments given during lab and from a formal lab report which is worth 25% of your lab grade. A passing grade in the laboratory is required to pass the course.
Cheating on an exam or a laboratory assignment (including plagiarism) will result in a grade of F for the entire course and will result in additional disciplinary action by the University. The instructors assume you have read and understand the plagiarism policy posted on the course web page.
Miscellaneous: If you require special teaching or testing conditions, please see me during the first week of class so that we can make the needed arrangements.
Departmental and
University Policies: The
How to Do Well: This course covers a great deal of complex and interrelated material. You must understand topics covered early in the course to be able to comprehend information presented later in the course, and you will have to be able to integrate material that you learn throughout the course. Therefore it is imperative that you do not fall behind. You can take several steps to increase your ability to comprehend and remember material.
1) Do the assigned reading for a topic BEFORE the lecture even if you don’t understand all the details at first. Being familiar with topics beforehand will allow you to get the most out of lecture.
2) When reading a given chapter, first skim the section called “Chapter Summary” at the end of the chapter to get an overview of the important concepts in the chapter, then read the chapter itself.
3) Within 24 hours of a lecture, rewrite your lecture notes, practice drawing crucial figures, REVIEW ANIMATIONS on the Interactive Physiology cd, and write practice exam questions on that lecture. This will force you to review and integrate the material while it is fresh in your mind, and it will provide you and your friends with practice exams to take before each real exam.
4) Topics in this
course build on each other. For example,
you must understand electrochemical gradients to understand how neurons
function, and you need to understand how neurons function to understand muscle
function, and you need to understand muscle function to understand cardiac
function. Thus make sure that when you study a topic, you understand it well
enough to be able to remember it and use it later in the course.
5) Do NOT fall behind in your reading and studying; you will find it impossible to catch up once you fall behind in a course of this type. To learn this material, you WILL have to spend numerous hours outside of class reading and studying. Make sure you set aside regular times outside of class to work on the course material; you should plan on at least 6 to 8 hours per week of study time.
Students who have