Laboratory Syllabus

BIOL 1107: Principles of Biology I - Section 001L to 033L

Distance Learning (Online) - Spring 2021

Course Information

Course Title:  Principles of Biology I (BIOL 1107)

Credits:  4

Prerequisites:  A course in high school level chemistry or concurrent enrollment in CHEM 1127 are recommended for students enrolling in BIOL 1107.

HuskyCT Course Site: https://lms.uconn.edu/ 

Professors: Drs. Thomas Abbott & Elizabeth Kline

 

Lab Director: Dr. Christopher Malinoski

Pronouns: He/Him/His

Office: Bronwell (Engineering III), Rm. 103

Email: [email protected] 

Office Hours: By appointment, via Webex. Email to schedule an appointment.

 

Spring 2021 Online Laboratory Overview;

Or, How Will Labs Work This Semester?

All of the material for the lab portion of the course can be found on the HuskyCT lab site. There you will find a series of folders corresponding to each week of lab. In these folders will be objectives, instructions, videos, photos, and data that you will need to complete the lab assignments. Since all of the lab work is online, you are expected to work on this material on your own time throughout the week.

 

It is recommended that you begin working on the lab exercises at the beginning of each week; you do not need to wait for your lab section to meet to begin working through the material. This will have the added benefit of making sure that you can get your questions answered when you see your TA during the weekly lab meeting.

 

Labs will meet virtually at the time scheduled in Student Admin. Labs sections will meet using the Collaborate video conference tool on the HuskyCT lab site. You will need to know what lab section you are enrolled in, which can be found on your course schedule on StudentAdmin. There will be three different virtual rooms on Collaborate, named Room Avengers, Guardians, and SHIELD. You will want to make sure that you join the correct room for your lab section. Check the lab section schedule to see which room is assigned to your section.  This schedule also tells you the name of your TA.

 

In accordance with the University’s Device Requirements for Students, you will need a computer running the latest version of Windows or MacOS, a high-speed internet connection, and a webcam to fully participate in this course. For the synchronous lab meetings it is required that you activate your webcam. During the group activities it is important that you participate and interact with your TA and your fellow students. If you have questions or are unable to fulfill this requirement, contact the Lab Director.

 

At the start of the lab section, the TA will administer a quiz on the material from the week before. The TA will give you the quiz password over Collaborate. You will be able to take the quiz in your standard web browser; Lockdown Browser is not required for this course! You will have 20 minutes to complete the quiz. Although all lab material is fair game, it is recommended that you study for quizzes based on the objectives for each lab exercise. After the quiz, your lab section will meet to talk about the lab exercises for the week. Lab Assignments and Homework are always due the week after the lab exercises are assigned, specifically on the following Monday by 11:59 PM. See the “Exercise and Due Dates” document for a specific list of all due dates for the course.

TAs will hold office hours online, also via Collaborate. You are not required to attend the Office Hours, but these meetings are your opportunity to speak with the TA to further discuss assignments or laboratory concepts. You may also email your TA to ask questions or to request to meet with them on Collaborate by appointment.

Statement on Copyright

“My lectures, notes, handouts, and displays are protected by state common law and federal copyright law. They are my own original expression and I’ve recorded them prior or during my lecture in order to ensure that I obtain copyright protection. Students are authorized to take notes in my class; however, this authorization extends only to making one set of notes for your own personal use and no other use. I will inform you as to whether you are authorized to record my lectures at the beginning of each semester. If you are so authorized to record my lectures, you may not copy this recording or any other material, provide copies of either to anyone else, or make a commercial use of them without prior permission from me.”

Course Materials

Required course materials should be obtained before the first day of class. Lab manuals are electronic this semester and are available for purchase at the UConn Bookstore.

 

Required Materials:

● Laboratory Manual eBook: Biology 1107 Laboratory Manual, Fall 2020 - Spring 2021 ed.

○ After completing your purchase of the eBook, you should receive an email telling you how to access it. This should happen quickly if you pay using a direct method, like debit or credit cards. If you pay using PayPal or through financial aid, your email will be delayed as such purchases must be manually processed by employees at the UConn Bookstore.This can take several days if the Bookstore is especially busy, like during the start of the semester.

○ To access the eBook, go to https://www.yuzu.com. You will login with the exact same username and password that you use to sign into the UConn Bookstore website. Both Yuzu and the UConn Bookstore are owned and operated by Barnes and Noble.

Course Description

Designed to provide a foundation for more advanced courses in Biology and related sciences. Topics covered include molecular and cell biology, animal anatomy and physiology. Laboratory exercises include dissection of preserved animals. (Source: http://catalog.uconn.edu/BIOL/#1107)

Laboratory Course Objectives

By the end of the semester, students should be able to:

1. Solve metric system unit conversions.

2. Calculate and create molar and percent solutions and dilutions.

3. Write a scientific lab report with a testable hypothesis, independent and dependent variables, applicable content, and credible sources.

4. Create and analyze figures and tables to support interpretations in your lab report.

5. Use accurate biological and anatomical terminology to communicate results.

Course Outline: Laboratory Exercise Schedule & Assignment Due Dates

See the “Schedule & Due Dates” document linked to on the HuskyCT laboratory site for a summary of due dates for all the graded assessments in the lab portion of the course..

Course Requirements and Policies

Lab Orientation

● Lab Orientation consists of three quizzes on the topics of lab safety, academic misconduct (plagiarism), and the lab syllabus policies.

● You must score a 10/10 on all three of these quizzes on HuskyCT.

○ You will not be able to see the “Lab Sessions” lab material on HuskyCT until this requirement is met.

○ You can retake these quizzes as many times as needed to score 10/10.

○ These scores are not counted towards your lab grade.

● Any lab work you are unable to complete on-time due to not fulfilling this requirement will have the standard late policy applied.

Lab Attendance

● Labs will meet on HuskyCT via Collaborate, beginning at the time listed on Student Admin.

● If you do not attend lab, you will not be able to take the weekly quiz. If there are extenuating circumstances for your absence, please contact your TA.

Dissection Policy

● The viewing of dissected preserved animal specimens (fetal pig, adult pig heart, adult sheep kidney, adult sheep brain, etc.) is required for this course. If for very specific reasons you simply cannot participate in these dissection exercises, please consider dropping the course.

Lab Safety Regulations

● Although you will not step foot in a lab room for this course, you will still be responsible for knowing and understanding the lab safety regulations. Lab safety is an important part of the knowledge that you would normally gain by working in the laboratory, and is useful as you progress to more advanced lab courses.

● The BIOL 1107 lab rooms are classified as Biosafety Level 1 facilities (BSL-1). This means that you may encounter chemical or biological hazards appropriate for a BSL-1 facility in these spaces. All lab safety requirements are based on regulations enforced by the Department of Environmental Health & Safety:

○ Dress Code:

■ Wear a lab coat and safety glasses at all times.

■ Clothing that completely covers the legs is required.

■ Closed-toe shoes are required.

○ Do not consume food or drink inside the lab rooms.

○ Do not dispose of food or drink containers inside the lab rooms.

○ Applying cosmetics and chewing gum are not permitted in the laboratory.

● Additional lab safety rules are reviewed in the lab orientation review materials.

● You must score 10/10 on the Lab Safety Quiz on HuskyCT, or you will be unable to attend lab.

 

Summary of Course Grading:

Summary of Laboratory Grading:

Quizzes: These will be administered at the start of your synchronous lab meeting each week. The lab quiz will cover material from the previous lab exercise.

● Lab quizzes will have a 20 minute time limit and require a password to access. You must attend the weekly lab session via Collaborate to take the quiz, otherwise a grade of “0” will be entered.

● If you’ve missed your lab, you can contact your TA who may be able to help you arrange to attend another lab session later in the week.

 

Lab Assignments: General & Lab Reports: Assignments of these types must be submitted online via HuskyCT before the due date listed on the “Schedule and Due Dates” document. 

● It is your responsibility to confirm that your uploads and submissions are successful. 

○ For lab reports, check that HuskyCT generates a preview of the file you uploaded as this is the only way to make sure that your upload was successful. This preview may take a few minutes to generate.

○ If you do not see this preview, or it appears incomplete, you can try to upload again. You have three submission attempts for each lab report. If you encounter continued difficulty, contact your TA immediately.

○ If an unsuccessful upload attempt is not discovered until later, the standard late policy will apply.

● While HuskyCT will accept uploads of many file types, this course required you to upload file in either *.doc or *.docx format. Pages files, *.PDFs, and all other file types are not allowed in this course. The late submission penalty will apply to documents uploaded as incorrect file types.

Group Activities: Most weeks of lab will have a group activity that will be performed. These will usually involve being put into breakout groups of 4 or 5 students to discuss a specific topic for 10-15 minutes. Afterwards, a representative from each group will report their findings to the class.

● At the end of the group activity there will be a poll question on Collaborate. Responding to this poll question will ensure you receive credit for participating in the group activity. Please listen to the instructions given by your TA. If you respond to the poll but then leave the Collaborate session before the TA is able to make note of the poll results, you may not receive credit for participating.

Due Dates and Late Policy

All course due dates and times are identified in the “Schedule and Due Dates” document linked to on the HuskyCT lab site.

● You absolutely can submit a lab assignment or homework after the due date! However, the late policy will be applied. Late penalties on homework and lab assignments accumulate at the rate of 10% per day. After one week, the grade on a late assignment is a zero.

● Do not wait until the last moment to make online submissions. Submissions are open at any time, and it is in your best interest to complete submissions ahead of schedule. If you have technical issues submitting an assessment right before the time it is due, this will not be a valid circumstance for an extension.

● The time listed on the due dates is the last moment an assessment can be submitted on time. Any submissions after this time, even 1 second late, will have the late penalty applied.

● Extensions are not given, except in the case of extenuating circumstances, which are handled on a case-by-case basis. Your TA cannot approve an assignment extension under any circumstances!Instead contact the Lab Director ([email protected]).

○ Note: a computer crash or error is not an acceptable extenuating circumstance. Again, you should be completing assignments ahead of time for precisely this reason.

● The instructor reserves the right to change dates accordingly as the semester progresses. All changes will be communicated in an appropriate manner.

Feedback and Grades

● To keep track of your performance in the course, refer to My Grades in HuskyCT.

● Your TA will make every effort to provide feedback and grades one week after an assignment is due.

○ If your TA consistently fails to provide feedback in a timely manner, inform the Lab Director.

Contesting a Grade

● Should you wish to contest a grade, you must speak with the TA who graded the assignment to discuss the issue within one (1) week of receiving your grade, after which a grade cannot be contested.

Academic Misconduct

You are responsible for submitting assignments on HuskyCT. SafeAssign software is used to scan your documents for plagiarism against your peers (past and current) and various online sources (Journals, Websites, Wikipedia, StudyBlue, Quizlet, etc.).

Once we determine that misconduct has occurred, we have a zero-tolerance policy for plagiarism. We do not give out warnings, and you will not be allowed to resubmit the assignment for a partial grade.

On the first offense, a grade of “zero” will be given to the submission. If the incident involves multiple students, all parties will receive a “zero” on the assignment. The student(s) will be notified via email and, at the same time, a letter is filed with the Office of Community Standards. This letter states that this incident has occurred and serves as a record that an academic consequence was imposed.

On the second offense, a grade of “zero” will again be given to the submission. The offending student will also be referred to the Faculty Instructor for the course, which may result in a failing grade being assigned for the entire course. The Office of Community Standards will again be informed, and further disciplinary action may be taken by the University.

For more information on community standards and academic misconduct: http://community.uconn.edu/the-student-code-preamble/

Students with Disabilities

Although we are notified of your accommodations by the Center for Students with Disabilities, it is helpful to hear from each student directly so we are best able to meet your specific needs. Below are examples of how some of the more prevalent accommodations are met in BIOL 1107 lab. We encourage you to contact the Lab Director and your lab TA to discuss any other accommodations that you wish to exercise in this course, so that your needs can be efficiently and promptly addressed.

 

● If you wish to exercise an accommodation for extra time on quizzes, email your TA and the Lab Director to let them know.

● If you have accommodations for extended times on assignments that you wish to exercise, you must contact the Lab Director to develop an extension schedule. Your TA cannotapprove assignment extensions.

● If you have an accommodation for occasional absences from class that you need to exercise, email your TA and the Lab Director to let them know. You will be allowed to make up the quiz at another time.

The University of Connecticut is committed to protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities and assuring that the learning environment is accessible.  If you anticipate or experience physical or academic barriers based on disability or pregnancy, please let me know immediately so that we can discuss options. Students who require accommodations should contact the Center for Students with Disabilities, Wilbur Cross Building Room 204, (860) 486-2020 or http://csd.uconn.edu/.

 

Blackboard measures and evaluates accessibility using two sets of standards: the WCAG 2.0 standards issued by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act issued in the United States federal government.” (Retrieved March 24, 2013 from Blackboard's website)

Resources for Students Experiencing Distress

The University of Connecticut is committed to supporting students in their mental health, their psychological and social well-being, and their connection to their academic experience and overall wellness. The university believes that academic, personal, and professional development can flourish only when each member of our community is assured equitable access to mental health services. The university aims to make access to mental health attainable while fostering a community reflecting equity and diversity and understands that good mental health may lead to personal and professional growth, greater self-awareness, increased social engagement, enhanced academic success, and campus and community involvement.

Students who feel they may benefit from speaking with a mental health professional can find support and resources through the Student Health and Wellness-Mental Health (SHaW-MH) office. Through SHaW-MH, students can make an appointment with a mental health professional and engage in confidential conversations or seek recommendations or referrals for any mental health or psychological concern.

Mental health services are included as part of the university’s student health insurance plan and also partially funded through university fees. If you do not have UConn’s student health insurance plan, most major insurance plans are also accepted. Students can visit the Student Health and Wellness-Mental Health located in Storrs on the main campus in the Arjona Building, 4th Floor, or contact the office at (860) 486-4705, or https://studenthealth.uconn.edu/ for services or questions.

Accommodations for Illness or Extended Absences

Please stay home if you are feeling ill and please go home if you are in class and start to feel ill.  If illness prevents you from attending class, it is your responsibility to notify me as soon as possible. You do not need to disclose the nature of your illness, however, you will need to work with me to determine how you will complete coursework during your absence.

If life circumstances are affecting your ability to focus on courses and your UConn experience, students can email the Dean of Students at [email protected] to request support.  Regional campus students should email the Student Services staff at their home campus to request support and faculty notification. 

COVID-19 Specific Information: People with COVID-19 have had a wide range of symptoms reported – ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness. These symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus and can include:

● Fever,

● Cough,

● Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing

● Chills

● Repeated shaking with chills

● Muscle pain

● Headache

● Sore throat

● New loss of taste or smell

Additional information including what to do if you test positive or you are informed through contract tracing that you were in contact with someone who tested positive, and answers to other important questions can be found here: https://studenthealth.uconn.edu/updates-events/coronavirus/

Student Responsibilities and Resources

As a member of the University of Connecticut student community, you are held to certain standards and academic policies. In addition, there are numerous resources available to help you succeed in your academic work. Review these important standards, policies and resources, which include:

● The Student Code

○ Academic Integrity

○ Resources on Avoiding Cheating and Plagiarism

● Copyrighted Materials

● Netiquette and Communication

● Adding or Dropping a Course

● Academic Calendar

● Policy Against Discrimination, Harassment and Inappropriate Romantic Relationships

● Sexual Assault Reporting Policy

Software/Technical Requirements

The software/technical requirements for this course include:

● HuskyCT/Blackboard (HuskyCT/ Blackboard Accessibility Statement, HuskyCT/ Blackboard Privacy Policy)

● Adobe Acrobat Reader (Adobe Reader Accessibility Statement, Adobe Reader Privacy Policy)

● Google Apps (Google Apps @ UConn Accessibility, Google for Education Privacy Policy)

● Microsoft Office (free to UConn students through UConn Software Catalog) (Microsoft Accessibility Statement, Microsoft Privacy Statement)

● Dedicated access to high-speed internet with a minimum speed of 1.5 Mbps (4 Mbps or higher is recommended).

● A computer - laptop or desktop - running the latest version of Windows or MacOS.

○ See University Device Requirements. Note the University says that Chromebooks do not meet the minimum requirements. Chromebooks and iPads may work, but are not officially supported.

○ A webcam and microphone associated with your computer.

 

Privacy Statement: For information on managing your privacy at the University of Connecticut, visit the University’s Privacy page. NOTE: This course has NOT been designed for use with mobile devices.

Help

Technical and Academic Help provides a guide to technical and academic assistance.

If you have difficulty accessing HuskyCT, you have access to the in person/live person support options available during regular business hours through the Help Center.  You also have 24x7 Course Support including access to live chat, phone, and support documents.

Student Technology Training

Student technology training is now available in a new HuskyCT short course created by students for students. It will prepare you to use the IT systems and services that you will use throughout your time at UConn, whether learning online or on-campus.  It is available at https://lms.uconn.edu/ultra/courses/_80016_1/cl/outline .

Minimum Technical Skills

To be successful in this course, you will need the following technical skills:

● Use electronic mail with attachments.

● Save files in commonly used word processing program formats (Microsoft Office).

● Ability to view and download files from Google Drive.

● Copy and paste text, graphics or hyperlinks.

● Work within two or more browser windows simultaneously.

● Open and access PDF files.

● Use a tablet device to access the internet.

● Use a device to take photos and then upload these to HuskyCT.

● Transfer files between devices.

 

University students are expected to demonstrate competency in Computer Technology. Explore the Computer Technology Competencies page for more information..

Evaluation of the Course

Students will be provided an opportunity to evaluate instruction in this course using the University's standard procedures, which are administered by the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness (OIRE).