SYLLABUS

Biological Sciences 385 II-06-07 1030MWF 129MHLS

Instructor: John Janovy, Jr., 424 Manter Hall; 472-2754; jjanovy1@unl.edu; http://bsweb.unl.edu/labs/janovy

Text: Roberts and Janovy, FOUNDATIONS OF PARASITOLOGY, 7^th Ed.

Lab Manual: Online exercises from Blackboard

Materials you need to supply for lab: A good drawing pencil with 4H lead (0.5mm mechanical recommended), drawing paper (white, unlined, laser printer paper recommended), a 12” ruler (plastic, perhaps with letter/number templates and metric scale on one side), a good eraser (art gum recommended), a 3-ring binder for your notebook (a few binders are available free if you want to borrow one).

Teaching Assistants: Terry Haverkost and Gabe Langford, both doctoral candidates in parasitology.

UNL Institutional Objectives and Learning Outcomes: See http://www.unl.edu/svcaa/gened/institutional_objectives.shtml. BIOS 385 is an Outcome 10 course that reinforces Outcomes 3 and 4.

Welcome to the complex and highly diverse world of parasites and parasitologists. I hope your time in our realm is well spent and that the experience turns out to be a positive one. BIOS 385 is designed to provide students with both a broad perspective on the most common way of life, namely parasitism, and a reasonably detailed knowledge of organisms that have a major economic and social impact. Because of the subject matter, the course also deals quite a bit with global health and global socio-economic issues. BIOS 385 is an IS course. I believe very strongly in the ideals of the UNL Comprehensive Educational Program Integrative Studies (IS) designation and will try to fulfill the responsibilities of instructors assigned to such courses. Thus you will be asked to write papers, provided with opportunities for in-class discussion and presentation, presented with controversies typical of parasitology, and introduced to cultural and gender diversity material appropriate for an upper division university science course, especially one that focuses on disease and infectious organisms.

What to expect in this class:

(1) Usually there will be three lectures a week, mostly explaining material in the book and expanding on that material when appropriate. Facts, vocabulary, and diagrams will all come from the book, but the meaning, significance, and interpretations sometimes will come from material presented in class.

(2) We have a schedule of topics, and we will follow that schedule at least in the order it is presented below. Depending on how the class responds to lecture and quizzes, we may not be able to go quite as fast as the schedule indicates. We will stay either ahead of lab or even with it, however, so that you will not go to lab without having been introduced to that week’s material in lecture.

(3) I am substituting take home exam papers (the IS option) and weekly lecture quizzes for large exams. If we decide to have them, the midterm and final exams will consist of questions taken from the weekly quizzes. You will need to decide as a class whether to have the mid-term and final.

(4) I will learn your names as soon as I can and am likely to call on you in class for responses to particular pieces of information or diagrams.

(5) Most of the material will address parasites of humans and domestic animals, although at times I will talk about topics that have little or no impact on human health. We are also likely to have a guest lecturer a few times, and such lectures are most likely to concern parasites of wildlife.

(6) You will be assigned some homework in addition to the papers, mainly as a means of introducing you to statistical analysis of parasite populations. Such quantitative handing of parasite data is basic to understanding epidemiology and the quantitative aspects of public health.

(7) I intend to try class presentations by students on some socio-economic issues and topics related to parasitism.

(8) If you are now registered for BIOS 315 (Seminar), you can satisfy some of those seminars by attending BIOS 915P (Parasitology Seminar) on Thursdays at noon in 529W Nebraska Hall.

Attendance:

I will take attendance and make it part of the grade. My major means of taking attendance on Wednesday and Friday is likely to be a short extemporaneous daily writing exercise or signup sheet.

Questions:

Questions are expected. Although I have a lecture schedule, it is not so rigid that we can’t spend an entire period on class discussion or in answering questions. Someone please raise his or her hand and tell me to slow down, spell words, or repeat if I am going too rapidly.

Grading:

Lecture: There will be 14 short lecture quizzes, three take-home exams, three homework assignments, and possibly midterm and final exams. I will wait until the second week to decide whether to have a midterm and final; please be prepared to provide comments on this issue. The quizzes will be given at the start of the period each Friday beginning with the second week. You may drop two of these quiz grades, so that you will end up being graded on 12. These quizzes are worth a total of 120 points. Attendance will be calculated as the percentage of days you are present, based on the number of days I take attendance (including quiz days). The take-home exams will be given on Fridays (according to schedule) and be due on the following Friday; these exams will be worth 50 points each. The homework assignments will be given out at the beginning of the semester; each assignment is worth 50 points. The mid-term and final exams (if given) will be taken from questions given on the quizzes and is worth 180 points; you will be asked to elaborate on one or more of the questions previously given on quizzes. Point summary for lecture is as follows:

Quizzes 120

Exams 150

Homework 150

Attendance 100

Midterm 90

Final 90

Lecture total 700

NOTE: If we decide not to have a midterm and a final, then there will be only 520 points for lecture and the remaining items therefore will carry a little more weight than they would otherwise.

Take home exam 1: What conceptual contributions have molecular biologists actually made regarding trypanosomatids in the past six years and how have those contributions either helped us control, or could help us control, the diseases involved?

Follow the editorial policies provided. The paper must be three pages of double spaced typing, 12-point font, 1 inch margins. Illustrate your answer with at least five but no more than 10 original paper citations from the past two years. See editorial policies in the Blackboard Course Documents folder for format rules.

Lab: Laboratory work includes weekly quizzes beginning with the second week, a mid-term and a final practical, a rather extensive notebook, and your TA’s subjective evaluation of your overall approach to laboratory. The point distribution for lab is as follows:

Weekly quizzes 100

Practical exams 100

Notebook 200 (150 if not picked up by the end of finals week)

TA evaluation 50

Lab total 450

Seventy five percent of your final letter grade will be based on lecture, and twenty five percent on lab (proportions calculated in the spreadsheet). Missed labs can be made up by attending any of the other labs in which there is room during that particular week. The class average is middle C. I reserve the right to scale grades up if the class average falls below 75%. If the class average is 75% or higher, then an approximate standard scale applies (90% = A, 80% = B, etc.). I give no makeup exams. If you miss a test or lab because of illness or personal emergency, I will not count that test or lab if you have either a physician’s note indicating you were ill, or have some other documentation of a real emergency. If you miss class because of athletic competition, I need to have the letter from your coach and I need to be reminded of that letter as the semester nears its end; I’ll be happy to arrange with your coach to send along a quiz or exam if possible.

NOTE: 43% of your final letter grade is based on activities over which you have complete control, namely attendance, homework, notebook, and TA evaluation. The weekly quizzes also are taken from a list of questions you are given in advance.

Office hours:

My office hours are early Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons. I’m also relatively available a lot of other times except Friday afternoons. You can call me at 472-2754 (office), or leave a message at 472-2720 (BioSci office) or 489-4369 (home). If you leave a message on my home phone, please speak slowly and clearly, and leave your name and phone number. I also have a mailbox in 348 Manter Hall (BioSci office, campus mail zip = 0118). My e-mail is jjanovy1@unl.edu. I am available by appointment about any day, including late in the afternoons (except on Friday).

Study hints:

(1) Make a vocabulary list. Someone ask me about how to make and use such a list.

(2) Find a study partner, or several, and use the vocabulary in your daily conversation.

(3) Draw the life cycles and use the scientific names.

(4) Read and write a lot! Practice your writing, practice making arguments from evidence, practice passing judgment on information from the primary literature.

(5) Seek individual help early if you feel completely lost, especially on the homework.

(6) DON’T feel embarrassed if you are not doing as well as you think you should be; seek help and don’t be afraid of me or your TAs.

About your instructor:

John Janovy, Jr.

Paula and D. B. Varner Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences

BS in Math (1959), MS in Zoology (1962), and PhD in Zoology (1965); University of Oklahoma; post-doctoral research, Rutgers (1965-66).

Research interests: parasitology, especially ecology of parasitism and evolution of parasite life cycles, with focus on the protistan parasites of insects and the helminth parasites of small fish. There are usually 2-3 graduate students and 1-3 undergraduates doing research in my lab.

Other courses taught: General Biology (BIOS 101), Invertebrate Zoology (BIOS 381, fall semesters), Field Parasitology (BIOS 487/887, Cedar Point Biological Station, Lake McConaughy, NE).

Web site: http://bsweb.unl.edu/labs/janovy

Lecture schedule:

The lecture schedule more or less follows the sequence of chapters in the text, although when we actually start talking about some of these parasitic infections, I will incorporate material from the arthropod vector chapters when appropriate. The schedule also is posted as a spreadsheet on Blackboard.

	BIOS 385 PARASITOLOGY - II-06-07
	Instructor		John Janovy, Jr.	jjanovy1@unl.edu
	TA		Terry Haverkost	worms@bigred.unl.edu
	TA		Gabriel Langford	glangfo1@bigred.unl.edu
	Date
Day #	January		Lecture	Pges	Quizes	Lab
1	8	M	Introduction	Chapt 1		Microscope use
2	10	W	Parasitism - The Big Picture	Chapts 2 & 3
3	12	F	Parasitic protistans - an overview	Chapt 4
4	15	M	Kinetoplastida - basic biology	Chapt 5	Lect quiz 1	Kinetoplastids
5	17	W	Trypanosomes - life cycles, pathology	Chapt 5
6	19	F	Leishmanias - course of infection, clinical types	Chapt 5
6	19	F	First homework assignment due	Data set
7	22	M	Chagas' disease	Chapt 5	Lect quiz 2	Protistan potpouri
8	24	W	Trypanosomatid vectors			demonstrations
9	26	F	First take home exam assigned
10	29	M	Intestinal infections in general - an overview	Chapt 6	Lect quiz 3	Intestinal flagellates
11	31	W	Diplomonads and trichomonads	Chapt 6
12	Feb 2	F	Diplomonads and trichomonads; First exam due	Chapt 6
13	5	M	Parasitic amebas - structure and life cycles	Chapt 7	Lect quiz 4	Amebas
14	7	W	Amebiasis - pathology, diagnosis, epidemiology	Chapt 7
15	9	F	Molecular parasitology - flagellates and amebas	Chapt 7
16	12	M	Apicomplexa - an overview	Chapt 8	Lect quiz 5	Toxoplasma, Coccidia
17	14	W	Toxoplasmosis - epidemiology and course of infection	Chapt 8
18	16	F	Coccidiosis - life cycles of parasites, economic impact	Chapt 8
18	16	F	Second homework assignment due	Data set
19	19	M	Malaria - history, sociology, economics	Chapt 9	Lect quiz 6	Malaria
20	21	W	Malarial parasites – life cycles, vectors	Chapt 9
21	23	F	Malarial parasites – life cycles, vectors	Chapt 9
22	23	F	Second take home exam assigned
22	26	M	Trematodes - A general introduction, with examples	Chapts 13 and 15	Lect quiz 7	Trematodes
						general anatomy and
23	28	W	Paragonimiasis - A case study	Chapt 18		life cycle stages
24	March 2	F	Liver flukes and echinostomes - biology, transmission; 2^nd Exam due	Chapt 17		First lab practical
25	5	M	Schistosomiasis - parasite life cycles and epidemiology	Chapt 16	Lect quiz 8	Schistosomes
26	7	W	Schistosomes - immunology, metabolism, etc.	Chapt 16
27	9	F	Trematode parasites of wildlife - an overview and survey
27	9	F	Third homework assignment due	Data set
	12	M	Spring Break
	14	W	Spring Break
	16	F	Spring Break
28	19	M	Tapeworms - Form and function	Chapts 20 and 21	Lect quiz 9	Cestodes
29	21	W	Cestodes of humans	Chapts 20 and 21
30	23	F	Cestodes of wildlife - an overview and survey	Chapts 20 and 21
31	26	M	Nematodes - form and function	Chapt 22	Lect quiz 10	Nematodes -
32	28	W	Trichuris, Capillaria, and Trichinella	Chapt 23		form and function
33	30	F	Hookworms - life cycles, epidemiology	Chapt 25		hookworms
	April
34	2	M	Ascaris and pinworms	Chapt 26