Thoughts on BIOS 101 and Large Lecture Sections
John Janovy, Jr.
Varner Professor of Biological Sciences
http://bsweb.unl.edu/labs/janovy
These thoughts and ideas are a result of being in the large lecture classroom for 40+ years, with a range of classes: BIOS 101 (General Biology or equivalent – 150-350 students, non-majors); BIOS 112 (General Zoology – 100-200 students, majors); BIOS 204 (Biodiversity = BIOS 103 Organismic Biology ~ 100 students, majors). These comments concern mainly BIOS 101 because it seems to be the most challenging in terms of students’ “habits of mind” behavior; a syllabus from fall, 2007, is provided as an example of my design of this course. BIOS 112 is by far the easiest to teach, mainly because the subject builds on itself through the semester (the same should be true for BIOS 109- General Botany). Because of the course intent, and the fact that the subject does not build on itself naturally through the semester, BIOS 103 is an absolute intellectual disaster that cannot be resolved no matter what a faculty member does; the BIOS 103 students themselves, however, are pretty easy to get along with because most are majors.
The auditoriums or other large classrooms I’ve used to teach these classes at UNL have been in Love Library, Military and Naval Science, Burnett Hall, Bessey Hall, College of Business Administration, Morrill Hall, and Henzlik Hall. I also had the experience of conducting a national meeting in the late 1980s and we used all these facilities. The rooms differ substantially in their facilities and setups, and the courses take on somewhat of a character of the classroom because of these differences. Henzlik Hall is the best place to put on a show and by far the best place for BIOS 101; Morrill Hall is an excellent room for anything else; the rest of those places are to be avoided if at all possible. Hamilton Hall auditoriums (where I’ve never taught and would never teach) are the worst facilities on campus; nobody should ever volunteer to teach in one of those places, period. Beadle Center auditorium is equally as bad (as Hamilton) but for very different reasons; if you don’t believe this assertion, go sit in on some of your fellow faculty members’ classes, but sit on the back row.
Nobody ever should try to tell another faculty member how or what to teach, mainly because such “helpful advice” usually is either received with disdain or ignored. However, based on all the above experiences, if I had any advice for a young faculty member just starting to deal with the large lecture sections, here’s what that advice would be:
The basics:
(1) Make absolutely sure that your microphone works well and that you learn how to use it well. Watch the rap musicians; they always have the microphone right up against their mouths. Whatever the microphone system is—clip on, remote, podium, etc.—master it immediately, make sure it’s clipped on aiming at your mouth, and use it so that you can speak to the person in the last row easily. The microphone is your best friend, not an impediment.
(2) Figure out the computers and visual aids technology and practice using the stuff so that you do it smoothly and easily.
(3) If you plan to use clicker technology (I strongly advise it), then do two things: (a) master the technology so that you don’t struggle with it (this task is likely to be a non-trivial one); and, (b) develop a pedagogy that matches your teaching style and goals (this task is likely to be even less trivial than (a)).
(4) Go watch a few people give lectures and decide immediately that you are not going to make the audio-visual mistakes that they make.
(5) The major audio-visual mistakes made by large classroom lecturers are: pictures and writing too small, too much stuff on a slide or figure, mumbling or poor microphone use, whipping the pointer around the screen, going too fast, talking to the wall instead of the audience, pacing back and forth, and doing a variety of behaviors that detract from the subject or hinder communication.
(6) Always ask for questions at the beginning of class and a couple of times during class, especially after you’ve made a point that you believe is important. This generation of students has a maximum attention span of about 15 minutes, and stopping for questions periodically helps deal with that problem.
(7) If you want people to actually write something in their notebooks, tell them to write it in their notebooks. The same advice goes for pictures they need to draw.
(8) Start on time; finish on time; make yourself available for questions outside the classroom after class.
(9) Try to learn as many names as you can as early in the semester as you can.
(10) Expect that things will go more slowly than you’d like for them to go.
(11) Plan to spend whatever time is necessary to handle their grades correctly, recording them personally, and posting them in a timely manner.
Pedagogical
philosophy:
(1) First of all, have one, or develop one, that addresses communication, expectations, engagement, creativity, and a vision of the discipline as an integral part of a future citizen’s intellectual and decision-making equipment. Put that philosophy into the syllabus (example below).
(2) “Teaching” is a human activity regardless of how many people are involved and regardless of what kind of technology is used. All class activities, even those that involve electronic technology, must be human activities first and foremost, and must not relieve students of the responsibility for human acts (e.g., getting up and going to school, asking questions, talking to other people, carrying on discussions, doing problems, etc.)
(3) Over the last few years I have come to believe that it is just as important to focus on student behavior (relative to the subject matter) as on content. In other words, in the case of Biological Sciences courses, students need to be doing what biologists would do, and thinking like biologists think, regardless of whether those students end up being biologists or not and regardless of the level at which they are doing it. What happens in a class should then be aimed at developing, or at least demonstrating, habits of mind, with the “material” as the vehicle for developing such habits. Material (“content”) is always subordinate to behavior, especially in a world in which “content” increases exponentially and access (Internet) increases even faster.
(4) In recent
years, graded work in my large introductory classes has become increasingly
“contract” based, and in my upper division classes it has become mostly
contract. (See below [Ideas that seem
to work] for some contract exercises used in the past.) In other words, I’m saying to them “If you
will do what I ask you to do, and do it to the extent that I ask you to do it,
then I’ll give you full credit.” In
future large classes, this contract work is likely to be as much as 25% of the
grade. For example, here is a
description of the columns in my BIOS 101 spreadsheet from October 17, 2005,
halfway through the fall semester; by that time we had had eight such contract
opportunities (in 2007 we had a weekly contract exercise).
click# = your
clicker number.
Knw = An X means that I believe I could recognize you on the
street by name.
EQ1 = Credit for submitting questions for the first exam.
Vot = One of those times we voted on something.
919 = Extemporaneous writing on 091905.
923 = Extemporaneous writing on 092305.
E1 = First exam grade.
EQ2 = Credit for submitting questions for the first exam.
NP = Credit for submitting questions on The Next Pandemic.
926 = Credit for class discussion on 092605.
1003 = Extemporaneous writing on 100305.
E2 = Grade on second exam.
1014 = Credit for writing on our museum visit.
(5) “Contract” work seems to be an ideal way to let students demonstrate habits of mind behavior for themselves, engage in some peer teaching, and open their eyes to the subject matter in a larger context. It’s also an excellent way to exercise faculty creativity, but most importantly, to increase the number of instructional modes used in a particular class. Some additional examples are given on my web site (http://bsweb.unl.edu/labs/janovy). The instructor, of course, has complete freedom to develop and choose contract exercises. I work hard to make them easily graded, no matter how long or difficult they are, the grades being “did,” “did not do,” “do over,” and “a couple of extra credit points for exceptional performance.”
(6) For the past few years, I’ve also given out exam questions in advance, in fact providing large banks of such exam questions, making sure that there are far more questions in the pool than will be chosen for a test. I’ve also told students that their tests will be taken from the pool, with the option of slight re-wordings, etc. My overall grade distribution in BIOS 101 has not varied significantly (tested statistically) for the past decade. I strongly suspect that the grade distribution would not change even if I gave them all the answers to all these questions. Nevertheless, the questions are a fairly easy way to help students build vocabulary, I believe, just from watching the way a lot of students use those old tests.
(7) Everything that happens in class is legitimate material for the exam; everything—class discussion, questions, creative (but biological) diversions, current events of biological importance—everything that happens during a class period. I also give a few points for students who are willing to take notes on such discussions and either write questions or post those notes on Blackboard discussion boards. Beginning with fall semester, 2007, I recorded everything that happened in class and put the recording up on Blackboard as both a *.WMA and a *.M4A file, as well as made a iTunes podcast.
(8) The Institutional Objectives and appropriate Learning Outcomes that are part of the proposed revision of general education at UNL (see http://ace.unl.edu) represent the ideals of higher education as expressed on many colleges’ and universities’ web sites, so it is permitted to use them in your class. This use is okay regardless of whether the course is approved for general education credit or not; it’s okay to remind students of these Objectives and Outcomes; and, it’s okay to write outcomes for your own course. This task is not very difficult or time consuming; it consists mainly of simply putting down on paper what you’ve been thinking about for some time.
(9) I have started adding the book OUTWITTING COLLEGE PROFESSORS (Pearson Custom Publishing, ISBN 0536418500) to my textbook order.
(10) Study the sociology of current 18-22 year olds. The results will surprise, if not dismay, you, and there is little that you can do to change the sociology of this group so you must find a way to subvert it. I suggest focusing especially on matters of behavior, attention span, self-assessment, generation of products, and multiple instruction modes. Do a Google search using “Generation Y” or “Millennials” as the search term to get quick access to a demographic and cultural profile of your clientele.
(11) Recording your lectures and making all content (ppts and pdf versions of them) available via Blackboard, posting all kinds of relevant information, e.g. grades, on Blackboard, communicating regularly with students via e-mail, setting up discussion boards with anonymous postings allowed (but NOT using such discussion boards as graded or required activities), etc., all can work to enhance engagement with the material. In other words, information technology does not replace human-to-human interactions, it simply (and only) allows students to go back and revisit whatever happened during previous human-to-human interactions.
(12) I require attendance, now that we have clicker technology to accomplish this easily and quickly by default when you use this technology for some valid pedagogical reason.
Ideas that seem to work:
(1) If the auditorium is equipped with a classroom response system (“clicker” system), then use it, especially in BIOS 101. Such use will take some practice, patience, and creativity, especially patience (the use will, over the semester, cost you 10% of your lecture time). The creativity part is reasonably difficult because of the lost lecture time. What seems to work best for me are 5-10 minute exercises in which students have to respond in some way, by writing, to a picture, or a situation described on the screen, i.e., a mini-research exercise. The picture or situation is an extension of whatever we’ve been covering in lecture, and it is typically out of some part of their book we have not covered yet. Then I give three or four responses, ask how many actually wrote one of them, and use their responses for some extemporaneous explanations of the ideas. Of course they see the frequency distribution of the responses as part of the clicker system graphics. This kind of use seems much more instructive than asking multiple choice questions on the screen to see if students understand (~ pandering). I pick up what they’ve written and give them a point or two for the page, and an extra point or two if they’ve been especially insightful. In other words, I’m trying to get away from testing and into habits of mind development, admittedly in a minor (but recognizable) way. I also simply made a dummy PowerPoint file for use with clickers instead of trying to incorporate the electronic response function into my regular show. By use of the dummy, you free up a whole lot of personal time.
(2) Clicker use was far less important, successful, or necessary in my sections of BIOS 204 (= BIOS 103), mainly because the students were virtually all majors, they seemed to be more receptive to serious lecture and other kinds of classroom interactions (presentations, assigned discussion topics, etc.) than were the BIOS 101 students, and the classes were much smaller.
(3) With clickers, you can count attendance easily, and I strongly recommend it for BIOS 101. The first rule for success in college is: get up and go to class. I make attendance worth a significant part of the grade, typically 15%.
(4) I’ve paid points for being able to recognize students by name outside of class. I’ll simply add 10 points (out of 600 or 700) if I can recognize that student by name halfway through the semester. The students are responsible for making sure I know their names if they want the points.
(5) I demand quiet and respect for one’s fellow students. I also pick out students either by name or clothing and tell them to put their newspapers away, turn off their cell phones, to stop talking, etc. Then I usually launch into a minute or two of idealism about higher education. About once a semester I end up kicking students out of class for continuing to talk and being disruptive after being asked once (politely) to be quiet. I also walk down the aisle and simply take newspapers or other items away from students if necessary. You can always pull out your own cell phone and fake a call to campus cops if none of this stuff works.
(6) From now on, when I teach BIOS 101, I will have as many as 10 extemporaneous writing exercises, each taking 15 minutes. These exercises will involve “higher order” thinking about the subject; i.e., I will ask them something conceptual, or something that involves assimilation of material from several parts of the course or book and probably provide them with some illustrative material to interpret. In the past I’ve simply recorded those as having been done, reading them about as fast as I can flip the pages and enter points in a spreadsheet.
(7) The from now on, when I teach BIOS 101, I am going to pay a significant point premium to students who pick up all their work, assemble it in a portfolio at the end of the semester, and show it to me with a adequate self-assessment (see 2007 syllabus and ACE report below). I may pay a truly major premium to students who will convert all this material into a single electronic file and submit it (sort of as a test of how easy this is to do in a large 100-level class). This kind of premium is intended to influence behavior; obviously some will ignore it completely.
(8) If a large class is able to have an extended and serious discussion, with everyone quiet and paying attention, and with at least 10 different people participating, then I give everyone who’s there that day 5 points. That’s happened maybe three times in the last five years, but it’s a lot of fun when it does happen. Then I ask students to write test questions based on the discussion and post those questions on Blackboard, along with answers, and reasons why the answers are correct.
(9) At least two or three times a semester I turn the podium over to students, although in a fairly formal way, and I maintain quite a bit of control over the class behavior. This activity usually is good for about 15 or 20 minutes max. One phrase that seems to work is: “Okay, folks, you owe your fellow students respect, and there will be questions from this discussion on the next exam.” So again, I ask students to write test questions based on the discussion and post those questions on Blackboard, along with answers, and reasons why the answers are correct.
(10) The last couple of times I’ve taught BIOS 101, I’ve given points for students who will write three multiple choice questions and put them up on Blackboard for the rest of the class. In order to get these points, the students also have to provide the answers and the place in the book where those answers can be found. I’m going to modify this activity a little bit the next time, probably by asking for the rationale behind the multiple choice question answers. Again, this is using Blackboard to encourage behavior that by default is educational.
(11) I’m also going to experiment with a section of the multiple choice exams in which I try to teach some higher order thinking by asking several multiple choice questions in a row about a single question, e.g., why each of the choices was right or wrong and giving several choices. They’re probably not going to love it and the questions and answers are likely to require some serious reading.
Some creative approaches to class that have been used commonly in the past:
(1) Remember that awareness is a hallmark of the professional habit of mind: biologists see biological material everywhere in many different contexts and they interpret events and observations, regardless of the area (politics, economics, social situations, etc.), in terms of biology. I try to develop awareness through use of seemingly strange contract exercises, e.g. those involving campus vegetation, biological content of art in the Sheldon, biological content of Daily Nebraskan cartoons, etc. This same general approach should work for many disciplines other than biology.
(2) Fear is also a problem in large introductory courses, especially fear of the unknown. I try to break down this fear by passing around biological materials and talking about them (e.g. ginkgo leaves, feathers found on campus, insects attracted to the Henzlik Hall podium lights, shells or fossils “accidentally” found in a jacket pocket, etc.), making sure students actually touch the items if possible.
(3) It is important to make a connection between the subject and students’ lives outside of class. I try to accomplish this task by using such things as the ingredients list on junk food to support lectures on metabolism and help with vocabulary building. Next fall I might spend some time in my local supermarket if the managers will let me, taking pictures of food as material for use in the metabolism, cell biology, and genetics sections of the course. I’ve also used chemical compound lists from over-the-counter drugs in our house to accompany the material on biochemistry, mainly to impress on students the connection between what we’re studying and their lives after biology class.
(4) Students need to see the subject in a way that transcends the textbook and their sense of a “requirement.” I’ve tried to help them transcend the textbook by putting a strange and beautiful (but with strong biological content) picture on the screen, using the document camera, during that period before class and during the first part of class when I’m messing around with the audio-visual software. (I refuse to put a menu bar on the screen in front of an introductory class.) Most of these pictures are ones cut out from one of Karen’s discarded art magazines but they are exceedingly biological. Sometimes I’ll simply talk about that picture for a minute or two after class starts.
(5) I’ve routinely used the textbook as the source material for asking students to solve relatively outlandish but entirely plausible problems in their own individual ways, one example being: in fifty scientifically legitimate steps, justifying each step by citing a page, paragraph, or figure from the text, trace a carbon atom in its journey from a Cambrian trilobite’s eye to the explosives in a Baghdad car bomb. In biology, of course, you can work with phosphorus, sulfur, nitrogen, and modify this kind of a problem a thousand ways. I usually make these assignments as papers to be turned in but followed with a couple of students presenting their solutions (for points, publicly awarded) and some exam questions. There are always a few exam questions on this material to keep people honest.
(6) I always award a couple of points for excellent questions, immediately and publicly, and I always explain why the question was a particularly good one that we should talk about for a couple of minutes. I also award a couple of points, again immediately and publicly, for other kinds of intellectual leadership in class (coming to the podium, etc.).
(7) I have a fairly extensive information sheet that I collect the first day of class. Whenever a student comes to my office I pull out that student’s information sheet and use it in the conversation. See the last page of the syllabus for an example of this information sheet.
(8) I put graded exams and recorded extemporaneous writings in a big plastic box right outside my office door. That way it is convenient for students who choose to pick up their stuff to introduce themselves.
(9) I never show a film or video without asking for some kind of a written analysis during the same class period the film is shown. The written response typically requires that students put the video material into context relative to the lecture topics for that week.
SYLLABUS
Biological Sciences 101 I-07-08
1330MWF Henz Aud
Instructor: John Janovy, Jr., 424 Manter Hall; jjanovy1@unl.edu;
http://bsweb.unl.edu/labs/janovy
Text: Johnson and Losos, Essentials
of The Living World, 2nd Ed. (McGraw-Hill)
Welcome to the
What to expect in this class:
(1) I usually will have 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 will come mainly from material presented in
class.
(2) You will have weekly writing
exercises done in class and you will be asked to pick up your papers and do
some additional work on them. All papers
will be in a plastic box outside my office door.
(3) You may be asked to write short
papers in addition to, and sometimes instead of, coming to class one or two
times during the semester. These paper
assignments are likely to seem strange and challenging.
(4) We will use the electronic
classroom response system, also known as “clicker technology,” every day in
class beginning after Labor Day. Plan to
bring your “clicker” (officially known as a “response pad”) to class every day
and do not lose it. This technology
makes it easy for me to include attendance and participation as part of the
grading criteria.
(5) Some student(s) will earn extra
points by asking excellent questions, or demonstrating other kinds of
intellectual leadership. I may also turn
the microphone over to students periodically.
(6) The material will be integrated
from the beginning, in the sense that both lecture and readings are likely to
include information from sub-cellular to ecosystem levels and from several
places in your book. I suggest
considering the index to be the rough equivalent of Google, in the sense that
you can search for terms in the index and come up with information about those
terms. I will try to tie these subjects
together, and you are expected to try to do the same.
(7) You will be treated as if you
have come to a major university (which you have) and will be expected to behave
accordingly in this auditorium. If you
are being disruptive, talking excessively, reading the newspaper, talking on
your cell phone, lost in a dream with your iPod plugged into your ears, etc.,
you will probably be asked to leave, maybe even asked to drop the class.
(8) You will have to take notes, lots
of notes, paying particular attention to interpretations of material from the
text and to our attempts to integrate the various aspects of biology into a
single big picture.
(9) I will try to learn as many of
your names as possible; I greatly appreciate your help and cooperation in this
effort.
(10) Expect a few unusual class
periods when we do something different yet still quite appropriate for a
university biology course.
Learning Outcomes for this class:
As a result of taking
this class, you should be able to clearly explain the following to your
friends and relatives who have not taken biology:
(1) The fundamental nature of science
and of biology.
(2) The biological roles and
functions of the major ingredients indicated on labels of processed food.
(3) The design of a typical
experiment and analysis of the results.
(4) The structure of a cell and the
functions of all the cell organelles typically illustrated in an introductory
biology text.
(5) Mendelian inheritance of dominant
and recessive traits and the calculations used to predict probabilities of
genotype.
(6) Why evolution is the central
unifying theme in biology.
(7) The evolutionary principles as
outlined in an introductory college biology text.
(8) The flow of energy, chemical
elements, and molecules through an ecosystem.
(9) The diversity of living organisms
on Earth.
(10) The role(s) that humans play,
and have played, in modification of the Earth’s biota and life support systems.
COURSE ELECTRONICS, OR WELCOME
TO THE INFORMATION AGE:
This class uses two
forms of information technology. These
technological features include a classroom response system and Blackboard (a
Course Management Software system).
Please get up to speed on these systems as quickly as you can; they’re
not particularly difficult, but you will need access to the Internet in order
to use them.
Classroom Response System (CRS):
In addition to a
textbook, you will need a classroom response pad, or “clicker” for this
section. The pads are sold separately in
the bookstores. Each pad has a serial number, and you must get online and register it
in order to participate in this class.
Instructions for registering online are provided on Blackboard.
Course Management Software
(CMS):
UNL has web-based CMS
called Blackboard available for use by students and faculty members. I will use that software to post grades,
announcements, and possibly outside readings (or links to them), as well as to
provide opportunities for you to earn extra credit. You get into this software through the web
site http://my.unl.edu. If you are
registered for this class you can get into Blackboard for this section.
Attendance:
Attendance is required
and accounts for about 15% of your final grade.
The quickest way to get into grade trouble in a large university class
is to quit coming to school. You are
responsible for all of the material presented in lecture and assigned from the
text. Tape recorders are permitted,
although I will try to put all lectures up on Blackboard as *.wma files. Beginning with the second week, I will take
attendance daily through use of the CRS or written exercises.
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:
Your grades are
calculated on the following basis:
(1) Hour exams – three @ 100 points each = 300 points
(2) Final exam – one @ 160 points = 160 points
(3) Written assignments 14 @ 10 points = 140 points
(4) Attendance =
100 points
TOTAL =
700 points
PORTFOLIO BONUS POINTS =
50 points
Hour exams: The tests may include multiple choice and
matching questions, diagrams to label or interpret, and short essays. You should also expect a “critical and higher
order thinking” section on each exam, consisting of 5 questions that explore a
subject in depth. There is a test question bank on Blackboard.
Exam questions: I will
take as many of the exam questions as I can from the question banks posted on
the Blackboard web site for this course.
I am likely to ask you to write some of your own exam questions and
provide not only the answers but also the rationale for the answers (on
Blackboard).
Pop quizzes: If given, pop quizzes will range from 4-10
points, and those points will be subtracted from the ones available on regular
tests.
Writing exercises: Every Friday during the semester I will give
small, extemporaneous, writing assignments.
You will get 1-3 points (awarded subjectively on the basis of grammar,
information content, etc.) for actually doing these assignments in class, and
another 4-7 points (awarded subjectively on the basis of grammar, spelling,
originality and insight) if you pick them up on time, do the follow-up writing,
and return them on time. Follow-up
writing will consist of correcting your own hand-written paper in red ink,
typing the paper exactly as you wrote it in class and also correcting the typed
version in red ink, and then evaluating your own performance with a single page
of double-spaced typing. These writing
exercises are due the day the next one is given.
Portfolio Bonus Points: If, some time during the last week of the
semester, you show me your complete set of work for this class, assembled
according to instructions on Blackboard, and you have received at least 100 of
the 140 points available through writing assignments during the semester, I
will add 50 points to your total for the semester. Detailed instructions for preparing your
course portfolio will be provided on Blackboard.
Grading scale: 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.). If you end up with 630 points I will give you
an “A;” with 560 points you are guaranteed at least a “B;” etc.
Makeup exams: I give
no makeup exams. If you miss a test
because of illness or personal emergency, I will not count that test 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 frequently and as the
semester nears its end. If possible, I
will arrange for you to take an exam with you on any university-sponsored trip
and have it administered by a university official.
Extra credit: I will
provide a number of opportunities for extra credit, which will appear as points
simply added to your total. These
opportunities will include writing some of your own test questions,
contributing to exam preparation via Blackboard, exhibiting intellectual
leadership in class, sustaining class discussion (see below), etc. There will be bonus points for assembling a
portfolio of all your work in this class (contents and instructions will be on
Blackboard). In December, when I do
the final grade calculations, if I am able to recognize you on the street,
outside of class, by name and face, then I will add 10 extra credit points to
your total.
Please
decide this morning that you are going to come to class every day, take notes
seriously, ask questions, participate in class discussions, take all the exams,
take advantage of extra credit opportunities, make sure I can recognize you
outside of class, and get help early if you need it.
Class discussion:
If a group of three or
more students initiates a serious class discussion of current events, conducted
within the context of material we are covering, and if ten or more additional
students actually participate in this discussion, I will add 5 bonus points to
the grade of everyone who is in class that day.
In order to get these points it will be necessary for you all to be
quiet and attentive and to treat your fellow students with respect (but I don’t
care how lively the discussion gets).
Lab:
I have no responsibility for, or control over,
your lab grade. BioSci 101L is a separate
course from BioSci 101. However, I will
try to cover certain topics, e.g. cell biology and genetics, before they are
covered in lab. Dr. Jon Sandridge is the
General Biology Laboratory Coordinator.
His office and the Bios 101 lab office are located in room 101A Manter
Hall; his telephone number is (402) 472-0620; and, his e-mail is
jsandridge2@unlnotes.unl.edu.
Office hours:
My office hours are MW afternoons after class and
Th afternoon 1:30-3:30. 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 or office 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 is 0118). My e-mail is jjanovy1@unl.edu. I am available by appointment about any day,
including late in the afternoons (except on Friday). If you see me out on campus and I don’t seem
to be doing anything important, feel free to introduce yourself and ask any
questions you may have about biology.
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) Seek individual help early if you feel
completely lost.
(4) DON’T feel embarrassed if you are not doing
as well as you think you should be; seek help.
(5) Use all the resources available, including
those that may be on Blackboard.
(6) Attend the Supplemental Instruction sessions.
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);
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: Parasitology (BIOS 385, spring semesters),
Invertebrate Zoology (BioSci 381, fall semesters), Field Parasitology (BioSci
487/887, Cedar Point Biological Station,
Web site: http://bsweb.unl.edu/labs/janovy
General advice on how to
maximize the value of the education you receive at the
(1) Make sure every instructor you
have knows your name, and make sure that instructor knows you and your work
well enough so that he/she can write a letter of recommendation for you if
necessary.
(2) Simply decide today that you are
not afraid of, or intimidated by, faculty members, no matter how obnoxious or
wacko they seem, and regardless of whether their “values” are consistent with
yours.
(3) Pay attention to world events,
especially those with a cultural component.
Try to understand why these events take place, even though your courses
may not deal with anything other than specific subject matter having nothing to
do with global politics or economics.
(4) Visit the museums on campus about
once a week (free with student ID). Talk
to your friends about what you see in those buildings. Visit the Sheldon Gallery regularly and be
able to talk intelligently about the works there, as well as the sculptures on
campus.
(5) Pay attention to the campus
landscaping; read the labels on the trees and plants. Talk about campus landscaping and vegetation
with your friends.
(6) Read some high quality magazine
fairly regularly. I suggest The New Yorker, Harpers, or Atlantic Monthly. Ask your instructors for a reading list of
non-fiction books and read some of the items on such lists.
(7) Talk to your parents or guardians
about the ideas you are encountering at UNL.
(8) Do something original and creative (poetry, music, sketches, etc.) on
a fairly regular basis.
(9) Go to free lectures and recitals
when you have the opportunity. Once you
get there, stay through the whole thing and be a quiet and attentive audience
member.
(10) Talk to your fellow
students. Find out who are the most
challenging faculty members in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and enroll
in those teachers’ courses.
_____________________________________________________________________________
GENERAL BIOLOGY LABORATORY
ANNOUNCEMENT (Bios 101L)
The laboratory is an integral part of the General
Biology course. It is designed to provide
you with a series of experiments and observations which illustrated many of the
basic biological principles discussed in lecture. Efforts have been made to coordinate the
sequence in which lecture and lab materials are presented. In general, the basic background information
necessary to carry out each week’s lab exercise will be covered in lecture
prior to the lab exercise. The
General Biology Laboratory is a 1 credit hour course (Bios 101L) which must be
taken concurrently with lecture (Bios 101). Your lab grade will NOT be averaged into your
lecture grade.
Please note the following policies:
1. If you drop or withdraw from
Bios 101 lecture you must also drop or withdraw from Bios 101L lab. Conversely, if you drop or withdraw from the
Bios 101L lab you must also drop or withdraw from Bios 101 lecture.
2. Attendance will be taken at
each lab meeting. If you miss more than
2 lab sections, you will automatically receive a grade of F for the laboratory
(Bios 101L).
The General Biology Laboratory Coordinator is Jon
Sandridge. His office and the Bios 101
lab office are located in room 101A Manter Hall; his telephone number is (402)
472-0620; and, his e-mail is jsandridge2@unlnotes.unl.edu. All questions concerning the laboratory
should be addressed to Dr. Sandridge.
LECTURE SCHEDULE. In the
following schedule, biology is presented in a sequence that is intended to
build upon itself, the earlier lectures providing background information,
ideas, and concepts necessary to understand the topics presented later in the
semester. Biology is a highly integrated
field of study; for this reason I may select readings from several places in
the book so that you will have both facts and context relevant to the topic. In the
Week of Topics; refs in text
|
Week |
Topic |
|
Question, Topic, or Issue |
|
1 |
What is science? |
1.5 - 1.7 |
Science literary in the
general public. |
|
1 |
What is biology? |
1.1 – 1.4 |
How scientists approach
the study of living organisms. |
|
1 |
What is evolution? |
1.9, 2.3, 2.5 |
Why is "it's only a
theory" the wrong phrase to use when |
|
|
|
|
Trying to deny that the process of
evolution shapes life on Earth? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
Cell chemistry |
4.1 – 4.5 |
What’s in junk food? Why can I get vaccinated against some
viruses? |
|
2 |
HIV |
17.2 - 17.4 |
Why are flu viruses
different from HIV and what is meant by “mutant”? |
|
2 |
Bacteria |
17.2 – 17.4 |
Astrobiology, disease
diagnosis, and sex on a very small scale. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
3 |
Eukaryotic Cells |
Chapter 5 |
What is meant by the term
"cell"? |
|
3 |
Eukaryotic Cells |
Chapter 5 |
What is meant by the term
"cell"? (cont'd) |
|
3 |
Eukaryotic Cells |
Chapter 5 |
Why are cells of potential
use in medicine? In agriculture? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
4 |
Cell Activities |
Ch. 5, 6, & 7 |
How you and every other
living organism process the environment. |
|
4 |
Cell Activities |
(parts of those |
Food, feces, parasites,
decay, recycling, worms, etc. |
|
4 |
Cell Activities |
Chapters) |
A biologist reading labels
(more junk food) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
5 |
Genetics |
Ch. 9 - 14 |
What did your parents tell
you about sex? |
|
5 |
Genetics |
We’ll select |
What should an educated
citizen know about sex? |
|
5 |
Genetics |
parts of these |
Diversity, designer kids,
and human evolution - The basics |
|
|
|
|
|
|
6 |
Genetics |
Ch. 9 - 14 |
Why is phenotype so
important? |
|
6 |
Genetics |
We’ll select |
Why is phenotype so
important? (cont'd) |
|
6 |
Genetics |
parts of these |
What is genetic
information and how might it be used for profit? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
7 |
Genetics |
Ch. 9 – 14 |
Some information on human
genetics. |
|
7 |
Genetics |
We’ll select |
Molecular genetics and
evolutionary biology. |
|
7 |
Genetics |
parts of these |
What is the so-called
"nature-nurture controversy"? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 |
Evolution |
|
What is evolution? |
|
8 |
Evolution |
|
Why is evolution the
central unifying theme of biological science? |
|
8 |
Evolution |
|
Why do biologists consider
evolution to be a fact? |
|
|
|
|
|