Laboratory grades for Biology 03051, Vertebrate Zoology, sections 001R and 002R
Dr. Wilson Crone, Spring 2000.
Office: 303 Fitzgibbons (near the lab in Amstuz 311).
Office phone: 629-7439 (has voice mail, so call any time).
E-mail: cronewil@hvcc.edu
Web page: http://www.hvcc.edu/academ/faculty/crone/index.html
Office hours: as posted
Mon. 9-11; Thurs. 11-12 (in Bio Study Center, Amstuz 219, 629-7545); Thurs. 12-1; Fri. 9-10;
or by appointment Attendance
DESCRIPTION OF LABORATORY ASSIGNMENTS
As described in the overall course handout, laboratory will be 25% of your overall course grade. The lab average in my sections (001R: Thursday 2-4 lab and 002R: Friday 10-12 lab) will be calculated by:
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110 points |
from eleven best 10 point quizzes in lab on the previous week's lab material |
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45 points |
from nine 5 point dissection grades |
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20 points |
from one 20 point laboratory article/web site abstract |
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175 total points |
for laboratory grade total |
110 points from best eleven quizzes: Quizzes covering the previous week's lab will be given at the beginning of each lab. Please do not be late. I will drop low scores, so if you miss a week's lab, you miss the opportunity to take that quiz.
45 points from nine dissections: The labs involving dissection will be graded to encourage careful handiwork and attention to the issues raised in the lab handout. This dissection grade will be lowered if YOU are not prepared with lab manual, lab handout, dissecting kit, eye protection, and hand protection. Please do not expect your lab group to"cover" for you--take personal responsibility and initiative.
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Point Scale for Dissection Grade (out of 5) |
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1, 2 |
no equipment or missing more than two of the above items, not participating very much in dissection |
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3 |
missing one or two of the above, but contributing to dissection in group, able to name and/or describe a few structures |
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4 |
fully equipped, participating in dissection, able to answer a majority of posed questions |
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5 |
fully equipped, enthusiastic, able to point out almost all structures asked |
If you miss a week's lab because of illness or other documentable, legitimate excuse, but make up the dissection in a later lab, you will receive dissection credit. I will not do any of this dissection makeup after Friday, April 28 (week 14 of the semester).
20 points from an article/web site summary: You will each individually do one brief article summary/application. For your source, choose an article of at least 2-3 pages in length that relates to vertebrate zoology from a magazine or journal that covers scientific issues, e.g., National Geographic, Natural History, Discover, Scientific American, Smithsonian, Science, American Zoologist, New York Times Science section, etc., or a web site of equal complexity. Excerpts from encyclopedias or textbooks, whether print or electronic, will not be acceptable. I will take points off if your article is not long or"meaty" enough.
PLEASE NOTE: you will need to confirm your article/web site selection with me beforehand, as it will be"first come, first served" choices. I will be keeping a list of selected articles/web sites so that there will be no duplications from the class. So if you find a really interesting article, be the first to claim it! What I will want from you is the following:
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A) |
a copy of the article or web site attached to your report--do not"borrow" a copy from a library!! |
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B) |
Full reference to the article (author, year, title, magazine, volume, pages) or web site. |
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C) |
In your own words, a brief (1-4 paragraph) highlighting of what the article was about. Go into enough detail so that someone reading your summary will have a good flavor of the article, but do not be so exhaustive as to rewrite the article! |
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D) |
Finally, how the information in this article relates to your laboratory experience, and either reinforces it, or extends your laboratory observations. For example, an article on eating habits of sharks could help to explain the rows of teeth you saw with the spiny dogfish. This is a chance for you to be creative! If you are unclear about this assignment, please ask me. |
If you are not sure how to format a complete bibliographic citation, an example is given below:
Crone, W., and McDaniel, C. N. 1997. Flowering response to transplanting and rooting manipulations in Arabidopsis thaliana (Brassicaceae). International Journal of Plant Sciences 158: 231-235.
For citation of electronic material, check your English Composition or other resources, e.g., http://longman.awl.com/englishpages/
I expect author (if available), title, URL, and date of access at a minimum for a citation of electronic material.
This lab writeup is to be typed and should be doable in 1-3 pages. It is due Thursday, 4/20 (week 13) by 2 PM in lecture. Since this is late in the semester, no late article summaries will be accepted--plan ahead! You are always welcome to turn assignments in early. I will be happy to go over rough drafts of lecture or lab assignments with you during office hours or an appointment.
|main page| |background| |03028: Physiology| |03048: Anatomy|
|03050: Invertebrate Zoology| |03051: Vertebrate Zoology| |03074: Economic Botany|
Please send comments and questions to: cronewil@hvcc.edu
Copyright 1999, 2000 by Wilson Crone
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This web page last updated on January 28, 2000