Biology 110 is a four credit course with lecture and laboratory components. The goal of this course is to introduce you to the fundamental concepts that are common to all organisms and to explore the biological diversity of life on Earth.

J-D Swanson
303 Wartik Building
jds24@psu.edu
Office Hours: By appointment

textbook
Campbell, Reese, and Mitchell. 1999. Biology. Fifth edition. The Benjamin/Cummings Publishing Company, Menlo Park, California.

Laboratory Manual
Burpee-Barlow, D.M. and B. G. Leicht. 1999. A Laboratory Manual for Biology 110: Basic Concepts and Biodiversity. Hayden-McNeil Publishing, Inc., Portland, MI.

Writing Manual
On the reserve reading web page at http://reserve.libraries.psu.edu/biol110b/writeman.htm. There is a link from the Biology 110 home page.

Home Page
http://www.bio.psu.edu (select the On-line Course Materials button, then select Biology 110 LEAP). You also will find the lecture schedule, lab schedule, the syllabus, a more detailed description of all course policies, and additional information on this page. It is your responsibility to read the detailed course policies.

Lectures will begin at 9:35 a.m. The reading for each lecture should be done in advance of the lecture; in preparing the lectures, I will assume that you have read the material. Reading in advance will make taking notes during lecture much easier. This course stresses concepts and it is critical that you understand the material; memorization alone will not be sufficient.

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lab instructor
Dianne Burpee-Barlow, dmb11@psu.edu, Room 115 Mueller Lab, 863-0800. Office hours: by appointment.

Further details about grading policies and making up exercises for which you have a legitimate excuse will be discussed by your teaching assistant during the first meeting of your laboratory section.

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·       illness with a doctor’s excuse and/or receipt (a receipt from Ritenour is sufficient; a Ritenour appointment card alone is not acceptable)

·       a University sponsored event (with a note from the sponsor)

·       a religious holiday recognized by PSU

·       a death in the family (you must provide official documentation - obituary, funeral card - with a date)

NOTE WELL!
Oversleeping is not a legitimate excuse for missing an exam. If you oversleep, come to room 508 Mueller as soon as possible. Points will be deducted for lateness.

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You will be covering the Biodiversity component of Biology 110 through group presentations in conjunction with Speech Comm 100B. Your group will cover a subset of the major groups of organisms on Earth (you will be assigned to your group by the course instructors). All of the members of the group are expected to work together to create a well-organized and cohesive presentation. This will include the preparation of a typed outline that will be placed on the course web page. Each person in the group is expected to give an approximately 10-12 minute presentation about their assigned taxon/taxa. The individual presentations should include (where applicable) the following information:

1. What cellular or anatomical features are unique to the taxon?

2. How do these organisms acquire energy/nutrition?

3. How do these organisms reproduce? Is their anything unique about their mode of reproduction or development?

4. What is known about the evolutionary history of this group?

5. Are there any unique adaptations or innovations in this group?

6. What impact have these organisms had on other organisms, particularly humans?

You will be evaluated on organization and clarity of presentation as well as content. You will not have time to cover everything known about the taxon. You should concentrate on the questions above. Also, you will need to go beyond your book; your presentation must include information from at least two outside sources (reference these in your outline). The presentations should show coordination among the members of the group. Feel free to be creative in your presentations. Visual aides in the form of transparencies, slides, computer graphics, etc. are highly encouraged.

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Lecture exams (totaling 650 points) and your biodiversity presentation (100 points - 50 points for presentation content and 50 points for outline) count for 75% of your course grade; the remaining 25% will come from the laboratory exercises and recitations (250 points). The grading scale is:           

A         93 - 100%

A-        90 - 92%

B+       87 - 89% 

B         83 - 86% 

B-        80 - 82%

C+       77 - 79%

C         70 - 76%

D         60 - 69%

F          Less than 60%

If the class mean is below 75%, then grades will be assigned with the mean being a "C". There are no extra credit points available in this course.

*In extraordinary circumstances, a final grade may be based upon fewer than the total number of points available.

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