BIOLOGY LAB ONLINE

This course is designed in a format that divides the 12 Labs in half with Labs 1-6 open during the first half of the semester and then Labs 7-11 open during the second half of the semester with Lab 12 (virtual fetal pig dissection) making up Exam 2. This results in a work load of ~ one Lab per week. 

Each Lab will include different activities that may include a kitchen-based or virtual experiment with required write-up submission that includes digital pictures of work, a quiz based on included text, an assigned article with accompanying questions to be submitted with answers.. 

Exams 1 is comparable to a Midterm Exam covering the material in Labs 1-6 and Exam 2, as mentioned earlier, is part of Lab 12's Virtual Fetal Pig Dissection.  If you have a smart-phone, I suggest you now place in your Calendar app the closing days and time for the quizzes, lab assignments, and Exams and also include some alerts to remind you of these closings.

Please note that while there is a 3 day "late submission" period for the Lab assignments (with a potential deduction of up to 30% of points for a late submission) , there is NO corresponding late submission option for the quizzes or Exams.  They MUST be submitted by the designated days and times seen below (while the days may change, the time for submission closing is ALWAYS 9AM).

The BSC2023 Lab course for non-science majors illustrates the processes, concepts, and principles discussed in BSC2023 Lecture through virtual and kitchen-based investigative activities. 

Students will be able to: 

1. Translate a greater appreciation of your own biology to how your organ systems work together to maintain your internal environment (homeostasis), 2. Demonstrate an understanding of human biology, and science in general, that will help you make sound decisions about contemporary issues of a biological or technological nature that will impact your life. 3. Integrate both virtual and (kitchen based) hands-on lab experiments' procedures and outcomes to the process of scientific inquiry.

This course assumes very little or no prior scientific knowledge of biology, and thus serves for non-biology major students who wish to satisfy the lab portion of BSC 2023, completing the Life Science requirement within the FIU Core Curriculum Natural Science category. This course will expand the student's knowledge of how the human body works over successive levels of organization from molecules of life to organ systems to organisms. Lab assignments may include (but are not limited to) such work as hands-on (kitchen based) lab experiments, labeling activities, short answer essay questions and quizzes. There may also be writing assignments that will analyze data collected from the class. All of the assigned activities will be explained in each Lab module.

Natural Sciences Our technologically dependent world requires an understanding of the processes that led us here. Learning the basic concepts and ideas of scientific fields provides contact with not just those fields but with how science is done. In these courses students study the scientific method through examination of the foundational theories of modern scientific thought. Students apply scientific principles and theories to problem solving, evaluate scientific statements, and incorporate new information within the context of what is already known.Emphasizing the essential connection between theory and experiment, the hands-on laboratory experience provides the context for testing scientific theories. Students will be able to describe the scientific method through examination of the foundational theories of modern scientific thought.

Includes, but not limited to:

1.  Active participation in kitchen-based experiments including recording & interpreting results and submitting experiment write-up with supporting digital pictures.

2.  Guided inquiry through illustrated text, animations, and virtual exercises assessed by quizzes and exams.

The College of Business cares about the quality of your education. More on the College's commitment to Assurance of Learning can be found at the following link:

http://businessonline.fiu.edu/course_addons/Learning_Commitment.pdf

Please review the policies page as it contains essential information regarding guidelines relevant to all courses at FIU and additional information on the standards for acceptable netiquette important for online courses.

For this course (BSC2023L) to fulfill the UCC requirement, students must also complete the Lecture (BSC2023) component worth 3 credits either before, during, or after completing this lab.

For more information about prerequisites, click here.

This online section does not require an on-campus meeting and/or exam.

You will not need to purchase a textbook for this course. All of the text material is on the website.

You will need to purchase some basic materials (found in grocery and/or drug stores) to perform the hands-on lab experiments and you will need a digital camera to record the experiments. If you don't have a digital camera, disposable digital cameras are available for purchase from drug stores and the developed pictures are delivered on a disc. The labs that include the hands-on experiments are due in the same time period, by Feb. 20 for full points and will be accepted as late submissions (points deducted) up to 9am on Feb. 23. So all the experiments' pictures can be taken with one camera, developed, and then the specific pictures can be attached to the specific assignments before they are submitted. Lab assignments will NOT be accepted without these supporting pictures.   Also, every picture MUST have within the picture a card or piece of paper with your name and Panther ID# hand-written on it. You may NOT photoshop into the picture a label with your name and ID.  Each lab Assignment will tell you what specific pictures are needed for your submission.

This is an online course, meaning that most of the course work will be conducted online. Expectations for performance in an online course are the same as for a traditional course; in fact, online courses require a degree of self-motivation, self-discipline, and technology skills that can make them more demanding for some students.

Students are expected to:

• Review the How to Get Started information located in the course content.
• Introduce yourself to the class during the first week by posting a self introduction in the appropriate discussion forum.
• Take the practice quiz to ensure that your computer is compatible with Blackboard.
• Interact online with instructor/s and peers and keep up with all assignments.
• Review and follow the course calendar.

One of the greatest barriers to taking an online course is a lack of basic computer literacy. By computer literacy we mean being able to manage and organize computer files efficiently, and learning to use your computer's operating system and software quickly and easily. Keep in mind that this is not a computer literacy course; but students enrolled in online courses are expected to have moderate proficiency using a computer. Please go to the "What's Required" page to find out more information on this subject.

For detailed information about the technical requirements, please click here.

For detailed information about the specific limitations with the technologies used in this course, please click here. For more information about Blackboard's Accessibility Commitment, click here. For additional assistance please contact our Disability Resource Center.

Please note that the information contained in this section applies only if your course requires a proctored exam.

It is the student’s responsibility to determine whether this online course requires proctored exams by carefully reviewing this syllabus. For detailed instructions please visit our Proctored Exam Resources page on the FIU Online website.

Communication in this course will take place via messages and announcements. You may also email me at my regular FIU email, [email protected].  But be sure to put your name and course number in the subject line indicating you are an online student.

The course message feature is a private, internal Blackboard only communication system. Users must log on to the blackboard system to send/receive/read messages. There are no notifications in Blackboard to inform users when a new message has been received; therefore, it is recommended that students check their messages routinely to ensure up-to-date communication.

The announcements are messages sent to your registered email account.  This is typically your FIU account email.  The announcement messages are very helpful because I use this tool to inform the whole class about course issues such as material closing or any technology problems students have encountered.  I will be sending out an announcement the first day of class.  If you do not receive it, contact Technology Support (through link on left-hand menu) and ask them to change your email.

Many messages are received throughout the semester.  For some, I respond individually, but to others the response is a message to the whole class because it is an issue that everyone needs to know about.  And for some messages, I do not respond at all.  These are the messages that request for material that has closed to be reopened.  Since the course guidelines are very clear on this matter, and since all students will have taken the Student-Instructor quiz covering these guidelines, there is no reason for a message telling the student what they already know:  the material will not be reopened.

I typically log on to the Course site ~3 times a week, so you can expect to receive an answer to your message within ~72 hours.  If it is an emergency, you can contact me through my regular FIU email.

No material will be reopened except for an emergency that has impacted the FIU community.  Any personal issues that impacts your ability to complete work MUST:

1.  Be documented.  Such documentation would include funeral announcement (death in family), hospital receipts (accident, illness, etc.), etc. 2.  Prevent you from accessing the material during the COMPLETE time it is open (~6 weeks for quizzes and assignments and ~5 days for exams).  If you choose to wait till the last few days (or hours) to do the work and something prevents you from completing the work (including an emergency), the material WILL NOT be reopened.  By making the choice to wait, you are also accepting the possibility that (Murphy's Law) "If anything can go wrong, it will." And always at the worst possible time.

In order to mitigate any issues with your computer and online assessments, it is very important that you take the "Practice Quiz" from each computer you will be using to take your graded quizzes and exams. It is your responsibility to make sure your computer meets the minimum hardware requirements.

Each student will be required to enter into a "course contract" with the Instructor by taking the INSTRUCTOR-STUDENT CONTRACT QUIZ found on the Course Content page and under Assessments. This contract quiz specifies that you have read the Syllabus and therefore understand the time frame for completion of the Exams, Quizzes, and Experiment Assignments. You do not receive points for this quiz. But completing it and earning a perfect score is a requirement for being able to take Exam 1.  You may take the quiz as many times as is required for you to earn a perfect score of 6. 

While the on-line format of this course will offer the student a degree of flexibility in when they participate in the work, it requires self-discipline to stay on track through the semester.  You will receive Announcement emails indicating where you should be (ideally) in the work and how much you should have completed by that time and each student is responsible for keeping up with their work. The suggested work pattern is to do one Lab per week.

Each student is allowed to take a quiz or Exam 2 times.  But if they do take it two times, they receive the average of the two scores.  There is NO late submission option for the quizzes and exams as there is for the assignments.

The semester is divided into two halves. The dates stated below are when the mentioned Labs open. The labs stay open until the stated closing date. Which means Labs 1-6 (all material) are open from January 11 to Feb. 23, with the quizzes closing at 9am on Feb. 20 and the Assignments with the potential for earning full points due on the same day (Feb. 20). Lab Assignments submitted after 9AM Feb. 20 but before 9AM, Feb. 23 will be viewed as a late submission and may have up to 30% of potential points deducted.

Exam 1 will be open between 9AM Feb, 20 and 9AM Feb. 25.

Labs 7-11 (all material) are open Feb. 26 - April 13 with the quizzes closing at 9am on April 10 and the Assignments with the potential for earning full points due on the same day (April 10). Lab Assignments submitted after 9AM April 10 but before 9AM, April 13 will be viewed as a late submission and may have up to 30% of potential points deducted.

Exam 2 which is part of Lab 12 will be open April 10 - 15 at 9am.

This clustered opening of Labs gives you flexibility in when you can do your work...but it is your responsibility to keep up with the work and be aware of the closing dates for these Labs. Exam 1 covers Labs 1-6. Exam 2 is drawn from Lab 12, but while it covers material from all of the Labs studied throughout this semester, Lab 12 also has included text.

To repeat, the Lab Assignments for Labs 1-6 are due on Feb. 20th and Labs 7-11 are due on April 10th . There is a 3 day late submission period for both sets of the experiment Assignments. If you submit during the late period (Feb. 20-23 for Labs 1-6 and April 10-13 for Labs 7-11), you may loose up to 30% of the possible points. If you choose to wait until the last few hours to complete your work, you will be taking the chance of having something preventing you from completing the work, much to your unhappiness. There is NO late submission period for Quizzes or Exams.

For specific Lab Assignments, students may work in groups. If you are working in a group, only one student will submit the Lab Assignment write-up through the "Submit-it" link. In the submission, that student will identify all the members of the group. The card or paper that must be included within every submitted picture must have all of the members names and number hand-written on it. All of the other members of the group (those not submitting the work) must also submit a statement (through the "Submit-it" link) of whose group you belong to. If you do not submit this statement, I will have no way of assigning you points for the work.