ENVIRONMENTAL LIFE SCIENCE ABIO 106
Summer 2012
Instructor:
Office:
Office hours:
Phone:
email:
Dr. Andrew Dyer
SBDG 101E
By appointment
(803) 641-3443
andyd@usca.edu
Lecture:
Credits:
MTWTh 8:30-12:30
4
REQUIRED TEXTBOOK:
The Environment And You by Norm Christensen (2012) ISBN: 978-0-321-73438-9
http://www.coursesmart.com/givecoursesmartatry?xmlid=0077280644&__instructor=1284733
Other materials will be given by the instructor and will include readings from other books.
COURSE OBJECTIVES: The course will provide students with an understanding and appreciation of the
complex interactions between humans and the environment with particular emphasis on the most current issues.
The course will focus on natural resources and human population growth, and specifically on resource
use/depletion/degradation, types of pollution, pollution reduction and prevention, and strategies for local and global
sustainability. Case studies will be used to illustrate how solutions to environmental problems have been
addressed. Students will be expected to participate actively in class discussion, to bring outside materials to class,
and to synthesize material presented and discussed in class.
By the end of the course, students will:
*Have a much more informed opinion of the environmental issues facing our country;
*Have a much better understanding of environmental issues outside of the US;
*Be able to find and understand information relating to environmental issues;
*Appreciate the complexity of environmental issues and the difficulties in dealing with them;
*Be able to view the sides of environmental issues and form a more educated opinion about them.
*Will have an understanding of the options facing personal patterns of consumption in the US.
METHODS OF PRESENTATION AND EVALUATION: Information will be presented through lectures and
discussion of current events. A variety of assignments will be used to evaluate student progress in the class and will
usually be in written form.
Quizzes are given daily during the course, usually as the first assignment of the day. Students are expected to have
reviewed the material in preparation. There will be no make-up opportunities for quizzes for absence or late
arrival.
The final course grade will be based on the following:
Daily quizzes @ 10 pts. ea.
1 Final exam
Term paper
Various in-class assignments
Laboratory assignments, reports, and participation
200
100
100
~250
~250
~1000 total
The instructor may provide copies of lecture notes or slides at his discretion; if so, they will be posted on the USCA
K drive in the Bio 106 folder.
GRADING SCALE: A (90-100%), B (80-89), C (70-79), D (60-69), F (0-59).
The grades in this course and its components will not be curved.
ATTENDANCE POLICY: Students are expected to adhere to the USCA attendance policy as stated in the
Student Handbook. The instructor may impose a penalty for absences in excess of 25% of regularly scheduled
class meetings (lectures and labs) by assigning an “F” in the course. Absences, neither excused nor unexcused,
absolve the student from meeting class assignments.
Dates for specific assignments will be clearly announced in advance or are in the syllabus. If you are
absent, you are still responsible for knowing the dates. All students are expected to take the exams at the regularly
scheduled time. Make-up lecture exams will be considered only for a documented, excusable reason.
If there is an illness or emergency, you are expected to contact the instructor immediately. Be prepared to
show documentation (e.g., doctor’s excuse). Failure to contact the instructor within 24 hours will forfeit any chance
of making up a test. Attending lecture and taking notes is the sole responsibility of the student.
CHANGES: The instructor reserves the right to make changes in the lecture or laboratory schedule, the number of
quizzes and exams given, and the contents of each exam as deemed necessary.
LABORATORY ATTENDANCE: Because labs are often group efforts and often require special instruction,
some laboratory investigations cannot be made up. Therefore, students must make every effort to attend
laboratory sessions. If you miss a laboratory investigation, you will not be allowed to take the associated quizzes or
turn in a lab report the following week even if you get the information from your lab partners. This also applies if
you come in late, leave early, or do not participate fully. You cannot write a report on a laboratory investigation
that you did not do.
ELECTRONIC DEVICES: Plan to be out of touch and to have your cell phone stored out of sight during lecture
and lab time. This includes leaving the room to answer silent rings or using the phone for text messages. If you
have reason to need to be in cell phone contact, let the instructor know.
PLAGIARISM: Any and all work turned in for credit is assumed to be your work and the product of your brain
and your brain alone. Work can be considered plagiarism even if it is not exact copying. My advice is “don’t make
me look” because when I get suspicious enough to look, I usually find. For your information, it is plagiarism….
if you fail to cite a reference after giving a factual statement;
if you fail to use quotation marks (and I do not allow quoting in science papers);
if you rephrase someone else’s work or merely change a few words;
if you have the same order and form of sentences as the source material;
if you consistently mis-cite or mis-use cites in a way that suggests avoidance of detection;
if you and a lab partner work together and turn in work that is substantially the same.
If a “draft” of a paper has any of the above problems, it is still plagiarism.
If I cannot tell who produced a piece of work, no credit will be assigned.
If the references given are not accessible to the instructor, no credit will be given. If a student uses obscure
or unusual references, it is the student’s responsibility to give a copy of the material to me.
Many students believe that having no more than three consecutive words from an original source will fool
the electronic programs that detect plagiarism. I don’t use them; I read the papers that are given in the reference list
and compare them to the student’s work. If I find any of the problems listed above, there will be no first warning.
There is no latitude given because there is no excuse for plagiarism.
Therefore, if I find any work that is too similar to other work, either in the class or out of the class, I have
no options but to follow the rules as outlined in the USCA Faculty Manual. The student(s) involved will be
summoned to my office, the situation will be explained, there will be no options for “redoing” the work, a zero will
be given to the assignment, and a formal letter will be sent to the student and to the Executive Vice Chancellor for
Academic Affairs documenting the situation. As with all academic issues, there is an avenue for appeal (detailed in
the USCA Student Handbook), but it is not with me.
COMPUTER USE AND EMAIL: All laboratory reports will require the use of a computer. You must be able to
log on to the USCA computer system in order to accomplish these laboratory exercises. If you do not know how to
sign on to the USCA computer system, you should contact the CSD HELP desk as soon as possible.
All official email communications, including class announcements, are made to USCA email accounts. Students
should check their USCA email account on a regular basis and use this account for communication with the
instructor. In order to protect the privacy of the student, the instructor will not reply to emails sent from non-USCA
accounts (e.g., Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.). Also, because of federal law, no grades or scores can be communicated by
phone or email; you must come to the instructor’s office.
DISABILITY STATEMENT: If you have a physical, psychological, and/or learning disability which might affect
your performance in this class, please contact the Office of Disability Services, 126A B&E, (803) 641-3609, as
soon as possible. The Disability Services Office will determine appropriate accommodations based on medical
documentation.
CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR
It is the instructor’s right to remove from the classroom any student who disrupts or disturbs the proceeding of the
class. Disruption of the class includes but is not limited to the use of any portable electronic devices, including cell
phones, MP3 players; iPods, etc. unless prior approval has been given to a student or unless required for the
course. In extreme cases the faculty member can request assistance from University Police. If the student who has
been ejected causes similar disturbances in subsequent meetings of the class, he/she may be denied admittance to
the class for the remainder of the semester and assigned a grade of F.