Biology 100
Spring 2012
Biology 100: Concepts in Biology
Course Syllabus Spring 2012
Instructor: Paige M. Miller, Ph.D.
Contact information:
Office: EBS 212, Phone: 965-0581 X-2518
Email: pmmiller2@pipeline.sbcc.edu
pmmiller2sbcc@gmail.com
Office hours: Tuesday/Thursday 11 am-12 pm in Luria Library (near the Café) and by appointment.
Course overview: Welcome to Bio 100! This course is an introduction to the wonderful diversity of life on earth. We
will cover many topics including the initial evolution and diversification of life, organismal interactions, and extinction
(the ultimate fate of most species). The course is intended for non-biology majors, and my goal, as your instructor is to
help you achieve a good understanding of the basic principles of life on earth. I also hope that you will develop a lifelong
appreciation of biology – you will see for yourself that understanding biology makes the world a much more interesting
place!
This course satisfies the SBCC general education requirement in Natural Sciences, and is transferable to both UC and
CSU as a general education laboratory science course. Biology majors are welcome to take this course but it does not
apply toward the Biology major at SBCC.
Textbook: Campbell Biology, Concepts and Connections, 7th edition by Reece, Taylor, Simon & Dickey. The
textbook is required for the course. The bookstore has a special edition with selected chapters for SBCC at a reduced cost
and the purchase of online access is possible. If you are comfortable studying online, this is an acceptable alternative to
purchase of the textbook. Several copies are also available at the library.
Lab manual: Your lab manual, Biology 100 Concepts of Biology Laboratory Studies, includes all the content you will
need for the lab portion of the course, including online labs and Plus Hour assignments. It is required and is available for
purchase in the bookstore. When you attend lab each week you will bring the lab assignment included in the manual, so
that you can successfully complete the lab experiments. It is your responsibility to turn in this work at the end of lab, if
you fail to bring the lab assignment or to get it graded you will not receive credit for the lab. If you forget the lab
assignment handout, you can access it through the biology website and print a copy to bring to lab. URL http://www.biosbcc.net/.
Course Requirements and Expectations:
Class and Lab attendance: You are required to enroll in and attend both the lecture and lab portions of this course to
receive course credit. You are expected to attend two 80-minute lectures (12:45-2:05 pm T/R) and a 3-hour lab each week.
You must attend the lab, as well as the lecture, to pass this course.
Lecture: Your attendance in lecture will be monitored via a sign in sheet. You will be responsible for signing yourself in
each day you attend class. If you forget, you will be considered absent. You may NOT retroactively sign yourself in for
missed classes or those days when you may have forgotten to sign in. You absolutely may NOT sign in for anyone else! If
you miss a class, it is your responsibility to obtain information and materials dispensed in that class period. A failure to
attend more than three (3) lecture sessions may result in your being dropped from the class. PowerPoint materials from
lecture may be accessed through pipeline using xythos. URL: http://wfs.sbcc.edu/xythoswfs/
Lab: Attendance in lab is mandatory. This course fulfills the general education laboratory science requirement. As such,
you must pass the lab portion, as well as the lecture portion, to receive this credit. If you do not attend lab, you will NOT
pass the class. You may only attend your scheduled lab time. If you need to attend an alternate lab time at some point
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Biology 100
Spring 2012
during the semester, you must discuss it with me as soon as possible. If you need to attend another instructor’s lab for a
make-up, you may do so with that instructor’s permission and you must take their lab quiz. A failure to attend more than
three (3) lab sessions may result in your being dropped from the class.
Your grade: Your final grade will be based on the number of points you have earned over the course of the semester.
For example, if you earn 90-100% of all possible points, you will receive an A. Each individual assignment is given a
point total, not a letter grade. See below under “Final Course Grade” for instructions on how to calculate your grade at any
time during this course.
Lecture Exams: Exams are a combination of multiple choice, short answer and short essay. There will be three (3) lecture
exams, worth 100 points each. You will need to bring a long scantron to each quiz. The current SBCC policy states that
no electronic translator’s or dictionaries may be used during any exams.
In-class Quizzes: There is a strong positive correlation between a student’s final grade and their attendance in lecture.
Those students that regularly attend lectures tend to get the highest grades. To encourage attendance there will be five (5)
unscheduled quizzes during lectures over the semester, there will be no make-ups for these quizzes. Quiz material will
be based on information presented in lecture. Each quiz will be worth 10 points.
Final Exam: There will be a final exam worth 150 points. The exam will primarily cover material from lectures,
although there may also be questions from the labs. A portion of the points on the final exam will be from material
covered in the beginning of the course and a portion will be from new material covered since the previous exam.
Lab assignments: These exercises consist of worksheets with instructions, diagrams, and questions. Most of these
worksheets involve performing experiments, watching demonstrations and learning a variety of procedures during the lab
period. You will complete these worksheets during lab time. Lab assignments are graded at the end of lab. It is your
responsibility to make sure you do not leave lab without completing the material and getting a grade.
Plus Hour lab assignments: These worksheets are due in the lab following the date listed for the assignment.
Assignments turned in late will be assessed a 10% penalty per day late. No assignments will be accepted more than a
week past their due date.
Lab Quizzes: Quizzes will be given at the beginning of lab and will evaluate your understanding of material covered
during any completed labs, though the focus will be on the previous weeks lab session. Quizzes will take no more than 10
minutes; do not be late to lab. If you arrive after the quiz has begun, you will only be allowed the time remaining to take
the quiz. If you arrive after the quiz has been collected, you will get a zero for that quiz. No make-up quizzes will be
given. There will be a total of 11 quizzes worth 15 points each. Your lowest quiz score will be dropped.
Video Responses: We will watch several videos during the semester. These videos will help illustrate topics we’ve
discussed in class. There will be two video responses assigned for which you will write an essay that explains how the
content of the video relates to topics we’ve discussed in class. You need to clearly connect information and topics
learned in class with examples discussed and illustrated in the video to receive a good score. You may also include
your thoughts, feelings, and reaction to the video (e.g. if you liked it) but this is not required. Responses should be at least
250 words in length and no more than 500 words and are worth 25 points each. Grammar counts!
All video responses will be turned in via turnitin.com (see page 6 for directions how to do this). Responses must be
submitted by the deadline date that will be given in lecture after the video presentation. You should be aware that the
Turnitin site will evaluate your submission for plagiarism. Any score of greater than 10% copied (and not cited) material
will result in your receiving a zero (0) for the assignment. Late video responses may be accepted under certain
circumstances, but will incur a 10% point reduction for each day they are late.
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Biology 100
Spring 2012
The following rubric will be used to grade the video responses.
5 points
Use of correct,
specific examples of
materials from the
video.
3 or more
3 points
2 only
Course topics
Course topics clearly
mentioned, but not
Statement of course
stated and defined as
clearly stated as
topics that relate to
content studied in
content studied in
video.
class.
class.
2 points
1 only
Use of correct
English grammar.
250 – 500 words, not
counting name, title, More than 500 words 200 – 250 words
date, etc.
Use of complete,
coherent sentences,
words used and
spelled correctly.
No examples OR
examples not from the
video we watched in
class.
No clear explanation
Course topics casually of course topics OR
mentioned as part of a incorrect course topics
summary of the video. OR only summarized
the video.
Vague connections
Clear and obvious
made between course
Connections between
connections made
topics and examples
stated course topics
Connections made
between course
from video OR
and examples are
between topics from
topics and how they
connections made with
loosely implied, but
class and examples
relate to the video
course topics NOT
not clearly
from video.
examples used in the
stated above OR
explained.
response.
incorrect connections
were made.
Length of essay
0 points
No connections made
between course topics
and examples OR used
examples that were not
from the correct video.
Less than 200 words
Nearly
incomprehensible.
Few (2-4) improper Many (5-10) improper
More than 10
sentences, misused sentences, misused or
improper, incoherent
or misspelled words. misspelled words.
sentences, misused or
misspelled words.
Completed rubrics and scores for these assignments will be available only on turnitin.com. You will not receive a hard
copy of the completed rubric for this assignment. If you want to find out what score you got, you must check your
account at turnitin.com.
Make-up policy: If you miss a quiz or exam in either lecture or lab, there are ONLY 2 valid reasons for which you will
be allowed to make it up: 1) a death in the family; or 2) an illness or accident with a signed note from the doctor or the
police. In addition, you (or someone allowed to speak for you) must inform me, via email, as soon as possible of your
situation.
If you miss a quiz for any reason other than those stated above, there will be NO make-ups. Work schedules, family
vacations, community service projects, hangovers, etc. are NOT valid excuses.
Biological Article analysis (Extra credit): There will be an option to submit an extra-credit article on turnitin.com. If
you wish to complete an article analysis, you should discuss this assignment with the instructor first. In brief, you will
choose an appropriate topic for biology, read four or five articles on that topic in science magazines, the popular press
(newspapers, quality magazines), or use fact based websites to gain a greater understanding of the topic. You will relate
the topic to different concepts we will cover in the class. You will cite your sources. The extra credit points earned (from
1 to 20 possible) will be determined by the quality of the completed analysis. Completed assignments must be received by
the last lecture week.
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Biology 100
Spring 2012
Final Course Grade:
The total scores from lecture and lab will be weighted, so that lecture will total 65% of the final grade and lab will total
35% of the final grade. This means that the lecture total is worth 650 points and the lab total is worth 350 points from a
total score of 1000.
Note: Total points available are subject to change during the semester.
Lecture. Points for the lecture portion of this course will be awarded for the following:
3 exams @ 100 points each
300 points
(x ~1.182)= 355
Final exam
150 points
(x ~1.182)= 177
2 video responses @ 25 points each
50 points
(x ~1.182)= 59
In-class quizzes
50 points
(x ~1.182)= 59
550 points
(x ~1.182)= 650 (weighted)
Total lecture
Lab. Points for the lab portion will be awarded for the following:
15 lab exercises @ 10 points each
5 plus hour assignments @ 10 points each
150 points
50 points
10 lab quizzes @ 15 points each
150 points
Total lab
350 points
Total Raw Score
875
Total Weighted Score 1000
To calculate your grade at any time during the semester you can add your total lecture points up and multiply by 1.182,
then add this to your total lab points earned and divide by the possible points that could have been earned at this point in
the semester with perfect scores on all assignments. Use your percentage of this total to determine your current letter
grade. For example, after the second exam with 5 lab exercises (each worth a possible 10 points) and 5 lab quizzes
completed (each worth a possible 15 points), if you had the following grades:
100 points on the first exam
95 points on the second exam
115 points in lab
The total possible with perfect scores would be:
Lecture (200 * 1.182)= 236.4
Lab 125
Your grade would be calculated with this formula:
[(195 x 1.182) +115]/(236.4 + 125)=0.96 or 96% of the possible points and thus an “A.”
Your success: I want you to do well in this course. Please see me during office hours, if you have any questions or
problems with the course or assignments. You may also email me, but often it is easier to address questions in person. I
will always stay to the end of lab times to answer questions and you may schedule individual meetings with me. You
should take advantage of opportunities to talk with your professors – we’re here to help you learn!
Student Learning Outcomes for Biology 100:
SLO 1 - Lab - Use critical thinking skills to apply the Scientific Method, specifically to the collection and analysis of data
and the development and testing of hypotheses.
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Biology 100
Spring 2012
SLO 2 - Working Cell - Distinguish major groups of organisms based on cellular structure, acquisition of energy, and
reproduction.
SLO 3 - Evolution - Recognize evolution as the central paradigm of Biology, and explain how traits observed in living and
extinct organisms are the result of natural selection and other evolutionary processes and serve to illustrate the ancestral
relationships among all organisms.
SLO 4 - Genetics - Define the relationships among DNA, genes, and the expression of traits in organisms. Describe the
mechanisms by which genetic information is transmitted during reproduction.
SLO 5 - Ecology - Recognize ecological relationships between organisms and their environment. Relate relevant topics in
biology to the human experience and our impact on the natural world.
Appropriate Behavior: Disruptive behavior will not be permitted in lecture or lab. Your instructor will determine what
constitutes disruptive behavior at her discretion, and disruptive students may be asked to leave. Here are some general
rules:
o Arrive to class on time, and do not leave early.
o No use of cell phones, ipods, MP3 players, or text messaging during lecture or lab.
o You may use a computer to take notes, but you may not access the internet during class.
o Do not converse with your classmates (or yourself!) while the instructor or other presenter is addressing
the class. If you have a question or discussion item, please raise your hand.
o Be respectful of your instructor, college staff, and your fellow students
Academic honesty: SBCC maintains a strict policy regarding academic dishonesty (including plagiarism) and cheating
will not be tolerated in this course. Refer to SBCC’s academic honesty statement for standards of conduct and penalties.
All work submitted must be your own. The use of cheat sheets, cell phones, translators, dictionaries or any other
materials, including looking at someone else’s paper, during exams and quizzes is strictly prohibited. Students who violate
these policies will receive a zero for a test or paper where cheating has occurred. All instances of academic dishonesty
will be reported to the academic dean for institutional action.
Students with special needs: Students with disabilities who are requesting accommodation should use the following
SBCC procedure: contact the DSPS office, submit documentation of your disability to the DSPS office, communicate
with a DSPS specialist regarding options for services and accommodations, and reach written accommodation agreement
not only with the DSPS specialist but also with your instructor. SBCC requests you complete this process at least ten
working days before your accommodation is needed, in order to allow DSPS staff and SBCC instructors time to provide
your accommodation.
“SBCC students with disabilities who are requesting accommodations for
classes, college activities or tests should use the following SBCC
procedure. (NOTE: This also includes students who are requesting to
bring service animals into classes. The procedure also includes
requests to bring personal service attendants into classes as
volunteers or hired by outside agencies.)
[1] Contact Disabled Student Programs and Services (DSPS).
[2] Submit documentation of your disability to the DSPS office.
[3] Communicate with a DSPS counselor regarding options for services
and accommodations.
[4] Reach written accommodation agreement with the DSPS counselor and
your instructor.
SBCC requests you complete this process at least ten working days
before your accommodation is needed, in order to allow DSPS staff time
to provide your accommodation.
Contact: DSPS office (805) 965-0581 x 2364, SS Building, room 160,
dspshelp@sbcc.edu
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Biology 100
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Directions for Submitting your Assignments to Turnitin.com
Step 1: Register
 Go to Turnitin.com <http://www.turnitin.com>

Click on “Create account” under the login box in the upper right hand side of the page.

Follow the instructions to create a user profile as a student, if you are new to turnitin.com.

If you’ve used turnitin.com before, you can use the same email and password to log in.
 You will be asked for a CLASS ID and CLASS ENROLLMENT PASSWORD. Use the following:
The class ID: 4748560
The enrollment Password: Springbio

You will then be asked to do several things to complete your registration:
o enter your first and last name
o enter your e-mail address
o create and confirm your own password.
o select a secret question and provide and answer
o Read the user agreement and select “I agree – create profile”

You have now completed your registration.
Step 2: Submit your assignments

log in to the Turnitin.com website using the email address and password you created when you registered
Once you are logged in, a page will open that shows you the class ID, class name and my name

click on the class name “Spring 2012 Biology 100”
You should now see a page with an “assignment list” and “your portfolio.”
Choose the appropriate assignment, e.g. Video Response 1

Click on the icon located just below “submit”

Choose how you wish to submit your paper (either upload or cut and paste). If uploading, use the browse button to
locate the file on your computer.

Enter your name and a title for your paper and click “submit”

Your paper will appear and you’ll be asked to verify it is the paper you wish to submit. If it is, click “yes, submit.”

If all goes well, you will receive a Turnitin digital receipt and you’re done!
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Biology 100
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Lecture Schedule: This schedule is subject to change by the instructor. Updates to lecture or lab schedule and/or
assignments will be communicated in lecture or through Pipeline.
Week
Dates
Lecture
Reading
1
January 24Introduction - The scientific method
Chapters 1, 2, 3
26
Life
Atoms, molecules, and water
2
Jan 31- Feb 2
Cell structure
Chapters 4
3
Feb 7-9
Cell function and energy
Cell - Respiration and Photosynthesis
Chapters 5, 6
4
Feb 14-16
Cell energy continued - Respiration and Photosynthesis
Cell division – Mitosis and Meiosis
Chapters 7
5
Feb 21-23
Chapter 8
6
Feb 28March 1
Exam 1 (Feb 21)
Cell division continued – Mitosis and Meiosis
Cell division - DNA replication
Classic Genetics – Mendelian principles, inheritance
7
March 6-8
Classic Genetics – continued
Molecular Genetics – DNA, RNA, protein
Chapter 10
8
March 13-15
Evolution and Natural Selection
Evolution and Sexual Selection
Chapters 13, 35
9
March 20-22
Exam 2 (March 20)
Video 1 – Triumph of Life: The Mating Game
10
March 27-29
Spring Break – No School
11
April 3-5
Speciation
Introduction to Ecology
Chapters 14, 15
Chapter 34
12
April 10-12
Evolutionary History and Mass Extinctions
Chapter 15
13
April 17-19
Chapter 16
14
April 24-26
15
May 1-3
16
May 8-10
17
May 15
Biological Diversity: Prokaryotes to Protists
Video 2 – Triumph of Life: 4 billion year war
Biological Diversity: Animals (Invertebrates)
Exam 3 (April 26)
Biological Diversity: Animals (Vertebrates)
Biological Diversity: Hominoids to Hominids
Biological Diversity continued: Hominoids to Hominids
Evolution of Homo sapiens and human impacts
Final Exam 11 am – 1 pm
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Chapter 9
Chapter 18
Chapter 19