Welcome to Biology 102!
• Please put away ALL electronics and pick
up a syllabus (if you don’t have one yet) and
a clicker at the front desk. You will need to
rent a clicker from the bookstore this week.
• Your instructor: Dr. Bledsoe
• Office: NS 220
• Office hours: MTW 9-10, F 11-12 & 2-3 or by
appointment.
• Email: bledsoek@wou.edu
Textbooks
• Audesirk, Audesirk, & Byers
Biology: Life on Earth, 10th Edition,
WOU Custom edition Volume 2.
• Lab materials: Find your Moodle
lab page to download lab
materials and to take pre-lab
quizzes. Lab 1 is posted on our
lecture Moodle site.
Your grade comes from:
• Class activities and
online quizzes (~60
points)
• Midterms (3 x 60
points)
• Final exam (130
points)
• Lab (155 points)
Lab grade comes from:
• Class participation:
• Online prelab
• In-class participation
• Weekly lab quizzes.
• 2 written reports.
• Lowest lab grade will be
dropped at the end of the
term.
Lab attendance policy
• If you miss 3 or more labs (=
more than 2 labs), you
automatically fail lab.
• If you fail lab, you
automatically fail the course.
• If you must make up a lab,
you must see Dr.
Baumgartner and arrange a
different lab time if possible.
Academic honesty
• The short version: Don’t cheat.
• Plagiarism means turning in an
assignment that is made up
mostly or entirely of words that
someone else wrote. Don’t to it.
• Bi 100 policy is to report all
plagiarism and cheating to the
Student Conduct Committee.
Electronics policy:
• NO use of electronics in class, including
cell phones and translators. Electronics
are too distracting to you and to other
students. Any use of electronics during
exams will be considered cheating.
• Computers: I’ve had students swear they
will use computers only to take notes,
and instead spent their time on
Facebook or watching movies. Sorry,
they ruined it for the rest of you. No
computers (except for ODS
accommodations).
What can I do about my grade?
• Attend class. In Bi 100 classes there is a mild
correlation between attendance and final grades (and
a significant correlation for those who pay attention
instead of texting, Facebook-ing, or napping). Come to
class prepared, with a printout of the class notes.
• Study, using the provided study guides. There is a
significant correlation between study habits and Bi 100
test scores. Schedule two hours of study time for every
hour in lecture, and begin studying intensively for
exams about 1 week before. Use active study
techniques, not just re-reading the text and your notes.
Passive Learning
Passive
learning
happens
when you just
sit and listen,
and hope you
remember
later.
Your Brain
Most people
retain less
than 10% of
what they
learn through
passive
learning.
Learning is an active process. Your professor can teach
but can’t do the learning for you!
Active Learning
Active
learning is
when you
interact with
the material
in many
different
ways.
Active study
helps learners
retain up to
90% of the
material that
they’re
working with.
Active Study Ideas
Make concept maps.
Use interactive online
tutorials.
Diagram the concept.
Take good
notes in
lecture AND
while
reading the
textbook.
PLTL
• Peer-Led Team Learning is an optional,
low-cost 2-hour evening workshop led by
students who have succeeded in the Bi
100 series.
• You do enroll in PLTL as you would a
regular course. There is a P/NP grade
assigned.
Student Success Specialist
• This is a new program at WOU to help
students at the first sign of struggle.
• Students who fail exams, stop attending
class, have frequent conflicts with others, or
show other signs of academic or social
difficulties may be referred. This is not
punishment!
• The specialist will work with the student to
determine what the problem is and help find
assistance to help the student succeed.
Help me help you!
Sometimes I get:
From:
funnyname@freemail.com
im in ur class and i cant do the
quiz what cn i do help
(Be specific! Which class?
Which quiz? What’s the
problem? Most importantly:
who are you? Also, please
punctuate, spell, and capitalize
appropriately, thanks.)
It’s much better to get:
From: studentname@wou.edu
Dear Dr. Bledsoe:
I am in your Friday 1:00
Biology lecture. I tried to do the
end of week quiz, but it says
it’s not open yet. I thought
you’d like to know. Thanks.
Imogene Greatstudent
• This is a “Work Together” question.
When you see these, think about the
question and write a response. You can
work with a neighbor if you like.
W
O
R
K
• Weekly quiz questions will be based on
Daily Work questions and clicker
questions. Some of these will preview
quiz and exam questions as well.
T
O
G
E
T
H
E
R
• However, these questions will not appear
in the notes that you download. You
must come to class for these questions.
Clickers!
• You will need to rent a
TurningPoint response card,
a.k.a. a “clicker,” from the
bookstore.
• Starting week 2 I will track
your class participation using
your clicker responses.
• We will also have practice
quizzes using clickers.
Register your clicker
• The TurningPoint
system only detects
the ID number of your
clicker.
• To assign your name
to your clicker ID
number, I need
everyone to register
their clickers using the
link on Moodle.
Setting the Clicker Channel
• To set your clickers to channel 21:
• Press “Ch”
• Press “2”
• Press “1”
• Press “Ch”
• You only need to do this at the start of
class. The channel remains set unless you
reset it for a different room and receiver.