BIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES LIFELINE SPRING 2016 SYLLABUS
Website: www.biodiversityandbioprinciples.com
Lab Coordinator: Geri Mayer
Sanson Biological Sciences 142
Phone: (561) 297-2405 Email: gmayer@fau.edu
TA Info:
Office Hours by appt.
Co-requisites are BSC 1010 and BSC 1010L
Credits: 0
What is Lifeline?
A Powerful Learning Session for Biology Students
As a first semester biology student, you will be participating in LIFELINE Biology sessions. These
LIFELINE sessions have been designed with you in mind. Specifically, faculty and students have been
collaborating in the development of a unique set of learning activities and experiences to support and
enhance your overall success in Biology.
During the LIFELINE sessions you will have opportunities to become actively involved in learning
biology. In this environment, you will be expected to take greater responsibility for your own learning by
applying critical thinking and problem-solving skills to a set of carefully designed activities and tasks.
This highly interactive approach will also promote mastery of skills associated with collaboration, selfmanaged teamwork, communication, self-assessment and reflection, attributes that have been shown to be
desirable in educational settings and the workplace. For example, self-assessment is a valuable skill that
enables you to recognize when you have met the learning objectives for a task or activity and an
opportunity for you to consider what other improvements you might take to increase your own learning.
Characteristics of the Biology LIFELINE Session:
Each LIFELINE session will be composed of specially designed activities that promote deeper conceptual
understanding of core biological concepts and principles as well as the development of essential cognitive
skills. A varied instructional format is used for each activity, but each will require the submission of a
completed task or group project. Formats may include problem- solving, constructing models, group
discussion and report, self-assessment, using simulations and analogies, concept mapping, and game
playing. Inherent in the format of each challenging activity will be opportunities for direct student
interaction that will foster discussion, team-learning, questioning, and promote restructuring of
information and knowledge to improve learning. These formats are designed to enhance your critical
thinking. For example, you may be asked three different types of questions. They are (a) direct questions which will require that you process and recall information directly, (b) convergent questions - which
require you to bring various sources of information together to formulate conclusions and are not directly
answerable from the materials at hand, and (c) divergent questions - which broaden your thinking about a
topic, have no clear correct answer and usually provide a significant cognitive challenge.
Further, these quality performance-oriented learning environments foster high expectations for all
students, respect for each other, and mutual trust that promotes risk-taking and allows for failure among
group members.
Underlying the design of the Biology LIFELINE sessions are a cognitive learning theory and instructional
perspective suggesting that learning is enhanced when the structure of the knowledge to be learned and
the development of skills for acquiring, applying and generalizing that knowledge are carefully
interwoven. Research has shown that students who work together learn more, understand more, remember
more and acquire essential skills.
Attendance and Make-Up Policy:
Attendance is required and mandatory. All students are allowed 2 unexcused absences in Lifeline. For
each unexcused absence over 2, there will be a 2% deduction from your lecture course points. There is a
total of 450 points in lecture, so a 2% deduction will result in a subtraction of 9 points. For example, if a
student has 5 unexcused absences in Lifeline, they have 3 unexcused absences above the allowed 2, and
will lose a total of 27 points from their lecture total (3 unexcused absences x 9 points = 27 point
deduction). Keep in mind, lifeline absences are separate from lecture absences. Students are allowed 2
unexcused absences for lifeline and 2 unexcused absences for lecture. For example, if a student has 3
unexcused absences in lifeline over the allowed 2 (27 point deduction) and 3 unexcused absences over the
allowed 2 in lecture (27 points), there will be a total deduction of 54 points from lecture points.
You are permitted to make up a maximum of 2 Lifeline classes in order to obtain missed points, and
make-ups must be done within the same week. Even if a Lifeline class is made-up in the same week, it
will still count as an unexcused absence. The benefit of making up the class is to acquire the points for
that week. All Lifeline sessions are held in SC 143. When making up a Lifeline class, you must fill out
BOTH a pink slip and sign the sign-in sheet. Pink slips and a list of all the Lifeline sessions are posted
outside Lifeline room door as well as on the Moodle website. If you have an excused absence, proper
documentation must be given to Geri Mayer (Lab Coordinator) within one week of the missed lifeline
session (SC142). Absences due to religious holidays are considered excused absences and must be made
up the same week in order to acquire points for that week.
Punctuality is important and could seriously affect your grade. If you are 10 minutes late or later to a
Lifeline class, you will not be allowed to attend that Lifeline session and it will count as an unexcused
absence. If you are late to class, but within the 10 minute time limit, it is at your T.A.’s discretion to
deduct points from your grade. Please be on time for class!
Grading Policy:
Lifeline is worth 60 points of your lecture grade. Lifeline in-class activities, quizzes, homework and PPP
(punctuality, participation, and performance) will count for 35 points. The Moodle project is worth 25
points. Lifeline points are not extra credit points and not attending Lifeline sessions will result in failure
of the lecture.
Cell phone use is not permitted during Lifeline. PPP points can be deducted at the T.A.’s discretion for
cell phone use during class. This includes texting!
Moodle Project:
This project, run through the Lifeline discussion sessions at FAU, is a collaborative project that is being
run concurrently for comparison at three other universities (Ohio University, University of Miami, and
James Madison University, as well as FAU). In this group project, you will use Web 2.0 interactive webbased communication and information sharing, the technologies you use every day when you email, text,
blog, chat, post images online, to engage in a group project using visual media found on the internet that
relates to and describes the contents of the Biodiversity course. The visual images that you upload will
then be used to compile a group image-based concept map that you will construct online and will be
critiqued by a group of your peers, as well as graded by your Lifeline T.A. Some of the points associated
with this project are individual, and others are earned as a group. This project is a required element of
Lifeline and not an optional assignment. Your participation is imperative to the success of this project
and ultimately your grade.
Cheating is a serious offense. If you are caught cheating in any way, you will be referred to the lab
coordinator and the Dean of Student Services for the College of Science. We have a ZERO tolerance for
cheating. Consult the academic honor code for the university. For more information see the Code of
Academic Integrity in the University Regulations on the FAU website.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a serious offense and it will not be tolerated (see below). Plagiarism is defined
as the presentation of words or ideas from any other source (including the internet) as one’s own. The
penalty for plagiarism in lifeline will be the deduction of 50 points from the lecture grade for each
incident.
Code of Academic Integrity: Students at Florida Atlantic University are expected to maintain the highest
ethical standards. Academic dishonesty is considered a serious breach of these ethical standards, because
it interferes with the university mission to provide a high quality of education in which no student enjoys
an unfair advantage over any other. Academic dishonesty is also destructive of the university community,
which is grounded in a system of mutual trust and places high value on personal integrity and individual
responsibility. Harsh penalties are associated with academic dishonesty. For more information, see
University regulation 4.001. http://www.fau.edu/ctl/4.001_Code_of_Academic_Integrity.pdf
Lifeline Spring 2016 Schedule
Week/Date
Lecture Topic
Text Chapter Lab Chapter
Lifeline Topic
Campbell 8th Scientific
1/11-1/15 Bio Concepts
Ed. Chapter 1 Method
Lifeline Policies
Drop/adds ends Friday, January 15th at 5:00pm
Macromolecule
1/18-1/22 Descent/Phylogeny Chapter 22, 26 s
Chemistry
1/18 Martin Luther King Day Monday Students MUST attend any lifeline T-F
Chemistry of Life
1/25-1/29 Water
Chapter 2, 3
Cell Structures Functional Groups
Exam 1
Carbon Compounds
Experimental
2/1 - 2/5
Macromolecules
Chapter 4, 5
Design
The Cell
Osmosis
Movement *Draw
2/8 - 2/12 The Cell
Chapter 6
Diffusion
Topics
2/15 - 2/19 Cell Membrane
Chapter 6, 7
2/22 - 2/26 Metabolism
Respiration
2/29 - 3/4 Photosynthesis
3/7 - 3/11 Spring Break
Exam 2
3/14 - 3/18 Cell Cycle/Meiosis
Chapter 8
3/21 - 3/25 Reproduction
3/28 - 4/1
Enzymes
Cellular
Respiration
Chapter 9, 10
N/A
Photosynthesis
N/A
Sea Urchin
Chapter 12, 13 Fertilization
Stem Cells
Chapter 13, 46 Planaria
Development
Chapter 47
Genetics
Exam 3
4/4 - 4/8
DNA/Genetics
Chapter 14, 15 DNA/Forensics
LAST DAY TO DROP W/O AN 'F' IS APRIL 8TH
Final Exam
4/11 - 4/15 Chromosomes
Chapter 15, 16
4/18 - 4/22 Molecular Genetics Chapter 16, 17 N/A
4/26 - 4/27 Reading Days
N/A
N/A
4/28 - 5/4 Finals
N/A
N/A
Moodle
Assignment
Individual
Profile Pic Due
Due: Pic & 200
Word Abstract
Respiration
Photosynthesis
*Presentations
N/A
7 Minute
Presentations
N/A
Mitosis
Meiosis
*Presentations
Basic Genetics
7 Minute
Presentations/AL
Moodle Survey
Due
Advanced Genetics
Genetic Code
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A