Welcome to Biology 102!

1. Welcome to Biology 102! • Please 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 by the end of this week. • Your instructor: Dr. Bledsoe • Office: NS 220 • Email: bledsoek@wou.edu

2. Textbooks • Audesirk, Audesirk, & Byers Biology: Life on Earth, 9th Edition, WOU Custom edition Volume 2. • Labs: Find your Moodle lab page to download lab materials and to take pre-lab quizzes.

3. Your grade comes from: • Class activities and term project (~60 points) • Midterms (4 x 45 points) • Final exam (130 points) • Lab (155 points)

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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. • Department policy: 0 on the assignment AND reporting to Student Conduct Committee.

7. Electronics policy: • NO use of handheld electronics in class, including cell phones and translators. • Computers: Only in the back row. Computer screens are distracting to others. • Any use of electronics during exams will be considered cheating.

8. What can I do about my grade? • Attend class. In Bi 100 classes there is a significant correlation between attendance and final grades. 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 to get the best return for your time.

9. Passive learning Passive learning happens when you just sit and listen, and hope you remember later. Most people retain less than 10% of what they learn through passive learning. Your Brain Learning is an active process. Your professor can teach but can’t do the learning for you!

10. 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.

11. Active Study Ideas Make concept maps. Diagram the concept. Take good notes in lecture AND while reading the textbook. Use interactive online tutorials.

12. PLTL • Peer-Led Team Learning is an optional, no-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.

13. W O R K T O G E T H E R • 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. • Weekly quiz questions will be based on Daily Work questions and clicker questions. Some of these will preview quiz and exam questions as well. • However, these questions will not appear in the notes that you download. You must come to class for these questions.

14. Clickers! • You will need to rent a TurningPoint response card, a.k.a. a “clicker,” from the bookstore. • I pick random days each week to record participation based on clicker responses. • We will also have practice quizzes using clickers.

15. 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.

16. Setting the clicker channel • To set your clickers to channel 21: • Press “Ch” • Press “2” • Press “1” • Press “Ch”

17. This is a clicker question. Have you used clickers before? • Yes. • No. • I can’t remember.

18. The person in charge of making learning happen in your head is: • You, the student. • Me, the professor.

19. How many midterms do we have this term? • None • One • Two • Three • Four

20. When does the end-of-week quiz CLOSE each week? • 5:00 Friday evening • 8:00 Monday morning • 8:00 Monday evening • Never

21. When should you do your pre-lab quiz? • By Sunday midnight before the lab. • By midnight the day before the lab. • Any time before the lab. • Any time during the term.

22. You will automatically fail lab if you miss MORE than ___labs. • One • Two • Three • Four

23. True or false: There are study guides for each chapter on Moodle. • True • False

24. What are you allowed to do with cell phones in class? • Answer them and have long conversations. • Text quietly under the desk or behind your backpack. • Turn them off and put them completely away.

25. What does “put your cell phone away” look like? • Silence it and set it beside you on the desk. • Put it in your lap. • Put it in your backpack, purse, pocket or other place where you can’t see it or be distracted by it.