Your grade in this course is based on 4 exams that will combine material from lecture, readings, and laboratory work; a laboratory notebook that you will develop from worksheets completed during laboratory sessions; and 2 writing assignments. Final grades will be based on a curve, with the mean typically in the C+ to B- range. Exceptional improvement will be rewarded. Your active participation in office hours, lecture and lab may be a positive factor in cases where your final course grade is near a boundary.
Exercise
Due date and place
Coverage
% of grade
Notes
“Preliminary” Lecture/Lab Exam
Take home, week of Jan 29
Lecture Units 1-5
Labs 1-3
2
a
Midterm Exam I
Midterm Lab Exam I
T Feb 12, in lab (GML 101)
Lecture units 1-9
Labs 1-4
10
6
b, c
Midterm EXAM II
Midterm Lab exam II
T Apr 1, in lab (GML 101)
Units 10-17
Labs 5-9
13
8
b
Final Exam
T Apr 29, 8 AM (SCIC 239)
“cumulative”
22
d
Lab worksheets
lecture following lab period
lab material
18
e
Report reference/topic 1 T Feb 5 by email 0.5
f
Research REPORT 1
T Feb 19 in lecture & email
see writing
8
g
Report reference/topic 2 T Mar 25 by email 0.5
f
Research REPORT 2
T Apr 8 in lecture & email
see writing
12
g
Questionnaire
T Apr 29, at final exam
course evaluation
x-credit
Participation
at all times
in all activities
fudge factor
Notes
Preliminary EXAM will give you experience with questions in the format used in the lecture and lab exams. It will be provided as a take-home exam that must be completed in one sitting.
Midterm EXAMS will include lecture/reading material and a portion of practical questions devoted to lab material.
Note that the first Midterm EXAM covers some of the same material as the Preliminary EXAM.
Final EXAM will be written only (no practical portion). The exam is "cumulative" in the sense that it will emphasize lecture/reading material and written information from laboratory material covered in the last few weeks of course, but will assume knowledge of information about taxonomy, structure, and function from earlier lectures.
Laboratory exercise sheets can be turned in on the day of the lab, and must be turned in by the first lecture meeting following the laboratory.
Due two weeks before report: send email to podolskyr@cofc.edu giving (1) full reference to journal article, (2) link if available, (3) brief description of article, and (4) how article was found. Use the following subject line: Lastname topic #1 for report #1, Lastname topic #2 for report #1.
Report must be submitted as a hard copy in class (staple the first page of each article to the back of your report) as well as by email to podolskyr@cofc.edu. Use the following subject line: Lastname report #1 for report #1, Lastname report #2 for report #2.
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