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** These topics are addressed a. in your BIO201 textbook b. on your PCAT, MCAT, and DAT exams ** We’ll discuss them as you’re learning related material in BIO201. ** We’ll learn through discussion, interactive and team-based learning, videos, speakers, computer use, and a visit to our electron microscope facility. ** Brief, frequent assessments will let you show what you know the way that suits you. ** No long papers, big projects, or big exams. ** Flexibility in the relative degree with which you choose to focus on topics. ** Dedicated classmates, enthusiastic undergrad teaching assistants, and your professor will talk with you about research and career opportunities and help you work toward a letter of recommendation.

 Cell Biology Honors Enrichment (BIO211--Janicke) Spring’09
PRELIMINARY syllabus (11/10/08 version)—Study this! It explains policies that will be enforced uniformly, even if you claim ignorance.
CO-REQUISITE: BIO201 A, B, or C (Cell Biology)

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”~ Albert Einstein
The aim of BIO211 is to honor your intuitive mind and nurture your individuality. It may seem like a contradiction, but at the same time, we’ll help you prepare for standardized exams. This is because we’ll pursue many topics that are covered on admissions exams for biologically-related graduate and professional programs in greater depth than we can in the regular BIO201 course. The enrichment material is from regular cell biology textbooks and was formerly in my BIO201 course, so, if you’re a capable freshman who did well in college-bound science classes in high school, don’t be intimidated, especially if you got an A in General Chemistry and Evolutionary Biology (although that’s not necessary if you’re motivated enough). If you’re not sure but you’d like to try it, go ahead. You can drop until the end of drop/add without a trace, and with an R after that until the last date for withdrawal, without jeopardizing your BIO 201 standing. The best measure of whether or not you belong here is how excited you feel.

LECTURES are every Friday, 12:00 noon -12:50, NSC 210. Discussion Group is every week from 12:00 noon-12:50 on the day for which you have registered (Mon., Tues., Wed., or Thurs.) in 218 Cooke.

INSTRUCTOR: Marie Janicke, Ph.D E-MAIL: me 24/7 with questions, concerns, or suggestions at mjanicke@buffalo.edu or ree180@aol.com. If I don’t respond promptly, re-send. I’ll respond to an IM if I’m not busy and if I don’t lose it, but e-mail is much preferred. (I don’t set “away” messages, so seeing my screen name doesn’t ensure I’m online.)

OFFICE HOURS: Cooke 447B, 11:00 to 11:40: Wednesday, 1/18, 1/28, 2/11, 2/25, 3/18, 4/1, and 4/15 Thursday, 1/22, 2/5, 2/19, 3/5, 3/26, 4/9, and 4/23. PHONE: 645-2363 ext. 178, but e-mail is a better way to reach me.

DISCUSSION BOARD: If you see interesting news items or links, think of an idea you think might be a good one, have a better way to explain something, see an apparent contradiction you can’t reconcile, etc., post it! If you simply don’t understand something and hope someone will explain it to you, post your question on the Discussion Board and hopefully you’ll get an answer quick. If a question appears to indicate a pressing need for an answer, I’ll clarify it before I respond to individual non-urgent e-mails.

TEACHING ASSISTANTS (TA’s): 3 undergrad TA’s will participate in each discussion group meeting. On a rotating basis, one of them will lead, one will administer and grade quizzes, and one will evaluate participation for the week in Discussion Group, on Fridays, and on the online Discussion Board. I’ll lead on Fridays, but your TA’s will be there then too. All TA’s received an A or A- in Bio 201 or BIO 211 and asked to TA.

TEXTBOOK: Cell and Molecular Biology, 5th ed., by Gerald Karp., 2008, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., NY. Buy it new from the UB bookstore and get free access to the Wiley Plus website, where homework is found at http://edugen.wiley.com/edugen/class/cls49094/ . Don’t lose the password inside the package.

RESPONSIBILITIES: Check UBLearns (http://ublearns.buffalo.edu/ ) DAILY. If I’ve made an announcement on UBLearns, I assume you know it. UBLearns also contains this syllabus, assignments, the Discussion Board, powerpoints, study materials, websites of interest, and grades. You must attend the Friday large-group meeting and your own discussion group every week. Should you miss ONE discussion group meeting for a valid reason out of your control, explain your reason to your TA and to the TA of the discussion group in which you hope to make up the work and request permission from both of them to do so. The makeup TA would then assess how many of your weekly points you earn; make sure he gives that information to your regular TA. If you miss a Friday meeting, or if you miss a discussion group and making it up is impossible, you will have lost the opportunity to earn some of your points but should be able to compensate by earning points by doing some of the optional work.

OPTIONAL HONORS HELP: Honors TA’s will each have one office hour per week for helping with BIO 211 material in Cooke 447A. You may attend any honors help session you wish.

FINAL GRADES: Letter grades in BIO211 will be criterion-based; they will NOT be curved or adjusted based on the class average. If you wish to earn more points, just take advantage of more opportunities to work and show what you’ve learned. At the end of the course, your letter grade can be determined from your point total as follows:

HOMEWORK AND QUIZ POINTS (350 points possible): For each of the 14 weeks of the course, your gradebook will have three columns. The first column will be for homework, and the second column will be for quizzes. The total value of quizzes and homework for each week will be 25 points, although the breakdown may vary. A typical breakdown follows:
Homework: A short 5-point assignment, due at the start of class, to be graded and returned to you the following week, at which point you have one week to correct and hand it in again for another 5 points. (If you got 5 points the first time, you can just hand it in again unchanged for the additional 5 points.) The same TA will grade one week’s homework for all four sections of the class.
Quiz: A 10-point individual multiple choice quiz at the start of class to show your degree of preparation. Your team then works together to hand in a team quiz, worth another 5 points. There will be a few weeks when quizzes are given on Fridays instead of in Discussion Group because it can’t be done conveniently during weekly Discussion Groups.

PARTICIPATION POINTS (28 points average): Your weekly participation points will be recorded in the third column of each week in your gradebook. One of your three TA’s will be assigned each week, on a rotating basis, the job of evaluating participation of the students in your section. That TA will have 2 points to give per student in the section. If there are 24 students in the section, he has 48 points to give. He will observe you that week in Discussion Group and in the Friday lecture, and also will check your participation on the UBLearns Discussion Board. He can give as many as 8 points per week to the students who participate well and as few as zero to those who didn’t. For example, he can give 8 points to one shining star, 6 to a second, 4 to a third, 3 to a fourth, 2 to two students, 1 to one student, and 0 to the last student.

PEER EVALUATION POINTS (10 points average): For many Discussion Group activities, your section will be broken into teams of approximately four students. These teams will remain constant throughout the semester. Three times during the semester, you will evaluate your team members, the first two times out of 3 points and the last time out of 4 points. For the first peer evaluation, each team member will be given 3 points per each other member of his team to award. If there are 4 students in a team, each student will have 3x3=9 points to award. If your 3 team-mates each contributed equally, you should give them each 3 points. You should not do this unless your team members did indeed equally contribute, in part because this is your protection against being exploited by lazy team members. You cannot award any points to yourself. You may not award any team member more than 6 points, and you do not have to use up all 9 points. For example, if one student overwhelmingly carried your team, you may give him 6 points. That means, however, that the other two students can’t earn any more than a 2 and a 1. Peer evaluations need to be handed in on the day they are due or you will not earn any peer evaluation points yourself.

WILEY PLUS POINTS: These are online multiple-choice questions. You can earn 0.1 points for each correct answer.

RELAY FOR LIFE POINTS: We usually support the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life effort here at UB by forming our own RFL team and raising money for it by educating others regarding ACS research. Students may write (and, if they wish, send out) an educational e-mail that will be graded as an additional homework opportunity (5+5 points). Sending these e-mails out has proven to be an effective way of raising money as well as promoting cancer awareness.

SEMINAR/POSTER/PROJECT POINTS: Usually during the semester, some interesting seminars or poster sessions arise, for which I offer the opportunity to do an additional homework-like assignment by attending and writing about the experience (5+5 points per seminar).

ACADEMIC HONESTY: Unless specifically told you can do so, you may not use notes or any electronic device during a quiz or copy from others during a quiz or homework. On homework, and on those quizzes for which you are told you can work together and/or use resources, you must always put everything in your own words or use quotation marks and cite references. You can never misrepresent who has done homework, change corrected work without permission, lie, alter marks or records, conspire to obtain confidential material, evaluate the work of others dishonestly, or commit any act of academic deceit. Academic dishonesty (including giving unfair help) cheats others, diminishes you, and will result in reduction of your course grade and possible university sanctions. “Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.” -- Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor

KEEP TRACK OF YOUR GRADES AND IMPORTANT DATES. You must report point discrepancies to the appropriate TA within one week of posting and unresolved disputes to me within a week thereafter. ONLY until Jan. 25, you may drop BIO211 with no trace on your record. After that, you can receive an R instead of a grade IF you resign by last date for resignation allowed by the University. UB allows students to re-take a course, but all grades and R’s remain on your transcripts.

INCOMPLETES do NOT entitle you to re-take the course with a fresh start and will not be given when an administrative withdrawal is more appropriate. UB specifies that an instructor may grant a grade of "I" ONLY to a student who has a passing average and a well-defined means to complete the missing portion of the course within 15 months or less. If the work is not completed in time, the I becomes an F. If you have an "I" you cannot graduate or re-register for the course.

DISABILITIES: If you have a disability (physical or psychological) that entitles you to accommodations, please contact the Office of Disability Services, 25 Capen Hall, 645-2608, as soon as possible. ODS will review appropriate arrangements, which you need to discuss with me promptly.

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION: This course presents a good opportunity for you to get to know a science instructor and talented upperclassmen (your TA’s) at an early stage in your education, opportunities that you will soon learn are valuable both in terms of obtaining meaningful letters of recommendation and in terms of mentoring. Many applications require evaluators to rank how well they know you and aspects of your character that normally cannot be evaluated by an instructors who teach typical large freshman science classes. It’s easier for me to write good letters for students who take honors and/or who go on to be TA’s, because I get to know them on a more personal basis as I see them work.

To qualify for a letter, you must earn an A- or above in this course and maintain a running relationship with me, so I can judge whether you’re a good candidate for the position for which you’re applying. I won’t try to get to know you when you’re no longer my student, even if you discover then that you need a letter from a science instructor. Contact the pre-health, pre-pharmacy, or career placement office NOW to find out whether you will need a letter from a science instructor. I won’t consider writing a letter for any student unless he has accurately followed EVERY step below by the stated deadlines and provides me at the time of application with copies he has saved of EVERYTHING stated. Do NOT rely on UBLearns or your internet provider to save copies.

If you’re not sure whether or not you’ll ask me for a letter, err on the side of caution and follow the steps below. Don't worry that you may be wasting my time. I like to know my students, and I think you'll get more out of the course if you know me, even if you never ask for a letter. Use proper spelling and grammar, so I can comment positively on your written and spoken use of language.

If I agree to write you a letter, the pre-health or career placement office will send my single letter to multiple recipients. I’ll provide a cover letter explaining to schools that request individualized applications that my class size prohibits that.

Save a copy of this page. I won't provide it to you later. Enter the dates you complete each step in the blanks. These are rules, not guidelines!

1. Before the fourth week of class: (a)_____ E-mail me and your three Discussion Group TA’s telling us about yourself and asking us to keep a file on you. Include a photograph of yourself. Keep a copy. (b)________ Introduce yourself to us in person and e-mail us afterward describing the meeting: keep copies. (c) _______Post on the Discussion Board and keep copies of your postings. (d) ________Chat with me and with your TA’s at office hours or in class. _____ Send me e-mails describing these chats and save copies of those e-mails. Don't skimp with this step. Make yourself memorable

2. On the 8th week of class, if you still want to be considered for a letter, (a) give each of your three honors TA a copy of the evaluation sheet and a letter-sized envelope, and (b) _______ request that by the they each fill the evaluation out, put it in the envelope, seal the envelope, sign the flap across the seal, and return the envelope to you in time for you to return it to me before the end of the semester.

3. By the last day of class, ____put the three TA letters in their sealed envelopes into a file folder with your name written on the top tab, last name, first, and ____ include a photograph of yourself in the folder, then____.give the file folder to me.

4. Once per semester, _______e-mail me an update. Otherwise, I’ll discard your file.

5. At least 8 weeks before your letter of recommendation is due: (a)___ E-mail me to tell me what you’re applying for and the application deadline, and ask if I remember you well enough to write a good letter. (b) _____Schedule a meeting with me. (c) Bring to the meeting ____ a copy of this checklist with dates filled in, ____ acopy of your signed waiver of your right to see the letter (from Career Services or Pre-Health, unless your waivers will all be online for me). (d) Also bring hard copies of your _____transcripts, _____a summary of your honors, history, interests, activities, and aspirations, ____copies of all e-mails you have sent me, ___copies of your Discussion Board postings, ___summaries of our chats, and (f) ___any additional desired information that you think will help me write you a good letter (e) Use mjanicke@buffalo.edu as my e-mail on your application. (f) Nag me politely until I tell you I’ve mailed your letter.