Office (or Lab) Hours: MWF, 10 - 11 AM; Tu Th, 11 AM - 12:30.
            Look in my office and the lab. Try other times on your own luck or by appointment.

Telephone: 762-4651, office extension 3514, lab extension 3239*. 
                                      Has Voice-Mail.
            * Not during lab classes, please - M, T, Th 2-5, Th 8-11.

E-Mail:   

Lectures: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 9 - 10 AM, C-133.

Laboratory: Monday, 2 PM - 5 PM, C-239.

               OLD EXAMS ONLINE (with Keys)

        LAB EXERCISES

HOW TO SUCCEED IN ANIMAL BIOLOGY 

               
                   About the Course...
                       The Book 
                       Course Objectives
                       Important Dates
                       Grading
                       Attendance & Make-Up Policies
                       Lecture & Lab Schedule
                   Research Papers
                       General Information
                       Proposals for the Papers
                       Proofreading
                       Problems and Extensions
                       Overall Format
                               First Page / Title Page
                               Text
                                       Footnotes
                               Reference Page
                                       Paper Sources
                                       Internet Sources
                                       Other Sources
                       Topics
                       Common Mistakes
                       Marking Deductions

Animal Biology, BI 173, is designed as a low-level, introductory course for students preparing for academic majors in the sciences or other technical fields. It is set up in two sections: first, an overview of the life functions and structures found in animals, then a brief survey of the major animal phyla, focusing on major functional and structural differences that distinguish one from the others. In many ways, this is a "Big Picture" course - that means that you should not panic when looking at the lecture schedule. Yes, we will cover almost every chapter in a very thick book, but most of the coverage will be very shallow, limited to lecture topics. On the other hand, the course has also been organized to prepare students for university upper-level science courses, so do not expect it to be too easy - the lecture formats, exams (including lab practicum), and research papers are all structured to give you an idea of what may lie ahead in your academic career.

Lecture Exams (4)          100 Points Each   -   400 Points  -  40%

Lab Practicum Exam (1) 100 Points          -   100 Points  - 10%

Lab Reports (12)             20 Points Each     -   240 Points  - 24%

Lab Quizzes (2)                20 Points Each    -     40 Points  -   4%

Paper Proposals (2)         10 Points Each    -     20 Points  -   2%

Research Papers (2)        100 Points Each  -    200 Points - 20%

Notice that the course grades add up to 1000 total Points, so each 10 Points gained (or lost) is the equivalent of 1% of your final grade, which will be figured this way:

"D" is considered passing, but often only "C" or higher are accepted as transfer credits!

Lectures are not marked for attendance per se, but exams derive much more from the lectures than the textbooks, so it is extremely difficult to do well if you miss many classes. Laboratory classes all have associated marked reports, so missing them will lead to lost points. Make-ups are usually possible if set up immediately - several labs use perishable materials and may not be available if you wait too long.

All marked assignments and exams are scheduled in advance and those dates are on these sheets - hang on to them and/or mark your personal calendar. Exam conflicts (including lab quizzes & practicum) may be easily resolved as long as they are brought up prior to the exams - call or see or at the very least get a message (with a return phone number) to Mr. McDarby as soon as you know that you may miss a date! Resolutions are much easier if dealt with before due dates, even if only by an hour. If you leave the matter until after the exam, only medical and other emergencies with documentation will allow you to make up an exam. Make-ups must be arranged before exams are passed back, which is usually within a week of the exam.

Due materials (lab reports, proposals, papers) may be handed in past the due date, but will lose 5% per FMCC day, down to 25% for a complete and appropriately done but really late assignment. However, proposals will not be accepted on or after the due date of the paper they are for, and NO LATE MATERIALS WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER MAY 9TH.

LINKS go to online Notes for online Lab Exercises.

LAB 6 - Protozoa.

Wed Mar 12 -  Chap 27 continued.

--------- Mon Mar 17 - MidTerm ------------
 

LAB 7 - Ethics.

Wed Mar 19 - Chap 25 - Hormonal Control - Page 406.

General Information:

This course requires two papers, using each of the two subjects listed below. These papers will include at least four type-written, double-spaced, reasonably-margined pages of text (text does not include titles, reference lists, or empty space). Most of the paper will be made up of your own collected research on your subject, applied to your chosen topic and put into your own words..

The papers must be based upon at least four proper references, listed at the end of the paper with the format given below. Note: things like abstract compilations, dictionaries, and encyclopedias are not considered proper references - you must list them if you used them, but they will not count toward the paper's required four.

Proposals for the Papers:

It is required that, by the dates given in the course syllabus, you hand in proposals for your papers. These can be handwritten. Three important items will be in your proposals: 1) Which of the listed topics, 1 or 2, have you chosen to address? 2) What subject animal or group are you going to research, applied to that topic? 3) What two references have you found that you expect to help you write your paper? Here, you need to give specific references, but not in the full format required for the paper itself. Proposals will be returned promptly with advisory comments and sometimes reference suggestions. They may have to be redone if unclear, or with a subject that can't fit the topic. Late proposals will be accepted only up to the due date of their papers; after that, they become useless.

Proofreading:

It is very important that your papers be proofread - the seemingly small deductions for spelling, grammar, and organizational errors can really add up in a mistake-filled paper. You can submit papers early, up to three days before the due date, for precorrection. All mistakes, including everything that would be marked on a completed paper, will be marked, and the paper will be available for you to pick up and correct. If leaving papers in the lab box or mailbox, include a note indicating that you want precorrection. Usually, there's only a day turnaround for precorrection. You can submit a paper early as many times as you wish, but after the due date, marks are final - you cannot redo a paper after the deadline has passed and it's been returned to you.

Problems and Extensions:

If you are running into difficulties, keep Mr. McDarby informed - he may be able to help. Perhaps more importantly, if he's made aware throughout the process, he may give you extra time to finish the paper, which is almost never true if the first he hears about problems is on or just before the due date of the paper!

First Page / Title Page.

You can have a full separate title page, or use the top half of your first text page for the title.

The title must be specific enough to get an idea of what's in the paper clearly across to the reader.

The title must be followed by the chosen topic number in parentheses!!! See the topics list for their numbers.

Text.

Minimum four pages of text, double-spaced (leaves room for notes and corrections) - make a note if your word processor's idea of "double-spaced" looks unusually wide. Margins should not be too wide.

Footnotes. General information or information available from multiple sources does not require footnotes, so don't overdo them. Specific (such as statistics) or controversial information, or direct quotes (which also require attribution- who's speaking, and why should we care? - in the text itself), things that you could only have gotten from particular sources (includes experimental procedures and results), do require footnotes. Format: at the end of the reference-using passage, put the last name of the lead author from your reference (your reference list at the end is alphabetized by author's last name, so a reader can easily find the full reference title if they want to). No other information is needed unless you have more than one reference from that author - then, use year of publication or second author or first words of title to specify which reference you're footnoting. References without authors can be footnoted with the source organization, or the first words of the title, followed by dots (...).

Reference Page.

NOTE: These papers require a specific science-style reference listing format!!!!!!

References are listed as follows. The entire list is alphabetized by author's last name. Make notes in your list if required information was not available.

Paper Sources: In this order: Author(s), last name first, full names, full list; Year (only) of publication; Title of actual reference; reference source if part of bigger whole, like a magazine article or a separately-written book chapter would be; Volume and Issue Numbers for a magazine, Date for a newspaper, or Publisher for a book; Page Numbers if applicable. If using a "paper" source obtained from a database, name the database; or if over the Internet, give the address and date accessed.

Internet Sources: Author(s), last names first, full names, full list (if no author, give the website organization; if neither, you shouldn't use the source); Year of writing and/or most recent update; Title of specific web page accessed; Web site name or supporting organization if page is part of larger site (information pages usually are); Full Internet address; Date(s) that you accessed the information.

Other Sources: Check with Mr. McDarby on formats for unusual references. Don't make assumptions!

Topic 1.) "Pure Science."  This research is conducted to study animals pretty much purely for the sake of learning more about the animals.

Topic 2.) "Applied Science."  This research uses animal studies to learn information that applies well beyond the particular study animal. Examples would include things like rats used for behavior studies, mice in medicine, and fruit flies in genetics.

Title is misleading or missing.

Topic Number is missing or wrong.

Paper doesn't really address chosen topic, or misses much of the topic's requirements.
Commonly, it's about the animals themselves (wrong!) rather than the study techniques used on the animals.

Organization of the paper is poor - similar things are discussed in widely separate sections. NOTE:  outline, and don't be afraid to use a word processor to move things around.

Points you've already discussed are repeated.

Plagiarism - source material is copied with no or very little attempt to put it into your own words.

Spelling and Grammar:

Overall proofreading was not done and needed to be. (Computer checkers are better than nothing, but will still miss a lot of mistakes.)

Apostrophes are not used on possessives. (Exception: possessive "its" gets no apostrophe;  "it's" is a contraction meaning "it is.")

Plurals are made by putting an "apostrophe - s" on the singular. This is very rarely correct.

Colons and semicolons are misused. (A colon sets something up, often a list; a semicolon breaks things apart a bit more strongly than a comma.)

Verbs don't refer to their nouns (singular, plural) properly, or change tense for no reason.

Confusion amongst "there/ their/ they're," or "your/ you're," or "two/ to/ too."

Effect and affect are confused. (Effect is almost always a thing, affect is a verb.)

Proper usage is "try to do whatever," not "try and do it," as most people speak.

Paragraph breaks don't make sense. (They come when you make a major subject change - you can embed footnotes inside a paragraph)

Footnotes are overused, or not used when needed, or done improperly. (See earlier section on footnotes.)

Quotations are overused (you're supposed to be paraphrasing, mostly, not copying) or are not attributed.

In quotations, periods and commas are put outside the quotation marks. (Punctuation at the end of quotations go inside the quotation marks unless putting them there would change the meaning of the quotes.)

Style results in confusion or changes for no apparent reason.

Paper isn't long enough. (Text alone has to be at least 4 pages!)

Reference format is wrong, and/or information that's supposed to be there is missing.