IB 104 Faculty and Staff for Fall 2008

Professor Bettina Francis, Lecturer and Overall Organization

Email: bfrancis@uiuc.edu

677 Morrill Hall; 333-5136

Laboratory Coordinator: James Zahniser

Email: zahniser@uiuc.edu

300 Natural History Building; 244-7350 office (voice-mail messages may be left anytime)

Bettina Francis is reponsible for the overall running of the course. She will give the lectures and manage the hourly exams and the final exam. All questions related to exams should be directed to her. She also decides the course letter grade break points at the end of the semester.

The Laboratory Coordinator will manage the laboratory, address questions related to lab teaching, quizzes, and lab absences, and arrange make-up labs and make-up quizzes.

The lab TAs are graduate students in the Department of Entomology or associated departments. They teach the laboratories and grade the lab quizzes. They also grade the genetics assignment.

The prep staff prepare and maintain the laboratory, and manage the lab equipment and materials used during a lab.

Student Schedule Changes

The ADD deadline is Monday, 8 September. The SECTION CHANGE deadline is also Monday, 8 September. The DROP deadline is Friday, 17 October. All changes are made by UI Integrate. The CREDIT/NO CREDIT deadline is also Friday, 17 October. To elect the CREDIT/NO CREDIT option, apply at your College Office.

To drop the course after the drop deadline, students must obtain a petition in their college office and bring petitions to Professor Francis for completion of attendance and grade records. Course policy is to allow such drops -- but deans often disagree!

Required and Recommended Materials

The following is a list of items required for IB 104. Please pay careful attention to dates and editions when purchasing these items.

Required

Biology, 11th edition, by Starr and Taggart
iClicker
IB 104 Laboratory Exercises for Animal Biology, Fall 2008 – Do not try to use last year’s manual; we have made changes!
Dissecting kit and a simple, non-programmable calculator

Recommended

personal computer with an internet connection (to access IB 104 web site)

Grading

Grading will be based on a total of 4000 points

Hourly Exam I*	50
Hourly Exam II*	50
Hourly Exam III*	50
Laboratory Quizzes (3 @ 30 points)**	90
Genetics Homework Assignment	30
Lab Participation	30
Final Exam***	100

TOTAL	400

*Each exam will cover both lecture material and lab material. See the Laboratory and Lecture Syllabus for the lab material covered on each exam.

**A total of 4 quizzes will be administered, and the highest 3 scores will count.

***The final exam will cover all lecture material, comprehensively, and Laboratory Exercises 9-12. There is no comprehensive laboratory final.

Final Grades

Professor Francis will decide the final letter grade "cutoffs" at the end of the semester, after the final exam. She will use the point totals rather than examining scores on individual exams and quizzes. This means that all points earned during the semester are equivalent. Letter grade estimates will be provided during the semester to help students evaluate their performance. Pluses and minuses will be used in final grading.

Course Gradebook

Students may view their grades in this course by either signing in to the course Web site and following the instructions from there, or by going directly to the course gradebook on the World Wide Web at

IB 104 Gradebook.

Gradebook Entry Corrections

Students are responsible for checking their own scores in the Course Gradebook. This is important, because this is the ONLY record we keep of your point totals. We use this information to assign your final grade. Report apparent gradebook entry errors to Professor Francis, your TA, or the Laboratory Coordinator. Students are urged to keep all graded quizzes and homework until after the gradebook entry correction deadline, which is 5 PM Wednesday, 10 December.

Exam, Quiz, and Assignment Schedules

Examinations

Exams cover both lecture material and lab material. The lecture material to be covered will be announced in lecture. The lab material covered is listed in the Laboratory Syllabus.

Exam	Date	Time	Location
Exam I	Wednesday, 17 September	7-9 PM	To be announced
Exam II	Wednesday, 15 October	7-9 PM	To be announced
Exam III	Wednesday, 12 November	7-9 PM	To be announced
FINAL EXAM	Thursday, 12 December	8-11 AM	To be announced

Schedule of Exams and Quizzes

All quizzes will be given at the beginning of the lab period and will be worth 30 points each.

Lecture Exams are given in the evening; rooms for each exam are announced in lecture.

Lab Week	Dates	Lab Quiz	Lecture Exam (includes labs listed)
1	25 August - 5 September	---	---
--	1-5 September	Labor Day week:	No labs
	17 September		EXAM 1 (labs 1-2)
4	22-26 September	QUIZ 1 (Labs 1-3)	---
8	15 October		EXAM 2 (labs 3—6)
9	20-24 October	QUIZ 2 (Labs 4-7)	---
10	3-7 November	QUIZ 3 (Labs 8-9)
11	12 November		EXAM 3 (labs 7-10)
12	17-21 November	QUIZ 4	---
---	12 December	---	FINAL EXAMINATION (lab 11-12)

Genetics Assignment

The Genetics Assignment will be handed out in laboratory the week of 17-21 November, and will be due in your laboratory class the week of 1-5 December. It will consist of a set of problems based on lecture and lab material. You should complete this assignment with the help of your textbook and the lab manual (and your TA, if necessary), but your work should be your own. Your TA will collect your homework in lab. Late homework will not be accepted unless an exception is granted by John Kane.

Hourly Exam Instructions

The hourly exams will be given on WEDNESDAY evenings (see Exam Schedule for exam dates), from 7-9 PM.
The exams will be administered in various lecture halls on campus and the location assignments will be announced in lectureand on the website prior to each exam.
You will need one or two #2 pencils and an eraser. Hourly exams will consist of 50 multiple choice questions. Your answer forms will be graded by machine.
If you have a conflict and cannot take the exam at the scheduled time, contact Professor Francis to arrange a conflict exam on Monday, Tuesday or Wedensday of the exam week (that is: before the scheduled exam). The conflict exam has the same format as the regularly scheduled exam.
If you are ill or incapacitated on the day of the exam, seek assistance at McKinley Health Center, or elsewhere as needed. If at all possible, contact Professor Francis and inform her of the situation. She will inform your TA and John Kane of your absence, so you do not need to contact them separately.

Final Exam Instructions

The final exam will be administered Thursday, 18 December 2008, from 8-11 AM. The exam location(s) will be announced in lecture.
You will need one or two #2 pencils, and an eraser. The final will consist of 100 multiple choice questions, 50 of which will cover the entire course, while 50 will be specific to the last section of lectures and the last two labs, much like the hourly exams.
In case of illness or personal emergency the day of the exam, contact the Emergency Dean in your College Office. If possible, also contact Professor Francis, and inform her of the situation.
There is no official IB104 conflict exam for the final (other courses might offer these if necessary). However, there should be no conflicts for the final exam.

When in doubt as to whether your situation is a "conflict," always ask. E-mail requests to Professor Francis for conflicts are preferred, and should be made by 5 PM Monday the week of a scheduled exam. Keep in mind that lab quizzes are much harder (often impossible) for us to reschedule than exams, because the lab quizzes use freshly prepared materials and microscope slides.

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