course syllabus

 BIO 647 Spring 2002                             Syllabus                                                                

Instructor: Dr. Bruce C. Jayne, 1402 Crosley, phone 556-7012; jaynebc@email.uc.edu
Office hours: M, W, F 9:00-10:00AM, W 3:00-4:30 PM; by appointment

All of the syllabus and lecture topics are tentative and subject to change as necessary.

Assigned reading

Textbook:  Pough, F.H., Janis, C.MHeiser, J.B. 2002. Vertebrate Life 6th. edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. web site http://www.prenhall.com/pough

Note: You will not be expected to know phylogenies in any greater detail than covered in lecture and on handouts.  Among the vertebrate classes, note which are most diverse in terms of number of species, and similarly within each vertebrate class note which major clades are most and least diverse.  Unless announced to the contrary, no more than 15% of the lecture exam points will come from assigned reading material not covered in lecture.

Course policy

Office hours:  I strongly prefer that students attempt to contact me only during my regularly scheduled office hours.  When necessary, students should also feel free to contact me at other times (but I simply may not be available).  Students should make every attempt to contact me before rather than after a problem has occurred.

Grading Policy: Makeup exams will only be given if the student is able to document and incapacitating illness or death in his/her immediate family.  In the event of either of these two situations, the student must contact the instructor PRIOR to the regularly scheduled exam and must take the makeup within one week of the originally scheduled exam date.
Both exams will be primarily a combination of short answers and essays.
If exam scores are low, then results will be curved so that the mean score is 75% of the possible total.  Anyone receiving more than 90% of the total possible raw (uncurved) points or 90% of the highest point total in the class will be given an A.  Anyone with a point total less than 50% of the highest score in the class is likely to fail the course  Remaining grades will depend on the details of the curve, etc., but a grade of B or higher will generally be given to students with a point total above the mean.

Exams will heavily emphasize lecture material.  Lecture will be primarily on extant species of vertebrates, and it would be best to only skim material in the book dealing with fossil forms.  A detailed list of the assigned reading from the text book is given on page 2.  No more than a maximum 15% of the lecture exam points will be based on material in the textbook which has NOT been discussed in lecture.  Readings in the text are designed to compliment the lecture material.  Because of the heavy emphasis on lecture material for testing purposes, missing lectures would be grave tactical error.  During the quarter some additional reading from the textbook may be assigned in order to supplement lecture material.

In addition to the exams and one take home problem listed below, a maximum of 60 (10 lab; 50 lecture) additional points may be awarded for such miscellaneous evaluations as pop quizzes, etc.

EVALUATION:

*Phylogeny take home problem (due beginning of class 4/5)                                10

Lecture exam 1  4/24 (Fishes & Amphibians)                                                      100

Lecture exam 2  5/31 (Amniotes & not more than 20 points cumulative)            150

Lab exam 1 4/26 (Fishes & Amphibians)                                                               75

Lab exam 2  6/5  (Amniotes)                                                                                  75

Lecture discretionary points (pop quizzes etc.) maximum of                                30

Lab discretionary points (pop quizzes etc.) maximum of                                      30

TOTAL (maximum)                                                                                               470

Laboratory.  The teaching assistant (Tim Higham, 1403 Crosley, phone 556-5696, highamte@email.uc.edu) will be totally in charge of grading the lab exams.  Lab exams will consist of 25 stations usually having 2 questions each and 2 minutes will be allowed per station.  Lab exercises and exams will contain a nearly equal mix of identifying taxa and anatomical structures. All questions regarding the grading of lab exams should be directed first to the TA, and only if a question can not be resolved satisfactorily should such questions be directed to Dr. Jayne.  I strongly encourage students to use the entire 3 hour lab period effectively.  If you know all of the material for a unit, then it is fine to leave early after checking with the TA.  However it is very rare for students to master the lab material in such a short time.  When possible, we will have a few demonstrations of live animals and short video tapes in lab, so it is important to check with the TA for when this material will be presented.  If students have left the labs early, the TA is not obliged to admit them to the review sessions before the lab exams.  It is because laboratory time is at such a premium that I have scheduled the lab exams during lecture periods.

Academic integrity: The University Rules, including the Student Code of Conduct, and other documented policies of the department, college, and university related to academic integrity will be enforced.  Any violation of these regulations, including acts of plagiarism or cheating, will be dealt with on an individual basis according to the severity of the misconduct.

Special needs: If you have any special needs related to your participation in this course, including identified visual impairment, hearing impairment, physical impairment, communication disorder, and/or specific learning disability that may influence your performance in this course, you should meet with the instructor to arrange for reasonable provisions to ensure an equitable opportunity to meet all the requirements of this course. At the discretion of the instructor, some accommodations may require prior approval by Disability Services.

Course Goals

Because this is a 600 level laboratory course students will be expected to expend considerable effort, and the end result of such an effort should be a rewarding experience.  Unfortunately, because of the time restrictions of a single quarter course, some of the coverage of vertebrate biology will necessarily be rather spotty.  However, there are a number of unifying themes in addition to the factual knowledge that should be acquired as a result of taking this course

General goal:

Introduce students to the diverse evolutionary lineages, structures (anatomy) and functions (physiology and behavior) within the vertebrate clade.

Lecture goals:

1)  Define what a vertebrate is.

2)  We will use the vertebrates as a case study to continually clarify the distinction between classification and phylogeny.

3)  Provide evolutionary interpretations of structural and functional diversity related to the following issues.

            What similarities appear to be the simple result of common ancestry?

            What similarities are convergent as a result of similar functional demands?

            Can dissimilar structures attain similar effectiveness for a given functional task?

4)  Examine conspicuous structural and functional attributes that are correlated with different specializations in habitat (especially the differences associated with aquatic versus terrestrial life).

5)  For each vertebrate class, we will briefly examine how diverse solutions have evolved to fundamental tasks that are faced by all animals (such as locomotion, feeding and acquiring energy, and reproducing).

Laboratory goals:

1)  Gain practical experience using dichotomous keys to identify taxa.

2)  Gain experience as to which anatomical structures are generally most useful for identifying different groups of vertebrates.

3)  Directly observe anatomical structures whose functions will be discussed in lecture.

4)  Develop the ability to recognize certain vertebrate taxa by sight.

5)  Directly observe divergence in (homologous) anatomical structures that are associated with divergence in function.

6)  Develop the ability to recognize major homologous anatomical structures in a wide variety of different vertebrate groups.