Welcome to Biology 101! Please pick up a syllabus (if you don’t have one yet) and a clicker at the front desk. You will need to rent a clicker from the bookstore this week. Your instructor: Dr. Bledsoe Office: NS 220 Office hours: MWF 2:00-2:50, M 4:00- 4:50, R 3:00-3:50 or by appointment. Email: bledsoek@wou.edu

Textbooks Audesirk, Audesirk, & Byers Biology: Life on Earth, 9th Edition, WOU Custom edition Volume 1. Lab book: Find your Moodle lab page to download lab materials and to take pre-lab quizzes. Lab 1 is posted on our lecture Moodle site.

Your grade comes from: Class activities and online quizzes (~60 points) Midterms (3 x 60 points) Final exam (130 points) Lab (155 points)

Lab grade comes from: Class participation: Online prelab In-class participation Weekly lab quizzes. 2 written reports. Lowest lab grade will be dropped at the end of the term.

Lab attendance policy If you miss 3 or more labs (= more than 2 labs), you automatically fail lab. If you fail lab, you automatically fail the course. If you must make up a lab, you must see Dr. Baumgartner and arrange a different lab time if possible.

Academic honesty The short version: Don’t cheat. Plagiarism means turning in an assignment that is made up mostly or entirely of words that someone else wrote. Don’t to it. Bi 100 policy is to report all plagiarism and cheating to the Student Conduct Committee.

Electronics policy: NO use of electronics in class, including cell phones and translators. Electronics are too distracting to you and to other students. Any use of electronics during exams will be considered cheating. Computers: I’ve had students swear they will use computers only to take notes, and instead spent their time on Facebook or watching movies. Sorry, they ruined it for the rest of you. No computers (except for ODS accommodations).

What can I do about my grade? Attend class. In Bi 100 classes there is a mild correlation between attendance and final grades (and a significant correlation for those who pay attention instead of texting, Facebook-ing, or napping). Come to class prepared, with a printout of the class notes. Study, using the provided study guides. There is a significant correlation between study habits and Bi 100 test scores. Schedule two hours of study time for every hour in lecture, and begin studying intensively for exams about 1 week before. Use active study techniques, not just re-reading the text and your notes.

Passive Learning Passive learning happens when you just sit and listen, and hope you remember later. Most people retain less than 10% of what they learn through passive learning. Your Brain Learning is an active process. Your professor can teach but can’t do the learning for you!

Active Learning Active learning is when you interact with the material in many different ways. Active study helps learners retain up to 90% of the material that they’re working with.

Active Study Ideas Make concept maps. Diagram the concept. Take good notes in lecture AND while reading the textbook. Use interactive online tutorials.

PLTL Peer-Led Team Learning is an optional, low-cost 2-hour evening workshop led by students who have succeeded in the Bi 100 series. You do enroll in PLTL as you would a regular course. There is a P/NP grade assigned.

Student Success Specialist This is a new program at WOU to help students at the first sign of struggle. Students who fail exams, stop attending class, have frequent conflicts with others, or show other signs of academic or social difficulties may be referred. This is not punishment! The specialist will work with the student to determine what the problem is and help find assistance to help the student succeed.

This is a “Work Together” question This is a “Work Together” question. When you see these, think about the question and write a response. You can work with a neighbor if you like. Weekly quiz questions will be based on Daily Work questions and clicker questions. Some of these will preview quiz and exam questions as well. However, these questions will not appear in the notes that you download. You must come to class for these questions. W O R K T G E H

Clickers! You will need to rent a TurningPoint response card, a.k.a. a “clicker,” from the bookstore. Starting week 2 I will track your class participation using your clicker responses. We will also have practice quizzes using clickers.

Register your clicker The TurningPoint system only detects the ID number of your clicker. To assign your name to your clicker ID number, I need everyone to register their clickers using the link on Moodle.

Setting the Clicker Channel To set your clickers to channel 21: Press “Ch” Press “2” Press “1”

This is a clicker question. Have you used clickers before? Yes. No. I can’t remember.