Biology 212: Anatomy and Physiology II Surviving and succeeding in A & P We want everyone in this course to do as well as you possibly can. While there is a lot of new material to learn, it can be mastered relatively easily if you approach it in the right way. This Powerpoint tutorial will guide you through the process of finding information which will make this course a lot easier for you. If possible, you might want to open the course webpage (address on the next slide) on one tablet/computer while reading this Powerpoint on a second device. Dr. T (Please continue)

From the webpage http://course1.winona.edu/ethompson/212.htm Select the “Course Syllabus” link and READ THIS SYLLABUS CAREFULLY! You are responsible for ALL of the information it contains. Pay particular attention to the following: a) How to contact Dr. Thompson & Dr. Larson b) The textbook and other materials you should have c) The types and dates of exams d) How grades will be calculated, including the “curve” e) The course schedule (Please continue)

Look carefully at the course schedule in the syllabus. Week by week it lists: a) The lecture topics. We may fall behind a bit as the course continues, but the sequence will not change. b) The lab topics. You can access the lab exercises through the course homepage. Be sure you read the appropriate exercise thoroughly BEFORE you come to lab each week or you will waste a lot of time when you get there. c) The required reading assignment for each week. Note that word “Required”. You should complete the ENTIRE reading assignment for each week BEFORE the first lecture and the labs that week. You don’t need to master all the details of a chapter in this reading, but you should get a solid grasp of its terminology and general concepts. (Please continue)

(Reading Assignments in the course syllabus) Many students claim that they learn more easily by waiting until after the lecture to read the book. That’s wrong, and believing it will have a seriously negative effect on your grade in this class. Millions of years (literally) of human evolution have created a brain which learns new information by correlating it with things it already knows. By reading the book first, you are giving it an initial understanding of the information we will be discussing in lecture and lab. This includes the major concepts and a first exposure to the large amount of new terminology you will have to learn. We have designed lectures and labs for this course on the assumption that you have completed that reading assignment, and we will then use lectures and labs to reorganize and expand on this information. Waiting until after the lecture to read this assignment means you will understand a lot less of the material presented in lecture and lab, and your work in this course will ne a LOT harder. (Please continue)

Scroll up the syllabus. Re-read the section about attendance. While there are many courses at WSU which you can pass without attending lectures, this isn’t one of them. You can’t make up for missed lectures by either reading the book or “getting notes” from another student. a) About 30% of what I present in lecture will not be in the book (which I assume you have already read). Most of the remaining information in lecture will be organized quite differently than it is in the book. b) Each person takes notes which make sense to her or him and will stimulate memories of what he or she heard in lecture – your brain organizes information as you hear it . Someone else’s notes will not allow your brain to do this, so they will be completely out of context to you. Generally, notes taken by another person are worthless to you. c) For these reasons, attendance at every single lecture and every single lab is required during this summer course. If you know that you will need to miss even a single session, please do not take this summer course. (Please continue)

Pay particular attention to what the syllabus says about attendance at exams, and read the linked information. Exams are an important part of helping you learn anatomy and physiology. I will post an answer key during each exam so you can compare your answers to it and identify areas you need to study more. That means you must attend exams when they are scheduled. Since I post an answer key, I would have to write a completely new exam in order to give you a make-up. I will do this if you can document that missing the exam was completely out of your control. I won’t be able to do that if you were simply unwilling to take the necessary steps to be sure you could be there. “Excused” absences are limited to things like hospitalization (not just going to the Health Service) or some other event over which you had no control (see http://course1.winona.edu/ethompson/specialcircumstances.htm. In particular, note that family travel or vacation is not an excused absence and you are expected to schedule medical appointments, job interviews, etc. outside of class time. (Please continue)

On the syllabus, read the section about classroom etiquette Please note that you may not use your computer, tablet, or cell phone during lectures. There are two reasons for this: a) We expect your full attention to be given to the course material, and you can’t do that if you are online. Your ancestors survived (and thus were able to reproduce) because their brains focused on one thing at a time, so the human brain evolved to be very, very poor at “multitasking”. We want you to do well in this class, and that means paying attention. We want you to take notes by hand, not on a computer. Many studies have shown that students who take notes on a computer do not process that information through their brains and do very poorly on exams compared to students who take notes by hand. In fact, they don’t do any better than students who just listen and don’t take any notes at all. We want you to do well in this class. That means processing information through your brain as you take notes on it. (Please continue)

Return to the course homepage http://course1.winona.edu/ethompson/212.htm Click on the “Powerpoints Used in Lecture ” link This provides copies of the Powerpoint slides I will be using in lecture. These include drawings, diagrams, charts, etc. but may not include all of the text information. You should print out these PowerPoints (please select the “grayscale” option to give yourself space to take notes) and bring them to class. You can then add additional information and make other notes relative to them, but BE CAREFUL … (Please continue)

Since most of the information you need to learn Be careful! Do not assume that having copies of these Powerpoint slides is the same as “taking notes”. It isn’t. Since most of the information you need to learn from this course will be presented verbally, not just projected on the screen, you will need to take good notes on what I say in class (yes – this will be very difficult if you didn’t complete the reading assignment ahead of time). Many test questions will be based on information presented verbally but not necessarily projected on the screen. Please also realize that most of the value from “notes” happens as you take them, so it doesn’t do you any good to “get the notes” from another student. Another person’s notes won’t trigger any connections in your brain. (Please continue)

Return to the course homepage http://course1.winona.edu/ethompson/212.htm Click on the “Chapter Reviews” link This leads you, as you might expect, to a review of each chapter in the Saladin text. While these summarize what I think are the important concepts of each chapter, they are most useful after you have studied the material to help you identify areas in which you are still weak. They are less useful as “study guides” before you study, and your grades will sink like a large rock if you limit your studying to the things which are in these reviews. (Please continue)

Return to the course homepage http://course1.winona.edu/ethompson/212.htm Click on “How to Study Effectively For This Course” Read this page carefully. It includes a number of things which will make this course a lot easier for you. Humans learn different types of information in different ways, so the things which work for studying in your other courses may not work for this one. There has been a lot of good research into how the human brain learns and retains the type of material contained in an Anatomy and Physiology course, and I have incorporated that information into this page. By the time you reach college, you have developed different strengths and weaknesses in how you learn things. The earlier you find out what things work for you and set up effective study habits using those, the easier this course will be. (Please continue)

How to Study Effectively For This Course Interestingly: a number of research studies have shown that you use many of the same parts of your brain to learn A&P as you do when you are beginning to learn a new language or beginning to learn to play a musical instrument. Thus: you should do well if you study the information in this course using many of the same skills and techniques as you would to learn a new language or to learn to play a new instrument: Start with small amounts of relatively easy information and master it Add additional and more difficult information to what you know Practice/study small amounts of new information each time Repetition is essential. You will not master something until your brain has had to deal with it many, many times. (Please continue)

Return to the course homepage http://course1.winona.edu/ethompson/212.htm Notice that links to the laboratory exercises are provided for you to download and print. We will not be using a published (and expensive) lab manual in this course. Instead, we have prepared a series of lab exercises which will be posted here. Before each week’s lab you should print this out, read it ahead of time, and then bring it to lab. Each laboratory exercise also has a “required reading assignment” which must be completed before you come to lab each week. The lab exercises are written with the expectation that you are already familiar with the relevant information in your textbook, so a lot of that information will not be repeated in the lab exercise. If you have not done this reading ahead of time, you will be unable to find the information you need and you will not be able to complete the lab exercise in the scheduled time. These lab exercises often contain references to figures and text in your Saladin textbook, so you should bring the book to lab as well. (Please continue)

Return to the course homepage http://course1.winona.edu/ethompson/212.htm Click on the “Lab Safety Contract” link We require safety in the laboratory at all times. Print out that contract, read it, sign and date it, and return it to your lecture instructor or lab instructor On the first day of class. If you signed a lab safety contract for BIOL 211, you need to sign another one for BIOL 212. Failure to follow this policy typically results in your being asked to leave that laboratory session for the day, but serious violations can result in a failing grade for this course. (Please continue)

Return to the course homepage http://course1.winona.edu/ethompson/212.htm Click on the “Cadaver Use Agreement” link We have two cadavers on loan to us from the University of Minnesota and we require all students, staff, and faculty to follow certain procedures. You are required to view the orientation video, posted on the course homepage, from the University of Minnesota explaining the use of cadavers and possible problems which may arise. After you view that video you will need to print out that agreement, read it, check the appropriate boxes, sign and date it, and return it to your lecture instructor or lab instructor. Failure to follow the policies outlined in that agreement may result in your being asked to leave that laboratory session for the day or it may result in your permanent removal from the course with a failing grade. (Please continue)

Return to the course homepage http://course1.winona.edu/ethompson/212.htm Click on the “How Dr. Thompson Writes Exams” link in which I describe the types of questions I use and the ways in which I use each type. Sample questions of each type are given. This will be most useful to you as an exam approaches, but it would be a good idea to read through it before then to get an idea of what you should expect to see on exams. (Please continue)

As you should for all of your courses, be sure you understand the WSU Academic Integrity Policy which is included in the “Academic Policies & University Requirements” section of the WSU online catalog. Please open the online catalog under “Academics” on the WSU website and read this. All students at the university are expected to understand this policy and follow it in all of their courses. Failure to do so can result in lower scores, lower grades, and even suspension from the university for serious or repeated violations. Sadly, A&P appears to be one of the courses in which students are tempted to cheat, and they fail the course because of it. Don’t be one of these students. (Please continue)

Anatomy and Physiology can be a difficult course – not because the information is difficult to understand, but because there is a lot of it and it is not the type of information which your brain is used to studying. Everyone can get an “A” in this class if you give it the time and attention it requires. Your grade will be the result of hundreds of decisions you make every day during the five weeks of this summer course. Please make the right decisions: Do the reading assignments before lecture Come to class each day prepared Take good notes from the book, lecture, and lab Study early and study often until you understand it Study effectively, using many different techniques Don’t fall behind for even a single day (Please continue)

That’s the end of this introductory tutorial to help you find information on the course homepage and to help you succeed in this course. Please refer back to it as often as necessary. The next slide summarizes some of the keys to success in an A&P course. Many more are found in those resources just discussed on the course homepage. Once again, we want you to succeed in this course and we will do everything we can to help, but the bottom line is that your success depends on how much and how well you study, and how well you use your time. (Please continue)

Keys to succeeding in A&P 1. Study in relatively short blocks, 30 - 40 min, with breaks between 2. Use different methods of study: reading, writing, discussing, etc. 3. Be sure you understand concepts - don’t just memorize 4. Constantly ask yourself “how does structure relate to function? 5. Go back-and-forth frequently between notes and the textbook 6. You can’t fall behind - even for a day Repetition, repetition, repetition! You have studied a subject enough when you can explain it completely to someone else without using notes. If you can’t do this, you haven’t studied enough.