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.

Textbooks Audesirk, Audesirk, & Byers Biology: Life on Earth, 9 th 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 Your Brain 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. 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.

Help me help you! Sometimes I get: From: im in ur class and i cant do the quiz what cn i do help (Be specific! Which class? Which quiz? What’s the problem? Most importantly: who are you? Also, please punctuate, spell, and capitalize appropriately, thanks.) It’s much better to get: From: Dear Dr. Bledsoe: I am in your Friday 1:00 Biology lecture. I tried to do the end of week quiz, but it says it’s not open yet. I thought you’d like to know. Thanks. Imogene Topstudent

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. WORKTOGETHERWORKTOGETHER

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” Press “Ch”

This is a clicker question. Have you used clickers before? 1.Yes. 2.No. 3.I can’t remember.

How many midterms do we have this term? 1.None 2.One 3.Two 4.Three 5.Four

Learning is: 1.An active process; the student is responsible for making it happen. 2.A passive process; the instructor has to make it happen, the student only receives it.

When does the end-of-week quiz CLOSE each week? 1.5:00 Friday evening 2.8:00 Monday morning 3.8:00 Monday evening 4.Never

When should you do your pre-lab quiz? 1.By Sunday midnight before the lab. 2.By midnight the night before your lab. 3.Any time before the lab. 4.Any time during the term.

You will automatically fail lab if you miss MORE than ___labs. 1.One 2.Two 3.Three 4.Four

True or false: There are study guides for each chapter on Moodle. 1.True 2.False

What are you allowed to do with cell phones in class? 1.Answer them and have long conversations. 2.Text quietly under the desk or behind your backpack. 3.Turn them off and put them completely away.

What does “put your cell phone away” look like? 1.Silence it and set it beside you on the desk. 2.Put it in your lap. 3.Put it where you can’t see it or be distracted by it. Don’t make me unleash the flying monkeys!

Now, on with Biology! Welcome to class!