SYLLABUS FOR ANATOMY LABORATORY FOR PRENURSING STUDENTS

BIO231 FALL 1995

This document contains important information that you must read and retain for future reference. It describes your rights and responsibilities in this course. Also, be sure that you have a copy of the laboratory schedule.This course is intended to provide a general introduction to mammalian anatomy and anatomical terminology as a basis for understanding human anatomy. The course consists of a recitation section and a laboratory meeting each week. The laboratory assignment will be introduced in the recitation, and there will be scheduled (see schedule) and unscheduled quizzes some weeks in the recitation section. Skeletal materials will be examined or the cat and other selected mammalian preparations will be dissected during each laboratory meeting.

REQUIRED READING:

Reading will be assigned from the laboratory manual: Walker, W. F., Jr. and D. Homberger. 1993. A Study of the Cat With Reference to Human Beings, 5th ed. Saunders, Fort Worth. This book can be purchased at Stony Books (across the street from the Stony Brook station of the Long Island Rail Road) and is not available at the campus book store. You must obtain your own copy of the manual because it will become worn and covered with notes based on your dissections. Reading assignments for the laboratory exercises will be listed in a package of handouts. The laboratory teaching assistant may assign additional reading. All reading assignments must have been completed by the recitation session of the weeks for which they were assigned. Recitation quizzes may include questions from the reading assigned for that week, and there may be unannounced quizzes if we conclude that students are coming to lab unprepared.

OTHER EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES:

The first few laboratory meetings will be spent examining skeletal material. However, most of the laboratories will involve dissection and you will need your own dissection kit, rubber gloves (optional but not available from the course), and a trash bag with a closure. The trash bag will be needed to store your cat once you begin to dissect it. If you fail to store your cat in a bag that you can close, it will dry out, making your subsequent work very difficult. Some people prefer to dissect with rubber gloves, and you must obtain them for yourself if you wish to use them.

OFFICE HOURS

. My (Mike Bell) office hours will be Tuesday and Wednesday 11:30 am 1:00 pm in room 023 in the basement of the Life Science Laboratories. If these hours are impossible for you, please make an appointment by phone (632-8574, or on campus 28574; or 632-8600 for messages in department office) in advance, or just call when you want to visit. Teaching assistant office hours will be given in the laboratory once their schedules have been determined. They will hold their office hours in the anatomy laboratory (Computer Sciences 2312), and you may attend the office hours of any laboratory teaching assistant (not just your lab TA's hours) to catch up on dissections, to prepare for quizzes, or to ask questions to clarify your understanding of the laboratory manual or instructions given in class. Questions on the content of the laboratory should be addressed to the teaching assistants. Questions on the conduct of the course or personal problems related to your work in the course should be addressed to your teaching assistant or to me, at your discretion.

SELECTION OF A LABORATORY PARTNER

You will perform dissections in pairs and must alternate with your lab partner in dissecting and reading instructions from the manual. Select a lab partner with a schedule that is compatible with yours, because it will be necessary to work in lab during a teaching assistants' office hours. You will be working closely with your lab partner, so make a careful selection.

QUIZZES AND EVALUATION

. There will be five pairs of scheduled quizzes, a final examination, and an evaluation score based on the teaching assistant's observations of you in the lab throughout the semester. Each pair of quizzes will consist of written questions, taken during the recitation, and a practical part, in which structures on specimens will be identified in the lab. (We may also use projected slides from which structures will be identified.) There will be multiple-choice, fill-in, and short-answer questions. The laboratory final examination will be an expanded version of the laboratory quizzes, including practical questions. However, about half of the final exam will consist of review questions. The TA evaluation score will be based on each student's performance in the laboratory, including attendance, cleanliness in lab, participation in dissections, quality of dissections, and cooperation with the TA and other students. The TA evaluation will be independent of quiz scores. The purpo There will be a total of 400 points possible, distributed as follows:
  • Quizzes (minimum of 5 pairs). . . . . . . . . . . 250
  • Final Examination (Fri, 12/15/95 @ 8:30 am) . . . 100
  • TA Evaluation . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

    COURSE GRADE DISTRIBUTION

    The final grade in the course will be determined by adding scores from the examinations and TA evaluation. No score will be dropped. Other factors, such as improvement on the final examination or outstanding laboratory work, may also be taken into account. The average grade in this course is usually a middle C (2.4, A = 4.0), but the actual average grade and fraction of various letter grades (including +/ grades) will depend on the point distribution among students. Plus and minus grades are reserved for relatively few boarder-line scores.

    ACADEMIC DISHONESTY

    . Academic dishonesty includes any effort tocircumvent the evaluation procedures of the course (i.e., cheating) to improve one's grade or that of another student. Theft of laboratory materials that belong to the university or to another student is also considered to be academic dishonesty. Cheating also includes, but is not limited to, theft of notes or quiz materials, unauthorizedexamination of written materials (e.g., neighbors' papers or notes)during an examination, submission of a paper that was copied from orwritten by another person, and misrepresentation of the cause of anabsence during an examination. You are encouraged to report academicdishonesty, and anonymity will be protected if requested. If I believe that academic dishonesty has occurred and have supporting evidence, the accusation and evidence will be transmitted to the Academic Judiciary Committee of the College of Arts and Sciences with the recommendation that a grade of F in the course be imposed. Susp While I take a very dim view of cheating, some kinds of collaboration are encouraged, for example, preparation for examinations and performance of laboratory exercises. However, if you prepare for an examination with another student, do not sit near that person during the examination, because students who study together may learn conspicuous errors that could be misinterpreted as cheating if they sat together during the test.

    TEACHING ASSISTANT PERFORMANCE

    . I must rely on student feedbackto insure that TA's are performing well. I will assume that everything is in order unless I hear complaints from students. Problems can bereported to me in confidence, but it may be impossible to act on a complaint without revealing the accuser.

    DISABLED STUDENTS.

    Students with disabilities are encouraged to ask course staff directly or through the Office of Disabled Students for procedures to allow them to participate fully in this course.

    LETTERS OF REFERENCE

    If you want a letter of reference, you must ask your lab TA if she/he will write a positive report to me. I will consider the report and decide whether to write a letter based on it. The reason for this procedure is that I do not get to know students in this course well enough to write a useful letter without information from the TA. Even if the TA writes a report, unless the report is favorable, I will not submit a letter because it may deprive you of the opportunity to get a good letter from another instructor. If you use an institutional reference form, your TA's report to me must be written on a properly completed copy of that form. You must fill out the original of the form as follows: Fill in spaces (type or print neatly) that call for information on you and me:
  • Your name (as on transcript)
  • Your signature
  • My name"Michael A. Bell
  • My title "Associate Professor
  • Reason for concern/association: "Instructor in Anatomy Laboratory for Prenursing Students

    Period of Association "Fall Semester 1994"

    Affiliation/Address of respondent: "Department of Ecology and Evolution, SUNY, Stony Brook, NY 11794-5245" Some of this information may have to be written on both sides of your form, so be sure to fill it out carefully and completely. You also must check (either yes or no) and sign the waiver of your right to see my letter. Federal law insures your right to inspect academic letters of reference. However, if you do not waive this right, the letter might have less credibility because it may have been tempered by concern that you had retained your right to review the it. The choice to waive or retain your right of inspection is entirely ours to make. After you have filled out the form, give the original and the copy to your lab TA. She/he will write a report on the copy and give it and the original to me. If you use a form from another institution, give us the address unless it is printed on the form, and make extra copies before filling it out, so you have copies for another referee if I decline to submit it. I will not submit the reference form on your behalf if you fail to follow these instructions. Check with me after the semester to determine whether I decided to write the letter and have sent it. Then verify that it was received by the party to whom it was addressed.
    For questions please contact M. Bell e-mail