NOTE:  A Word download of the syllabus for printing is available on Human Biology Home page.

Human Biology

Yavapai College

Summer 2009

Instructor:  Larry M. Frolich, Ph.D.

E-mail:  LarryFrolich@yahoo.com

Online Office Hours: Tu/Th 8:00-9:30 pm

Phone:  928-257-1491

Skype:  lmfrolich

Course Website: http://faculty.yc.edu/lfrolich/

Description:

Human Biology for Allied Health. Credit Hours: (4) An introductory biology course for allied health majors with an emphasis on humans. Topics include fundamental concepts of cell history, histology, anatomy and physiology, microbiology, and genetics.

In this class, we’ll explore the fundamental concepts that unite the bio-medical sciences.  Human cells, bodies and populations will serve as our consistent reference as we navigate through the hierarchy of biological systems from molecules to cells to tissues to organisms to populations to ecosystems. 

Course content and guidance will be presented online and will include videos, narrated PowerPoint presentations, web links, animated tutorials, guided online laboratories and hands-on lab projects.  Most student work will be completed and posted to your own blog (web-log or journal-format web page) that you will create as part of the class.  Short online quizzes will form a small part of the total grade and help to keep students on-track throughout the course.  Laboratory activities will include interactive online labs and a major hands-on lab project for each of the four units of the class.

Text:  Mader, Sylvia S. (2008).  Human Biology, 10^th edition.  McGraw-Hill.  ISBN 0073309346    

Course Websites: 

• Frolich Human Biology Website:  http://faculty.yc.edu/lfrolich/  [Human Biology link].  This website will be your main guide to the course.  Here you’ll find topics, activities and assignments for each unit of the course.
• McGraw-Hill Aris website:   http://www.mhhe.com/arisHome/index php    We will use this site for online quizzes.  Please register on this site by the end of the first week.  You’ll find a free registration code when you open this web page.  You will need our course ID to register—find this on the Frolich Human Biology website home page.  Please let me know right away if you have any trouble registering on this site.  If you are not registered by the end of the first week of the semester, you will be withdrawn from the course.
• Human BioNet Social Network:  You will be receiving an e-mail invitation to join the online social network that I have set up for this class.  Here you will create a blog where you will post most of your coursework.  When you get the e-mail, just follow the directions—it’s quite simple.  Then try making your first blog entry as instructed on the social network.  Let me know if you have any problems.

Students often want to know what might be the best way to excel in this course.  Every student is an individual with their own strengths and weaknesses and every year I learn about new ways to study and approach biology.  But I do have a few tips that seem to be universally useful to all students, and especially in an online environment:

• SELF-MOTIVATION:  This class involves a tremendous amount of work in a short period of time.  You must be self-motivated and ready to go, from the start, in order to keep on top of the class and complete all the required assignments.
• TIME:  You should expect to spend about 12 hours a week on this class in order to pass, more time to excel.  Remember this is an intensive, 4-credit course that covers a lot of material in a short period of time.
• ORGANIZATION AND DEDICATION:  Biology is a content-rich discipline that also asks you to develop a number of different skills—observational, analytical, investigative, writing, and, in this class, computer skills.  You must be ready to integrate a large amount of information and show me that you’ve got that information organized.  At the same time, you must use the skills you develop to apply that information in the hands-on lab projects and ethical issues essays. Managing and applying such a large amount of information will require persistent and consistent dedication to the class. 
• ATTITUDE:  Students with a better attitude do better in this class.  Remember that you’re establishing a knowledge base and skills/ability tool-chest that will serve you for the rest of your student and professional career.  Bring a great attitude and you’ll succeed! 

1. Establish solid foundational knowledge in biological sciences, with special reference to humans.  The main thrust of the text and course material is to provide this foundational knowledge in an organized, lasting and memorable way.  We will see how all levels of the biological hierarchy apply to humans, with a special focus for each of the four units of the course:

·         Unit I.  Chemical and Cellular Level including Genetics:  This unit focuses on the molecules of life and how cells are organized and reproduce.  We will see the special role of DNA in organizing cell metabolism and allowing genetic information to be passed on to daughter cells and offspring.

·         Unit II.  The Body—Internal Maintenance:  This unit focuses on how internal systems are maintained at the cellular and organismal level.  We will see how oxygen and glucose are provided to each cell of the body as fundamental necessities for cellular metabolism.  We will also look at how our body maintains friendly microbes while attacking invasive disease-causing ones.

·         Unit III.  The Body—Environmental Interactions:  This unit focuses on systems that coordinate interaction with the environment.  We will see the role of nervous control including the cells, structures and systems that bring in sensory information and effect movement or other responses.

·         Unit IV.  Human Populations—Reproduction and Ecology.  This unit looks at human reproduction and how the resulting human populations interact with their ecosystems and evolve over long periods of time.

2. Apply foundational knowledge to real biological systems.  The laboratory exercises are geared towards helping us see how our foundational knowledge actually works in living systems.  Two lab projects will involve building models of the systems we are studying in order to show a comprehensive and applied understanding of how related elements fit together.  The other two projects will involve learning a data-gathering technique, and then using that technique to investigate what happens when we change the conditions that might affect the data being gathered.  This is what is commonly called the “scientific method” of analyzing the natural world.

3. Recognizing the human and ethical dimension to biology.  In each unit of the course, we will analyze different perspectives on a current ethical issue related to what we are studying.  Many topics in biology are controversial and carry cultural, social and political implications.  By analyzing and writing about different perspectives, we will develop the ability to delve deeply into an issue and understand the roots of differing viewpoints.

4. Thoughtfully reflect and analyze our own ability and dedication, our course colleague’s work and the effectiveness of the course:  At the end of each unit, you’ll be asked to provide thoughtful feedback on your own output, some of your peer’s work, and the course as a whole.  Not only will all of us benefit directly from this feedback, but we’ll work on developing the ability to analyze the quality of our own and other’s work.

            One percent of the world’s population goes to college.  From the outset, I assume that students who have advanced sufficiently in their education to be taking this course are self-motivated and want to achieve at the highest level.  I view my own role as one of a colleague who serves to orient and guide the student.  I strive to create an environment that promotes a strong sense of professional respect and I look for students to collaborate in this endeavor.  While respecting the norms of academic honesty and professional communication, we seek a cooperative approach to learning where we all take advantage of each others’ strengths and skills in a collegial way, much as one would hope to find in a well-managed workplace. 

Human Biology requires serious and time-intensive dedication, especially when taking it online.  A minimum of six hours per week online working with the course materials, as well as another six hours per week preparing, reading, reviewing and working on lab projects is needed to pass—perhaps more time to excel.  Think of the online material as a solid orientation to what you need to learn before reviewing for quizzes, assembling compendium notebook materials, and working on lab projects.  I strongly encourage students to make connections and study together.  Nonetheless, any hint of plagiarism or violation of academic honesty in the preparation of class assignments will result in an instant fail grade for the semester.

Four Units:  The course is split into four units, each treated as an independent section.  Each unit includes two principle topics.  The course material for each unit, including an introductory video, narrated PowerPoint presentations, web links and guided laboratory activities, are presented on the course website.  In order to show your completion and comprehension of these materials, each unit includes the following student outputs:  two online compendium notebooks, two quizzes, a lab project and an ethical issues essay.  The attached schedule gives the Topics, Activities, and Assignments for each unit of the course.

Human BioNet and your own blog to post coursework:

You will be receiving an e-mail invitation from me to join the online social network—Human BioNet—that I’ve set up for our class.   Here you will create your own “My Page,” where you will post most of your coursework in blog entries (dated “web-log” postings) that include both text and images.  If you haven’t done this before, don’t worry—it’s remarkably simple and you will just follow the instructions in the e-mail, and then the instructions you will when you get onto the Human BioNet Main Page.  You will find a direct link to the Human BioNet from the course website main page and once you have created your own “My Page,” you can use that link to return to the Human BioNet.  Every student in the course will have their own MyPage and all of you will be posting work to your own individual blog on your own page within the social network. 

When you publish postings to your blog, or any part of the Human BioNet social network, please be aware that they become publicly available, not only to me and your course colleagues, but potentially to anyone in the world with a computer and internet connection.  Please do not post anything to our Human BioNet social network, that you do not want others to see. 

When you register with the Human BioNet, and also with the book publisher’s Aris website where you will take quizzes for the course, you are actually entering into a legal agreement.  I, as course instructor, am not requiring you to use a particular service or software, but I highly recommend you do this to simplify doing the coursework.  If for some reason, you have an objection to entering into agreement with these online service providers, let me know and we will try to make an arrangement that will work for this class.

To Be Registered for Human Biology:  You must be registered through Yavapai College to be on the official course roster.  However, by the end of the first week, you must create your “My Page” on the Human BioNet social network and also  register on the McGraw-Hill Aris website for this course.  If you have not registered on the Aris website and joined the Human Bionet by the end of the first week, you will be withdrawn from the class.

Withdrawal:  Students may withdraw until the mid-semester withdrawal date.  After that date, if you continue in the class, I assume it is because you wish to receive the grade that you earn (A-F).  If you wish the S/U grading option, you must request it before the closing date for the fourth unit.

Failure to Complete Assignments On Time:  You must complete all the student assignments for each unit of the course by the listed date.  Failure to do so must be justified, in writing, by an urgent, emergency, or severe hardship situation.  Only in those cases will I grant additional time to complete the coursework.  Once the completion date for each unit has passed, please move on to completing the assignments for the next unit.

Disabilities:  If any student has a disability, including a learning disability, please contact the Yavapai College Learning Center and Disability Resources so that  we can work together to arrange the accommodations that might be needed.

Academic and Computing Help:  The following FREE resources are available if you need academic or computing help.

• Learning Center  http://www2.yc.edu/content/learningcenters/  Tel:  776-2085
• Academic Advising  http://www2.yc.edu/content/advising/default.htm  Tel.  776-2128
• Computer Help Desk  http://www2.yc.edu/content/its/Help%20Desk.htm Tel:  776-2168

The course is divided into four independent units.  Each unit includes two major topics.  On the course website, each unit has its own page with a list of Topics, the Activities that you’ll do to learn about that topic and the Assignments that you’ll do to show me you’ve mastered that topic.  A summary schedule is attached below.  Please see the course website for details. 

The Compendium Reviews:  For each course topic, you will be preparing and posting a comprehensive and well organized review of what you’ve learned about that topic.  The compendium review is a detailed summary of what’s been covered in that topic.  It must be comprehensive, well organized, well-written and assembled individually.  It should incorporate images from the website material or other sources that help explain the concepts covered.  You should think of it as your ultimate study guide, organized to make sense of the material from that section of the course in a way that you yourself can understand.  Detailed instructions for assembling the compendium reviews will be found on the course website.  Once you’ve assembled and posted your compendium review, you should have no problem with the quiz for that topic.

Two compendium  reviews for each unit of the course.  Each is worth 20 points.

Quizzes:  For each course topic, a short quiz, completed online, will help evaluate your understanding and provide you with quick feedback on your progress.  The quizzes will be done on the McGraw Hill Aris website.  Instructions for registering on the Aris website are found on the course website.

Two quizzes for each unit of the course.  Each is worth 20 points.

Online Laboratory Activities:  Results of the guided online laboratory activities will also be posted to your blog.  Exact directions for each lab activities accompany the link to that lab on the course website page under each course topic.

Two online lab postings for each unit of the course.  Each is worth 20 points.

Lab Projects:  Each of the four units of the course includes a significant hands-on, active lab project.  These projects involve real-world activities that you will complete and document with text and images.  In most cases, you’ll be writing a report and analysis of what you’ve done, and posting digital photographs of your completion of the activity to your web log.  The lab projects are tightly linked to the topics of that section and will show your ability to apply what you’ve learned. A detailed guide to each lab project is found in the course website page for that unit.  You must pass the lab projects, earning at least 168 of the total 240 points available in order to pass the entire class.

One major lab project for each unit of the course.  Each is worth 60 points.

Ethical Issues Essays.  For each of the four sections of the course, you will also be reading about a related ethical issue and writing an essay that you will post to your blog.  Background reading and exact directions for writing these essays, and what to include, are found on the Course website.  Remember that the goal of these short essays is not to forcefully defend a particular opinion, but learn to understand various different viewpoints.

One ethical issue essay for each unit of the course.  Each is worth 10 points.

Peer Interaction and Feedback.  You’ll be asked to provide some discussion feedback on our ethical issues through a forum on  the Human BioNet social network where you will post all your work.  This is another forum to help develop the ability to critically and constructively analyze an issue and our colleagues’ response to that issue. 

One round of peer discussion for each unit of the course.  Each is worth 5 points.

Self and Unit Evaluation.  At the end of each unit of the course, you’ll be asked to reflect on your own output and what you have learned, while analyzing which aspects of that unit were most effective in helping you learn.  This self and unit evaluation will be posted to your blog.

One evaluation for each unit of the course.  Each is worth 5 points.

I will be posting your grades to the Yavapai College Blackboard course page.  However, you can use this table to watch for errors and keep track of your grade as the class progresses.  Remember that each unit of the course has two topics, each with its own Compendium Reviews, Quizzes and Online Labs.  For each unit, you’ll do one Lab Project, one Ethical Issues Essay, one round of Peer Feedback on those essays and one Self/Unit evaluation.

Final Grade:              

Unit I                            200 points

                                    TOTAL POSSIBLE     800 POINTS

Letter grades are assigned according the following point (and percentage) accumulations.

                        A:  More than 720 points (90%)

                        B:  More than 640 points (80%)

                        C:  More than 560 points (70%)

                        D:  More than 480 points (60%)

                        F:  Less than 480 points

In order to pass the class with a grade of “C” or better, you must independently get a passing grade on the four lab projects.  This means you must obtain 168 points out of the 240 points possible for the four lab projects.  If you would like the S/U grading option, you must let me know in writing before the end of the fourth unit of the class.

Human Biology

 (Links to course material, instructions for assignments, and due dates are on the course website)

The following content and learning outcomes are from the Yavapai College course catalog.  They are all covered in Human Biology, but not in the order listed. 

COURSE CONTENT:

1. Clinical microbiology
2. Human physiology and anatomy
3. Molecular genetics
4. Mendelian genetics
5. Cellular structure, function, histology and reproduction
6. Cellular evolution and respiration
7. Human evolution and natural selection
8. Light microscopy
9. Scientific method and applications to medicine
10. Human impacts and the environment
11. Introduction to biochemistry

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
Upon successful completion of this course, the learner will be able to:

1. Identify characteristics of clinically important microbes and the diseases they produce. (1)
2. Identify the major anatomical features of mammals. (2)
3. Identify common human cell types. (2,5)
4. Describe DNA replication and protein synthesis and relate this to human development. (3)
5. Investigate specific patterns and probabilities of genetic inheritance and describe results. (4)
6. Describe the organization and specialization of human cells into tissues and organs. (5)
7. Diagram the eukaryotic cell cycle and relate its features to the controlled growth of human cells. (5)
8. Describe the evolutionary support for the domains of life. (6)
9. Define natural selection, describe varied evidences for evolution, and discuss the implications for human evolution. (7)
10. Use a light microscope to examine cells and cell structures. (8)
11. Relate the principles of the scientific method to current medical research. (9)
12. Describe major ecological impacts of humans and health-related implications. (10)
13. Describe the principles of biological chemistry and how the principles apply to all cellular life. (6,11)