GEOL 104 Dinosaurs: A Natural History Fall Semester 2011 Section 0101 PLS 1130 10:00-10:50 am MWF Instructor: Dr. Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. Room: Centreville 1216 Office Hours: T 8:30-11 am, or by appointment Phone: x54084, Email: [email protected] NOTE: It is your responsibility as a student to completely read through and understand this syllabus. If you have questions about it, please contact Dr. Holtz. You will be held responsible for following all requirements of this syllabus. Course Organization: 3 meetings per week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday). Grade: Test 1: 20% Smithsonian Assignment I: 15% Test 2: 20% Smithsonian Assignment II: 5% Final: 20% Online Quizzes: 15% Video Review Assignment: 5% No separate extra credit assignments are planned for this course. However, tests and some quizzes and assignments have extra credit questions. NOTE: Late Smithsonian or Video Review Assignments will be docked 25% of the total grade if not turned in on time, but turned in (at my mailbox in the Geology Building or at my office) prior to the next class day, or docked 50% if handed in the next class day. After that point, the grade for that assignment will be a 0. Online Quizzes cannot be completed for a grade after their regularly assigned due date passes. Grade Scale: ≥90, A; 80-89, B; 70-79, C; 60-69, D; <60, F. “+” and “-“ grades are given to the top and bottom two-point range, respectively, within each grade. Dinosaurs: A Natural History is a CORE course. CORE Distributive Studies courses are designed to ensure that you will take a look at several different academic disciplines and the way they create and analyze knowledge about the world. A faculty and student committee approved this CORE Distributive Studies course because it will introduce you to the ideas and issues that are central to a major intellectual discipline and because it promises to involve you actively in the learning process. Please take advantage of the opportunities this course offers you. LEARNING OUTCOMES: By the end of the semester, every student should be able to: • Identify the major clades of dinosaurs and their primary attributes (anatomy, behavior, stratigraphic and geographic distribution, etc.) • Interpret cladograms in determining evolutionary relationships and distribution of specializations • Assess claims of inferred dinosaurian behavior, physiology, and extinction patterns from fossil evidence No required textbook for purchase. However, please keep current with the online lecture notes (http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/G104/104Syl.html) Websites: http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/G104/ This Website contains a copy of the course policies, the syllabus, lecture notes, copies of some of the handouts, dinosaur-related web links, and other features. Please feel free to utilize this resource, and email Dr. Holtz with any suggestions on improving this resource. http://elms.umd.edu/ Course ID: 201108_GEOL104_THOLTZ_0101 1The ELMS Blackboard site will include required weekly online quizzes; announcements concerning the class; class discussion list; copies of the handouts; and so forth. If you have not already done so, make sure that you get access to ELMS. Policies: Academic integrity: The University of Maryland has a nationally recognized Code of Academic Integrity, administered by the Student Honor Council. This Code sets standards for academic integrity at Maryland for all undergraduate and graduate students. As a student you are responsible for upholding these standards for this course. It is very important for you to be aware of the consequences of cheating, fabrication, facilitation, and plagiarism. For more information on the Code of Academic Integrity or the Student Honor Council, please visit http://www.studenthonorcouncil.umd.edu/whatis.html The University of Maryland is one of a small number of universities with a student-administered Honors Code and an Honors Pledge, available on the web at http://www.studentconduct.umd.edu/Info/Students/AcadHonorPledge.aspx. The code prohibits students from cheating on exams, plagiarizing papers, submitting the same paper for credit in two courses without authorization, buying papers, submitting fraudulent documents, and forging signatures. The University Senate encourages instructors to ask students to write the following signed statement on each examination or assignment: “I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this examination (or assignment).” Academic Accommodations: If you have a documented disability, you should contact Disability Support Services 0126 Shoemaker Hall. Each semester students with documented disabilities should apply to DSS for accommodation request forms which you can provide to your professors as proof of your eligibility for accommodations. The rules for eligibility and the types of accommodations a student may request can be reviewed on the DSS web site at http://www.counseling.umd.edu/DSS/receiving_serv.html. Religious Observances: The University System of Maryland policy provides that students should not be penalized because of observances of their religious beliefs, students shall be given an opportunity, whenever feasible, to make up within a reasonable time any academic assignment that is missed due to individual participation in religious observances. It is the responsibility of the student to inform the instructor of any intended absences for religious observances in advance. Notice should be provided as soon as possible but no later than the end of the schedule adjustment period (September 14). Faculty should further remind students that prior notification is especially important in connection with final exams, since failure to reschedule a final exam before the conclusion of the final examination period may result in loss of credits during the semester. The problem is especially likely to arise when final exams are scheduled on Saturdays. Other: All work on tests, quizzes, etc. must be your own. Although group study can be very useful, make sure that all your work you turn in is your own. Absences from exams will not be excused except for those causes approved by University policy (see http://www.umd.edu/catalog/index.cfm/show/content.section/c/27/ss/1584/s/1540 of the University of Maryland Undergraduate Catalog). Only those students excused for these causes will be eligible for a make-up exam.