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Berkeley BIOLOGY 1A - Syllabus

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Page 1 of 7. Welcome to Biology 1A, UC Berkeley, Summer 2004 Introduction: Hopefully you will find Biology 1A to be a fun and exciting class. It will be readily apparent to you that the lecturers, graduate students, and staff enjoy biology and teaching! Warning - the pace will be blistering fast. You are expected to have a good understanding of chemistry—examine the chemistry review sheet on page 6. The class consists of four lectures, two labs and two discussions each week. All student s must fill out t he form on page 7. Use this form to add/switc h AND create a password. Even i f you a re not switching or adding you must fill out this form – to select a password. Turn it in after lecture or place it in the mailbox outside of 2088 VLSB, by 5 PM on June 21. Attendance: You are expected to attend ALL lectures, discussions, etc. Communicat ion: Office hours are held in 2084 or 2088 VLSB. Messages for lecturers, Mike Meighan, and the GSI's may be left at 510-642-4110. Email addresses are on page 4. Lect ures and Lecturers: The lecturers are Dr. Jim Baxter (6/21 - 7/15) and Professor Neeraj Chugh (7/20 - 8/11). Dr. Steve Takata will give one lecture on July 20. Lectures are held M. - Th. from 12:30 PM to 2:00 PM in 1 Pimentel. Lectures are not webcast. Black lightning note-taking is authorized to take notes. Office hours: Office hours are held in 2084 (or 2088 VLSB). See page 4 for a list of office hours. Please come to any office hour—lecturer’s, GSI’s, or Mike’s. GSI’s: The GSI’s will teach labs and discussion. Each will hold one office hour per week. Labs and Discussion: Labs and discussion meet twice a week and are required. You must fill out the form on page 7. Turn it in after lecture or place it in the mailbox outside of 2088 VLSB, by 5 PM on June 21. Further lab information is provided. Mike Meighan will handle section changes and adding. Repeating Students: Students repeating the class may not have to repeat the lab if they scored above the lab mean (when they took the class). If interested, fill out the form outside of 2088 VLSB by 5 PM today. Eligible students will be contacted (by phone/email). Study Advice: Read the material before lecture! At a minimum read the first page and last two pages of assigned chapters. During lecture take notes and pay attention. Refer to the lab manual for further information on studying. The Student Learning Center will be offering study groups on M/W from 10 AM to Noon and on T/Th 9-11 AM. There will also be drop in hours. GRADING PROCEDURE: Letter grades will be determined from numerical scores as follows: Midterm Examinations (2 x 150) (each lecture is worth about 15 points) 300 pt’s Laboratory & Discussion: Lab Exam # 1, 7/26, in lecture (Labs 1-7) 90 pt’s Lab Exam # 2, 8/9 or 10, during your lab period (Labs 8-12) 75 pt’s Quizzes - In discussion or lab (12 labs x 3 pts minus the lowest quiz scores) 33 pt’s Final Exam (held on 8/12) 105 pt's Total 603 pt’s A+ or A or A- 100-90% C+ or C or C- 79-70% F 59-00% B+ or B or B- 89-80% D+ or D or D- 69-60%Page 2 of 7. Grades are typically curved. M inimum grades as listed above are guaranteed. T he total % needed for some form of an A, B, C, or D may be lowered depending upon the final distribution of stude nt s scores, i.e. we curve the class if need be. GRADING PROCEDURE: In the event that some examinations have been unusually difficult, the cut-offs for letter grades may be lowered (but only by a few percentage points, and only as deemed necessary). Historically around 50% of the class E ARN A’s and B’s. Grades are based upon total points which includes your lab and lecture points. Some adjustments are made to lab exam 2 grades and quiz grades to adjust for differences between the various sections. How is this done equitably? A linear regression analysis is used to adjust grades. The mean for lab exam 1 is determined for each section and those values are used for the X axis. The mean of lab exam 2 (or quiz scores) are the values used for the Y axis. A best fit line is generated. Each section is then adjusted UP to the “easiest/highest” of all of the sections (maintaining the same slope but modifying the intercept which adjusts for the “easiest/highest” section). Then adjustment points are added for each student within a section. Thus no students are penalized (for being in a “hard” section) and no students have an advantage (for being in a “easy” section). See below for a graphical representation of these adjustments. +++++++++++Lab Exam 1 Points (bysect.)Easiest grader line+++++++++++Average lab exam 1 scores, quiz scores, and lab exam 2 scores are determined for eachsection/pairing (2 sections take the same lab exam 2). Lab exam 1 averages are used for theX axis and quiz scores (or lab exam 2) for the Y axis. A best fit line is generated. The slopeof this line is kept and is brought UP TO THE :EASIEST/HIGHEST" average. This isrepeated for lab exam 2 (Y axis).Lab Exam 1 Points (bysect.)QuizscoresbysectionLab Exam2 scoresby sectionAverageGraderLineAverageGraderLineEasiest grader line The total points is then determined for each student. We look at 90% of the points in the class and see what % of the students earned a guaranteed A+/A/A-. If there are fewer than about 20% of the students we then typically lower the number of points required for some form of an A (since it is the lower end it would be A-). We continue to do that for each guaranteed grade range, B, C and D. If need be, we lower the total number of points necessary to get a certain grade. We usually give out about 20% A’s, 30% B’s, 20% C’s, 10% D’s and 10% F’s. We then go back and make the exact cut-offs for each form of a grade (eg. C+, C, C-). We then look to see if students are within 5 points of the next highest grade. If so we need to determine if they should be “bumped” to the next higher grade. The most important criteria for this “bump” in the summer is attendance and participation in lecture/lab/discussion (pre-labs/worksheet averages). We only consider bumps if the students are within


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Berkeley BIOLOGY 1A - Syllabus

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