Lecture format and requirements
This 3-unit lecture course will meet for 3 hours a week. The material is complex and builds on itself. It is encouraged that students having trouble understanding the lecture material read the background material in the textbook before coming to class.
Attendance
It is not mandatory that you attend the lectures and your grade will not be based in any way on lecture attendance. It's your tuition money; spend it how you see fit. However, it is strongly recommended that you attend lectures since the material is complex and builds on itself.
Evaluation
Lecture: Three lecture exams will be given (including the final), each worth 100 points. The exam format will be scan-tron and short answer. Typically about 2/3 of the points come from multiple choice and 1/3 come from short answer questions.
A #2 pencil and a scan-tron (form 882E) are required for exams.
Additional assignments (in class group problems or essays) including extra credit may also be given during the course at the instructor's discretion.
Make-up exams
Make-up exams : Exam's may only be taken on a day other than the scheduled date for serious or compelling reasons. It is generally preferable that exams be made-up before the scheduled date if you know that you won;t be able to take it then.
Drops or Incompletes Students may drop the course during the first two weeks of class for any reason. February 6th is the last day to drop on CASPER . Dropping any day after this requires signatures and will be denoted on your transcripts with a “W”.
March 5th is the last day to WITHDRAW for serious or compelling reasons that are documented. This requires a petition to be approved by both the instructor and the department chair.
Academic Misconduct:
Any type of communication between students on an exam is considered cheating and will not be tolerated. Students who fail to comply will be given a zero for that exam, the incident will be reported to the Biology Department Chair and the Dean of Students, and the student may receive an “F” in the course.
All work submitted by the student must be their own work. Failure to do so will be considered plagiarism. This includes using someone else's words or work without giving credit to that person. Plagiarized work will receive no credit and may be reported to the Biology Department Chair.
The most frequent cases of plagiarism that occur in this class are when lab mates turn in a homework assignment that has exactly the same wording for some or all of the answers. You may work together but make sure you write your answers in your own words. Other cases of plagiarism usually involve written work where some of the information is gathered from the internet and then copied and pasted into the student's work without the student putting quotes around it or citing it. If you are in doubt about whether or not what you intend to do is plagiarism or not, feel free to ask.
Grades and Grading Policy
| A |
Outstanding achievement;
you might want to link to an "A" paper or project |
90%-100% |
| B |
Excellent performance;
clearly exceeds course requirements |
80%-89% |
| C |
Average |
70%-79% |
| D |
Passed, but not
at average achievement standards |
60%-69% |
| F |
Failure to meet class requirement |
59% and below |
| |
Incompletes:
Enter information on the department's policy for issuing incompletes. |
(Earning a 90% in the course will guarantee you an A. However, a curve will be applied to the scale if the mean of the class falls below the expected level.)
Text
and Materials
Recomended text:
Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain, 2nd edition.
Bear, Connors and Paradiso Baltimore , Maryland , Williams and Wilkens, 2001
You can purchase books through
the Hornet Bookstore. Check their
Online Textbook Sales page at http://www.foundation.csus.edu/bookstore/textbooks/
for ordering information. |