Introduction

Welcome to Biological Sciences 2A. This quarter, Bis2a will be held entirely online through the Canvas platform and with readings on LibreText that we will annotate using NotaBene.

BIS 2A is NOT a general survey of biology. Rather, BIS 2A is the first course in the Biological Sciences lower division core sequence. This sequence provides a foundation in modern biology for a broad range of majors. In BIS2A we introduce you to the fundamental chemical, molecular, genetic, and cellular building blocks of living organisms and universal core concepts in biology and prepare you with foundational material for success in the upper division core course sequence in the Biological Sciences (BIS101-105 - genetics, biochemistry/biomolecules, metabolism, & cell biology).

Staff:

Your instructor is:

Dr. Marc T. Facciotti ([email protected])

Office Hours: Will be posted on the Canvas front page for the class

Your lecture TA is:

Christine Anne Tabuloc

Your discussion TA will be assigned by section

Office hours for discussion TAs: Will be posted on the Canvas front page for the class

Enrollment issues:

You selected a particular lecture and discussion section on SISweb during your PASS time. If you wish to make any changes to your schedule, you need to drop the course and sign up again via SISweb. Changes can only be done through SISWeb (not us). Any other questions about enrollment should be directed to [email protected].

Resources for Students:

Are you lost? Are you looking for an answer to a question you are not sure how to ask? Follow the link below where you can find a number of frequently asked questions by your fellow UC Davis students. Answers include links to campus resources to help you navigate centers, programs, and additional resources designed to support your academic career. <https://ebeler.faculty.ucdavis.edu/resources/faq-student-resources/>.

General conceptual learning outcomes for Bis 2A

Bis 2A focuses on developing your understanding of several core concepts in biology that can be applied in contexts beyond the boundaries of this course. We expect that once you have successfully completed this course that you will be able to:

1. Apply basic theories of chemical structure and molecular bonding to describe how biomolecules (the “stuff” of life) interact and how these interactions can be modulated. (Preparation for Biomolecules - courses like BIS102; BIS105)

2. Apply principles of chemistry and bioenergetics to describe how cells acquire and transfer matter and energy to fuel life sustaining processes. These processes include chemical transformations of elemental compounds, cellular replication, and cellular information processing. (Preparation for Metabolism - courses like BIS103, BIS105)

3. Describe the core processes regulating the management of cellular information, such as how this information is stored, read, rearranged, and replicated, how it interacts with the environment, and how these processes together control cellular physiology and determine phenotype. (Preparation for Genetics - courses like BIS101)

4. Synthesize lessons learned from learning objectives 1-3 in the context of bacterial, archaeal, and eukaryotic cells and their characteristic structures. (Preparation for Cell Structure - courses like BIS104)

5. Develop scientific literacy skills associated with describing biological processes and identifying and articulating scientific questions/problems. (Energy Story and Design Challenge - Preparation for general scientific literacy and professional competence).

What you should expect from us:

What we expect from you:

Diversity and Inclusion Statement

A note from your instructor.

The cultures and physical systems within which science and science education are practiced have been historically shaped by a small number of socially advantaged members of the scientific community. These advantages are reflected in many elements of the day-to-day functioning of the systems, the implicit definitions of what constitutes “success” and “failure” and the broader social ecosystem in which the scientific enterprise operates.

While recognizing that we may never be perfect and that there are things beyond our immediate control that impact how students may feel in class, in Bis2A we nevertheless aspire to continuously create a more equitable and inclusive learning environment whenever possible. This effort touches on all aspects of the class, from the reading and practice materials, to the more interactive environments the instructors and students are trying to foster in discussion sections and lecture.

I acknowledge that it is possible that there may be biases in the reading material and course content due to the lens through which it was organized, written and/or presented. While we are continuously refining and hopefully improving the course materials in ways we hope improve learning for most of our students, we acknowledge that more can be done to make what we present honor the broad and diverse identities, backgrounds and perspectives of our students.

If you have a name and/or set of pronouns that differ from those that appear in your official UC Davis records, please let me know, and I will do my best to respect your preferences.

If you feel that your performance in the class is being impacted by your experiences outside of class, please feel free to contact me and I will do my best to assist you or help you to find campus resources that may be more appropriate.

I am still in the process of learning about diverse perspectives and identities. If something was said in class (by anyone) that made you feel uncomfortable, please talk to me about it. If you prefer, you may also submit anonymous feedback via an online form that I will make available through a link on the course’s Canvas front page.

Finally, I ask that each and everyone of you deliberately try to make Bis2A a positive and inclusive learning environment for all involved (i.e. your instructors, TAs and fellow students). None of us are perfect, and we all share in the responsibility of creating a more equitable environment for learning.

Participation Guidelines (these were written with “Live” meetings in mind but also apply to online forums and discussions)

(adapted from http://www.crlt.umich.edu/examples-discussion-guidelines)

• Contributing to a class discussion or answering questions can sometimes be challenging. Try, however, not to silence yourself over concerns for what others might think about what you say.

• If you have a tendency to contribute often, give others the opportunity to speak. If you tend to stay quiet, challenge yourself to share ideas so others can learn from you.

• When your fellow students are speaking, listen respectfully. Don’t interrupt, engage in private conversations, or turn to technology while others are speaking. Use attentive, courteous body language. Listening to what your peers have to say and considering what they say carefully is not only the respectful thing to do, but it also contributes to your own learning.

• Understand that there are different approaches to solving problems. If you are uncertain about someone else’s approach, ask a question to explore areas of uncertainty. Listen respectfully to how and why the approach could work.

• Take pair-work or small group work seriously. This is an opportunity for you to practice and learn from one another.

• Get to know your classmates by interacting with people other than the friend you may have come to class with.

• Keep in mind that we are all still learning and are bound to make mistakes, your professor included. Mistakes are ok and an important part of learning.

Class announcements and following instructions

It is critical that you take responsibility for listening and/or reading announcements that are made in class, via Canvas or through email. It is also critical that you follow the instructions given to you by your instructors. No accommodations will be made for a failure to act appropriately on information given in announcements or to follow instructions on assignments, exams, or other parts of the course. If you do not understand specific instructions, it is your responsibility to ask for clarification before taking action and before any deadlines.

Structure of the Class

IMPORTANT DATES

There are two holidays this quarter. As a consequence, there will be no online lecture for what would usually be class on Monday January 18th, 2020 (MLK Holiday) and February 15th (Presidents Day) - these two weeks will only have 2 online lectures posted (as we might have during in-person instructions).

Lectures:

Lectures will all be pre-recorded and posted to Canvas. It is expected that you watch the lectures and complete the embedded questions and prompts. Preparation for those videos consists of completing the assigned reading and reviewing the pre-class-guide associated with that lecture. Make sure you read and complete these guides before viewing the lecture. Your preparation will allow you to focus on key parts of lecture. It is particularly important to pay attention to the learning goals in the pre-class-guide and use these to try locating where in the lecture and reading the relevant material is covered.

Discussion Sections:

Discussions will be held live online, unless circumstance dictate otherwise. Details about the discussion sections and how they will be administered will be announced on the Canvas site and by your TA.

Textbooks and Required Materials:

You are NOT required to purchase a text book for this course - all required reading will be distributed on-line via Nota Bene and also available as PDFs on Canvas. If you wish to purchase a supplementary book I recommend Life: the science of biology, 11th edition, by Sadava, Heller, Orians, Purves, and Hillis. This is the book used in some sections of BIS2B and BIS2C, so some of you may already have it. If you are not planning to continue in the series - many majors only require Bis2A - purchasing the book may not be ideal. Really, almost any biology textbook published in the last 10 years will do. You can find many of these for very cheap at a variety of online vendors. You may, of course, use a wide variety of additional resources at your choosing and this is recommended. Many students appreciate Khan Academy videos and we encourage you to use them and other reputable resources if you find them useful. In fact, some of the on-line readings include links to external resources. That said, we will not provide a “equivalency table” of “equivalent content” for external resources - there are just too many. All textbooks provide a great table of contents and an index that can be used to look up topics and we encourage you to use those.

Discussion Manual - Purchasing a discussion manual is required. You can either purchase the manual from the publisher directly for ~$30 or, alternatively, if you have signed up for “equitable” access through the university, you’ll have access with that. Specific instructions on how to get access will be posted to the course Canvas page.

Academic (mis)conduct

Please review the UC Davis policies on student conduct, available online: http:// www.ucop.edu/ucophome/coordrev/ucpolicies/aos/uc100.html

Be sure you understand what constitutes misconduct. We send all cases to Student Judicial Affairs – no exceptions.

Some examples include (but are not limited to):

Copyright notice

Lecture slides, study guides, and assessment questions are the property of UC Davis and your instructors. You may not distribute lecture slides, study guides, or exams to anyone not currently enrolled in this class without the instructors’ permission. In particular, posting copies of assessments (or assessment questions) online or providing them to third parties for posting is a violation of UC Davis policy and copyright laws.

Course Grade

Your grade will be based upon the following:

Assessments

5 multiple choice quizzes                                unknown points (see below)

5 short answer quizzes                                   unknown points (see below)

Comprehensive final exam                              unknown points (see below)

Busy work

Discussion section assignments                       200 points

Online reading assignments, Class, HW+         169 points

Total busy work:                                           369 points

The final grades assignments will be determined as follows:

Earning points for “busy work” requires that you turn your work in ON TIME. We will not give credit for late submissions.

No intermediate grades will be assigned.

Quizzes and Final Exam

There will be a total of five two-part quizzes administered this quarter. These quizzes will happen during the scheduled Friday lecture time 11:00-11:50AM Pacific Time during weeks 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. The quizzes will be based upon the learning goals as reflected by material covered in the lecture, the study questions, assigned readings, and other supporting material indicated in class and discussions.

Quiz Part #1: The first part of each quiz will consist of a multiple choice assessment and administered via Canvas quizzes. Most part 1 quizzes will last 15-20 minutes. The exact time will be determined as needed for each quiz. Once the multiple choice quiz has closed, we will break 5 minutes and open the short answer portion.

Quiz Part #2: The second part of the quiz will be a short answer/open ended assessment. This will be administered via Canvas or Gradescope (whichever is most appropriate for the specific assessment). Instructions will be provided at least a day prior to the quiz so that you know what to expect.

IMPORTANT: After part #2 of the quiz has closed, Part #1 (MC) will reopen for a day or two (details to follow). You will then be able to return to the quiz and correct any answers you got wrong the first time through. We recommend using your first time through the quiz to give yourself a self-assessment - see how much you understand and where you are having trouble - and then use the reopen opportunity to learn from any mistakes by correcting your answers. After the Part #1 of the MC quiz has closed the second time it will remain closed and the final modified scores used to calculate grades.

Quizzes are Scheduled for:

Friday January, 15th

Friday January 29th

Friday February 12th

Friday February 26th

Friday March 12th

More details will follow about the administration of the quizzes and the final exam as needed. Exact point values for quizzes and final exam will likely vary from quiz to quiz as needed.

The final examination for this course will be held either Tuesday, March 17 –

Given the grading scheme this quarter, students meeting criteria for C or B grades who are happy with those grades do not need to take the final exam. Only students who want to attempt an A grade must take the final examination.

Since the final exam schedule is already posted for all W2021 classes, NOW (the beginning of the term) is the time check and make sure that you do not have too many exams scheduled on this day. If you do, you have two options: (1) Take the BIS2A final at the scheduled time or (2) Drop the course and consider taking in the Spring or Summer. It is your responsibility to be available at the scheduled time for your final; we will not schedule alternative times and/or dates (unless excused by a University sanctioned activity). The final exam schedule was also posted when you registered for the course. It was your responsibility to know whether the exam time conflicted with any travel or vacation plans. Except in specific situations required by University Policy, we will not make make alternate arrangements (different from the official time) for taking the final exam. There are no regrades on the final examination.

Makeup Assessments:

Make-us for quizzes are given at the discretion of the instructor based on University Policy (you must have a university sanctioned reason for missing the assessment). You should notify the instructor, as soon as it is practical after you miss the assessment or if you know before hand that you will need to miss the assessment. You will be required to provide verification for missing an assessment, such as a doctor’s note on letterhead etc. Make-up assessments may consist of an oral and/or written assessment (at the instructor’s discretion) with the instructor and should be scheduled as soon as possible after the original assessment date.

Discussion Section (200 busy work points):

Discussion Expectations

You must attend discussion, the section you registered for, each week. The discussions are mandatory. We know that things happen (slept through an alarm/feeling unwell/Dr visits/ etc) so we allow you to miss one discussion without penalty by dropping the lowest attendance score.

At the virtual discussion you are expected to join the zoom meeting on time, have your video ON and unmute yourself when called upon to answer a question. Failure to meet these expectations will result in docked points for your attendance score.

Your TA will EMAIL YOU THE ZOOM LINK to your discussion through CANVAS. You are responsible for checking your canvas email to find this zoom link to attend your discussions.

Canvas Discussion Quizzes: you will have a week to complete each quiz, as many attempts as you want. Quizzes are due every Friday just before midnight starting Jan 15th.

[quiz regrades will not be offered for quiz answers that were misspelled or fall outside the rules of normal grammar, answers should not include odd characters such as dashes and slashes, example: / —]

Weekly Manual Uploads: You will be responsible for doing the assigned questions from the manual. The questions should be completed to the best of your ability, written legibly, and the picture of your work you upload should be clear and bright (USE the SCANNABLE App (or equivalent (see first class announcement) for any image upload we request—it’s free). The manual questions are due every Friday just before midnight starting Jan 15th. Instructions on getting the manual are in “files”—>discussion materials.

Grading *may change based on technology cooperation*

Canvas quizzes.                    @ 5 pt (10 of them)

Discussion attendance        @ 10 pt (10 of them)

-10 pt dropped attendance score

Manual upload                     @ 6 pt (9 of them)

Post assessment 1               @ 6 pt (1 of them)

For a total of 200 pts

Online Reading Assignments, Lectures and other class work (169 busy work points):

Overarching organization of online course:

The course is organized into weekly modules in Canvas. Each week will contain assignments that map to a “traditional” course including lecture videos (2-3 per week), pre/ post course guides for each lecture, a reading assignment for each lecture, and one or more discussions assignments. All lecture (non-discussion) related assignments (e.g. lectures, readings, pre/post guides) for the weekly module will be due by 11:59PM each Friday. This will be the case every week, whether there is a quiz scheduled on Friday or not. Deadlines for discussion materials will be similar and indicated in the course module. While formal turn-in of materials will happen once per week, we highly recommend spacing your work out throughout the week so that you’re not cramming at the end. This will minimize the chance that technical problems/internet interruptions/external life issues/etc. will cause problems AND it will contribute to your learning. Try to do a little each day for the course. Weekly modules will be opened the Friday prior to the week they are due (except for week 1).

Reading Assignments

Preparing for lecture and keeping up with material is a key aspect of this course and of critical importance for giving you the best chance to score highly. During the quarter, we will be helping you stay on track by asking you to do two things:

1. Complete your reading assignments and comment on them collaboratively

• The lecture reading assignments will be posted on Nota Bene and your participation will be followed by monitoring your comments. You can earn a total of 4 points per NB assignment. You can be awarded 3 points for good participation (at least three thoughtful comments, questions, replies to student statements etc.), 2 points for insufficient participation (less than 3 good comments), 1 point for poor participation and 0 points for not participating. In addition, you can earn an additional point for using an emoji to tag a comment or portion of the text with a hashtag indicating affect. This quarter there will be a total of 26 readings. This means that 26*4 = 104 points are possible to earn from the reading.

• You can make as many comments as you like! Please use the opportunity to engage with your classmates. Comments like: “Yeah, that’s cool. I saw that in high school.” are fine but won’t count for much. Comments that show more depth of thought and that may be structured more like “This is interesting. I think X because of Y.” are much better. Replies to those types of comments that point out other questions or inconsistencies/ possible misunderstandings etc. are also great! Try to be thoughtful and professional. Make sure to also use the emoticons to tag sections of the text or comments with sortable and informative hashtags. Personal attacks, belittling fellow classmates, willful lying, or inappropriate language/behavior will not be tolerated and violators will be sent to Student Judicial Affairs. Nota Bene points are subjective and at the discretion of the instructor. We will not debate or regrade these scores. NOTE: The final assignment of these points will happen weekly and depend on your successful completion of a second weekly assignment described below. We will be on the lookout for evidence of plagiarism and treat this as a violation of the academic code of conduct.

• Some students have reported that it is useful to add personal comments to the reading document as a study aid that they can return to later using the NB filters. The instructor will also be adding comments and answering some questions. Finally, the instructor will be using NB comments/questions and hashtags to influence how lecture topics will be covered and in what depth. Areas eliciting greater confusion may be covered more deeply in lecture. By contrast, the instructor will assume that areas in the text with no to very few comments/questions etc. are understood by the vast majority of students and thus given a lighter treatment in class. You will still be responsible for those sections of the reading even if they are not discussed deeply in the course - pay particular attention to how they are associated with any learning goals. Remember, your instructor will quite literally sit with the learning goals when designing exams.

• This quarter we are rolling out a brand new version of NB. While we have tested its features, there may still be a few bugs that weren’t obvious and that may appear when 800+ try to use it. Please deal with any NB and any other technical issues and instructions immediately? Do not wait until the last moment (Friday night). If there is a technical problem, fill out the technical support Google Form (links provided below and on the Canvas page) indicating the problem immediately and well before an assignment deadline? Verifiable large-scale technical outages (e.g. NB or Canvas go down, a bug in the NB code) will be dealt with by the instructor on a class-wide basis. For personal technical issues, we will give a 1-week grace period (first week of class) for you to find a resolution to any personal technical issues you discover. After that grace period, we will assume that you have a reliable way to turn in electronic assignments and we will not entertain requests for turning in past-due assignments. If specific instructions are given in advance of an assignment and you encounter technical problems because you waited until just before the due date/time to follow said instructions, no credit will be given for the assignment. Fill out the appropriate Google Form as soon as a technical issue is discovered and don’t procrastinate.

2. Study Guides

• This class is very fast-paced and the content and concepts are cumulative in nature. The pre-class guides list, among other things, the learning goals for each lecture. These are what your instructor will use to design the exams - we test your ability to master the learning goals. In effect, we are telling you exactly what we care most about! The post-class guides will give you some exercises drawn from what happened in class and some practice problems and exercises that help you to measure your understanding of learning goals and to prepare you for the next lecture and exams. This will help you to prepare for class and to stay up-to-date on your studying so that you don’t get too far behind. Doing the pre and post study guides ON TIME (not the last minute) are the best preparation for the assessments since they emphasize the learning objective and make sure that you are building your conceptual understanding gradually and that you give yourself time to clarify misunderstanding before the exam. To incentivize your timely downloads of the pre- and post-class guides I am giving 0.25 points and can be officially completed by downloading the assignment and initialing in the assignment checkbox. There are 26 pre- and 26 post -class guides. They are worth 13 points total of the busy work. To earn these points you will download the files and initial in on the Canvas assignment page that you’ve downloaded the file.

Grading of online class activity will go as follows:

You will earn 2.0 points of busy work course credit for each of the lecture video assignment that you you complete. There are 26 lectures planned. Therefore you can earn 26*2 = 52 busy-work points when you complete all online lectures.

Extra Credit:

Some extra credit opportunities may be given at the discretion of the instructor though none are currently planned.

Technical Issues, Regrade Requests and Other Problems:

To streamline responses to regrade requests and other technical issues that may arise during the class we have created some Google forms. If you have an issue arise with any of the following course elements we ask that you fill out report using the appropriate form. Emails to the course instructor and TAs that should be handled by a form request will likely go unanswered or you will be directed to the form. You must log into the form using your UCDavis Google Account.

Technical issue reporting

If you encounter an issue with technology in the course please report it at:

<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdNYKX5CvepjlJLRFXIkSVbxDZpdYnFXV5qgq9NHHkmCxOomg/viewform>

YOU MUST USE YOUR UC DAVIS GOOGLE ACCOUNT TO LOG IN TO THE FORUM.

The lecture TA will be monitoring the forum and working to help resolve issues when possible.

Exams - regrade requests

We will entertain reasonable requests for re-grading of short answer quizzes. When the quiz scores are returned, a Google form will be posted. If you have a re-grade request, fill out the Google Form within 3 school days of the quizzes being returned to you. Instructions will be provided. There are no regrades on the final examination.