Biology 190




BIO190: Welcome: Faculty & TS's

For Whom Is Animal Biology Intended?

Animal Biology (BIO 190) is a Foundation course for majors in the Biological and related Sciences. The course description in the 1995-1997 NAU Undergraduate Catalog reads:

"Principles of animal structure and function, including characteristics and evolution of organisms, environmental relations, behavior, metabolism, and an evolutionary survey of the animal kingdom. 3 hrs. lecture, 3 hrs. lab. Prerequisite: Strong performance in high school biology or BIO 100 or equivalent. Fee required. Fall, Spring, Summer I"

Note that BIO 190 is not included on the list of courses available for NAU Liberal Studies credit (see pp. 69-79 in the 1995-1997 Undergraduate Catalog). The course is intended for those who seek a career in the life sciences or a related field (e.g., medicine, environmental science, science education, etc.), and it is taught as a rigorous Foundation for professionals. Students who seek a Liberal Studies lab science course should consider BIO 100 and 100L.

Human Resources: Course Coordinator, Faculty and Teaching Assistants
No complex introductory course can exist without the contributions of several groups of people. Your involvement with any group or individual or group will depend both on where and how you are enrolled and on your success and involvement with the course. Web-based students will potentially interact regularly with their designated faculty member and occasionally with the Course Coordinator; on-campus students will also interact regularly with their Teaching Assistants. Regardless of their position and specific responsibilities (outlined below), each is dedicated to making Animal Biology a rich learning environment for you and to helping you build the foundation on which other, more advanced courses will build.

The Course Coordinator (Dr. Sylvester Allred):

modifies and finalizes design of the course for a given semester;
produces a detailed lab syllabus for distribution to students, faculty and TA's;
orders all materials for the semester;
insures that lecturers understand the schedules and what is expected of them;
monitors grades of students and coordinates distribution of final lab grades to faculty lecturers;
handles a variety of miscellaneous problems with labs, student performance, etc., that arise during a given semester; and
monitors enrollment in lecture and lab sections.

This latter item becomes particularly difficult during post-registration drop/add periods (more on that below), for the Coordinator is the only person who may assign you to a given lecture or laboratory section if it is already full. Students should contact the Coordinator for scheduling and other problems associated with the course.

Faculty (for Fall 1997: Dr. Sylvester Allred, Dr. Stan Lindstedt, Dr. Linn Montgomery):

design the lecture portion of the course for their section(s);
establish reading and other assignments;
lecture;
examine students over lecture and reading material;
provide students with help when they request it; and
assign final grades following receipt of lab scores from the Coordinator.

Faculty post and maintain several office hours weekly, and must also be available by appointment for students who cannot meet during scheduled office hours. For web-based as well as on-campus students, contact with faculty may be via phone (all have voice mail), email or chat groups both during and, as time permits, outside of normally scheduled office hours.

Please recognize that faculty may shift the venue of office hours to labs or elsewhere if no one arrives at the beginning of that period; they are still available, but may not immediately answer if you attempt to contact them by electronic means. Nonetheless, leave a message; they will get back to you as soon as possible.

Faculty recognize that they possess tremendous power to assist students with both academic and other problems, and to influence students' attitudes, successes and futures. We view these as serious responsibilities and opportunities.

Faculty vary widely in background, interests and expertise. Because example of principles presented in Animal Biology can be drawn from a wide array of systems and organisms, faculty retain responsibility for designing their individual lecture sections - different sections follow slightly different schedules and include different material. Despite this independence, all sections cover approximately the same suite of biological principles, in roughly the same order, and with similar intensity. This approach insures cohesiveness of the course as well as the opportunity for students to work with people who are true authorities in many of the areas presented in lecture.

Teaching Assistants (as noted above, Web-based students will not interact with a Teaching Assistant until they are enrolled in a laboratory course):

present introductory material prior to students performing lab exercises;
assist students with laboratory material;
assist students with lecture material during office hours;
keep detailed records of student performance;
provide the Coordinator with (a) an overall percentage grade and (b) a comment about each student's general performance or effort at the end of the semester;
consult with the Coordinator on any problems and grade adjustments among sections.

E-mail the professor W. Sylvester Allred at Syl.Allred@NAU.EDU, or call (520)523-7214