General Course Information

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Course Objectives

• Gaining an understanding of what science is and isn't.
• Learning the steps of the scientific method, its scope and limitations, and to distinguish science from pseudoscience
• Learning some common fallacies of thought that lead to adopting pseudoscientific viewpoints
• Staying current with new developments in science
• Learning basic anatomic terminology and about the four basic tissue groups of the body
• Learning the anatomy and physiology of the following body systems: muscular, skeletal, nervous, circulatory, endocrine, respiratory, digestive, urinary, and reproductive
• Specific learning objectives may be found in each module in Canvas.

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Grading

Description of grading components: Your grade in this course will be based on weekly module quizzes, a weekly discussion of current health-related news, module assignments, and a final exam.

• Module Quizzes are timed and will cover the posted Learning Objectives for each module or set of modules. The quizzes will consist primarily of short answer, "fill in the blank", and multiple choice questions. Each quiz will also contain one or two short (3-4 sentence) essay questions. You will take a quiz every week during the quarter after the first week. Quizzes will be available for 48 hours, starting at 12 am on Saturdays. They will be due at 11:59 pm on Sundays. Your lowest quiz score will be dropped from your grade. Be sure to read the exam policies.
• Weekly Discussions will be based on news articles, videos, case studies, and other material on topics related to the course. You are responsible for reading the articles or watching the videos, reviewing my questions, and posting an initial response early in the week (due Wednesday for full points) on the Discussion Board. Then, over the course of the week, you'll interact with your classmates to dig deeper into the topic.
• Connect Assignments will be completed each week. These assignments will help you get the most out of your textbook and test your knowledge of the learning objectives. Access to McGraw-Hill's ConnectPlus is required to complete these assignments.
• The Final Exam will be cumulative, consisting of questions like those on the module quizzes. It will be available for 48 hours during finals week. Check Canvas for the precise date and time of availability. The final exam is required and may not be dropped.
• Participation points can come from a variety of sources. The goal is to encourage you to interact with me, with each other, and with the course learning objectives. There is a complete list of ways to earn points in the Participation section of the course policies. To earn full credit, you will need to accumulate 20 participation points during the quarter. All participation points are due at the time that the Final Exam begins. You should aim to do at least two or three of these things per week to ensure that you'll get the full 20 points before the deadline.

Grading components: The grade components will be weighted as follows:

You can check your grade at any time during the course by looking at the "Grades" area in Canvas.

Policy on late work: I understand that sometimes you need to turn work in late, and I am flexible about allowing short extensions when appropriate. Please read the following guidelines:

• Grace period on most assignments.
  All assignments have a "grace period" until I actually start grading them. For example, Connect assignments are generally due Tuesdays at 11:59 pm, but I won't begin grading them until Wednesday morning at the earliest. As long as your assignment is turned in by the time I start to grade, you'll earn full credit. Grace periods do not apply to our quizzes or to the Final Exam.
• Short extensions available if requested prior to the assignment or quiz deadline.
  If something comes up that interferes with your schedule, you can request a 24 hour extension for any assignment or quiz. Use the Late Work Request Form to ask for an extension. Requests for extensions must be made prior to the deadline for the assignment, and the earlier the better. These extensions will typically be granted without question; see below for some reasons that requests might be turned down.
• Longer extensions considered on case by case basis.
  In rare cases, I may grant longer extensions than those listed above. You can still use the online request form (see link in previous bullet), but you will need to provide additional information, and I may contact you to discuss your options. These requests have a better chance of being granted if they are made well in advance (days to weeks).
• Requests for extensions should be infrequent.
   I may turn down requests for extensions if they are too frequent. If you find that you need to request extensions more than a few times per quarter, it usually indicates that you would benefit from some additional support. I'll get in touch so we can talk about your options.
• Most but not all extension requests will be granted.
  In general, requests for extensions are granted. However, there are some cases where I will turn down your request. Some reasons I might turn your request down include:
  • your request was made after the deadline for the assignment or quiz
  • you didn't use the online request form to ask for an extension
  • you have made frequent requests for extensions (more than a few times per quarter)
  • your request would interfere with other students' opportunities (e.g. make me delay returning feedback, or prevent me from completing other tasks on behalf of the class)
  • your request is not in your own best interests (e.g. it would overload you with work, or make it harder for you to succeed in future tasks)

If you encounter a situation that isn't covered by the guidelines listed above, please get in touch with me as soon as possible to discuss potential solutions. My general operating principle is to ensure fairness to all and to make sure that your learning and that of others isn't compromised.

Policy on extra credit: A substantial number of the points available in this course come from the assignments, discussions, and participation. These items do not require subject mastery, but instead ask only that you complete the exercises according to the instructions. The good news is that this means those points--more than a quarter of your grade--are pretty easy to get! The bad news is that this also means that the only extra credit that will be awarded in this class will be in the form of occasional one or two point extra credit questions on quizzes. I will not agree to requests for extra credit to boost a grade that is lower than the student prefers.

Communicating with me about your grades: I cannot legally discuss your grades with you over the telephone or via email without verifying your identity. Therefore, I can only respond to email questions about grades that are sent through Canvas or from your preferred ctcLink email address. Do not allow anyone else to access your Canvas account or go.shoreline.edu email account, and be certain to log out when you access it on a public computer.

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Quiz and Exam Policies

Use of outside resources : Your quizzes and exams are open-book, but please remember that they are timed. If you rely too heavily on your book or notes, you may not have time to finish. Anything you write on the quiz must be IN YOUR OWN WORDS. Collaborating with others or using phrases from a website, from the textbook or from anyone else's work--even if you change a few words--is not allowed. See the section on Academic Dishonesty for more information.

Quiz attempts: You are allowed only one attempt at the quizzes. You may notice when you start a quiz that it says you are allowed two attempts. The second attempt is to be used only in the case of technical problems. Starting the second attempt at the quiz may result in loss of points from your quiz score unless you have a legitimate reason to start it. The second attempt will not be counted unless you have followed all the steps in the Technology Problems section below.

Legitimate reasons to start the second attempt at the quiz are defined as:

• A computer crash in the middle of the quiz (i.e. with more than one or two questions left)

• Loss of internet connection in the middle of the quiz

• Power outage in the middle of the quiz

You may not start the second attempt at the quiz just because you run out of time on the first one.

Quiz availability and deadline: Quizzes will be available for 48 hours, starting on Saturdays at 12 am and finishing on Sundays at 11:59 pm. In other words, you will have all day Saturday and Sunday to complete the quiz each week. Dates of availability can be found in Canvas (look at the Syllabus or the Calendar).

In extreme cases that affect the entire campus or a wide region (e.g. campus server malfunction, storms that cause widespread power outages) I may, at my discretion, extend the deadline for the quizzes. Such extensions will be announced in Canvas at the time that I grant the extension. Please check your go.shoreline.edu email address and the Announcements section in Canvas frequently in order to receive timely notice of any changes.

Spelling: For all quizzes and exams, correct spelling of anatomy and physiology related terms is expected. I will allow one-letter errors in most cases, so long as the word is still clearly recognizable. For example, writing "stomache" for "stomach" will likely earn you credit, but writing "tibula" instead of "fibula" or "fibia" instead of "tibia" or "ilium" instead of "ileum" will not. More than one letter off on spelling will result in some or all points being deducted. Many of you will soon be working in a medical environment where patients' health and comfort and in some cases their lives depend on clear communication from you. For example, there are many drugs with long, strange names that differ from one another by only a few letters. No one is going to forgive you for confusing hydralazine (an antihypertensive) with hydroxyzine (an antihistamine), no matter how well-meaning you are. It's good to practice your spelling in this context!

Missed quizzes and exams: You are expected to complete all quizzes by the deadline stated in the Course Syllabus in Canvas, or else to contact me as early as possible to request an extension. No make-up quizzes will be offered except as described in the late work policies in the Grading section; however, your lowest quiz score will be dropped whether you have missed one or not (except in cases of academic dishonesty issues). The Final Exam cannot be dropped; you must take it or you will earn a score of zero for the test. If you have internet or computer issues during a quiz or during the Final Exam, please follow the appropriate procedures for dealing with technology problems. If you don't follow these procedures, you risk being unable to retake the quiz.

Feedback on quizzes and exams: You will not be able to view your quiz or exam once it has been graded. After each quiz, I will post a short video describing the most common mistakes and explaining the relevant concepts. If after watching that video, you still have questions about your specific quiz, please visit me during office hours and I will happily go over the quiz with you. If you are unable to attend office hours, I can provide a general summary of missed questions on your quiz via Canvas message.

Regrade requests: You will have the opportunity to submit a regrade request for any quiz if you feel that my grading on a particular question has been unfair or that I have misunderstood your answer. I will make the quizzes available for review after I have finished grading them. They will be available for review for at least 24 hours. Regrade requests must be submitted no later than 48 hours after you have access to the quiz grades. Your regrade request must be posed in writing, explaining why you feel you should be given additional credit for the item in question and demonstrating that you understand the concepts involved. Please be as clear and complete as possible and include references if necessary. Successful regrade requests are typically about a paragraph or two in length per question.

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My expectations. I expect everything you turn in for this class to be written in your own words. One rule of thumb is that if you use more than four words from a source, it requires quotes and a citation. However, I'm not asking you to give me more citations! I want you to learn about the topic, digest the information, and put it down on paper in your own words, not someone else's. Nearly all the information in this class falls into the realm of "common knowledge", which requires no citation. "Stump the Teacher" questions also require you to provide a link to the source you used to answer the question, but you should still use your own words.

What is plagiarism, and how do you avoid it? Plagiarism is when you use another author's words and present them as if they were your own. Copying sentences but changing a word here and there is still plagiarism. For example, if your source says: "The surface of the cerebellum is covered with finely spaced parallel grooves, in striking contrast to the broad irregular convolutions of the cerebral cortex" (from this Wikipedia article), then it is not okay for you to write "The surface of the cerebellum has finely spaced channels, in contrast to the large uneven convolutions of the cerebral cortex." An appropriate rewording might be "While the cerebral cortex has thick gyri, those of the cerebellum are thinner and more numerous."