BIOL 315, COMPARATIVE VERTEBRATE ANATOMY

COASTAL CAROLINA UNIVERSITY 2002-2007

Instructor: Dr. Wendy Hood, Office: Science 206B; Phone: 843-349-2208
Office Hours: Friday 9--5 PM
Email: wrhood@coastal.edu, Web page: www.wendyhood.com

Lecture & lab time and location: T & Th 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM, SCI 106 & SCI 112

The goals of this class:
By the end of this course, you should be able to intelligently address the following questions: 
1. What are components of the major anatomical systems in vertebrates?
2. What are the functions of these structures?  How does structure implement function?
3. What is the inferred evolutionary history of these systems?
4. Based on form and what you know of vertebrate evolutionary history, you should be able to apply what you have learned to unknown vertebrate systems and use that knowledge to make predictions. 
 
Required textbooks:
* Liem, Bemis, Walker, & Grande.  Functional Anatomy of the Vertebrates.  3rd edition.  Harcourt College Publishers.
* Fishbeck and Sebastiani.  Comparative Anatomy, A Manual of Vertebrate Dissection.  Morton Publishing Company.
Recommended book:
* Borror D.J.  Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms.  Mayfield Publishing Company.

Required field trip:
A REQUIRED FIELD TRIP to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science is tentatively scheduled for Friday, Oct 6th.  We will be departing campus as 6:30 AM and returning that evening between 7 and 9 PM.  If you have any potential conflicts, please make arrangements to adjust that schedule ASAP.  I will supply you will a letter to give to your the professors who teach your Friday classes, but it is your responsibility to remind them that you will be absent and make up any work that you missed.  There will be no make ups for the assignment associated with the trip if you cannot make it.  Material from this trip will be covered on the following exam.
 
Supplies:
You will want to keep a notebook that includes notes from lecture and lab.  Most students find colored pencils absolutely essential to making legible drawings in their lecture notes.  You may also be asked to color code figures on your exam.  Dissecting tools are available at the campus bookstore or online at www.carolina.com; it is strongly recommended that you purchase your own set.  If you choose not to, we will have tools available for you in class.  It will be your responsibility to keep track of the dissection tools that you have borrowed and keep them in good condition.  Please see Dr Hood if you need new scalpel blades, we will supply them. 
 
Requests and suggestions:
You will have the privilege of working on and studying specimens during open lab times.  This privilege will be revoked if any student fails to clean up after they have finished, if any student attempts to work on their specimens at any other time or if any student attempts to take specimens home.
 
Most of the specimens we examine will either have their own distinct smell or will be saturated with pungent preservatives.  Oils or chemicals from the animals sometimes get on your clothing.  You will likely want to take this into consideration when choosing attire for days we work in the laboratory.  Latex gloves will be supplied.  Please use gloves sparingly.  Unless a glove is damaged, you should not need more than one pair per lab. 

Course format:
Unlike many of your science courses, lecture and lab for this class will not be considered two distinct entities.  Most days.  This organization will allow us to examine and discuss the form, function and evolution of structures simultaneously.  Since we are not making a clear distinction between lecture and laboratory, your final grade will reflect this.  You will be given this same grade for lecture and laboratory, with both written and practical exams contributing to both grades. 
 
WebCT and Dr. Hood’s webpage:
Dr. Hood’s webpage (www.wendyhood.com) will be used for posting outlines and PowerPoint presentations and WebCT will be used for posting topic outlines, PowerPoint presentations, and your grades.  It is strongly recommended that you monitor your performance throughout the semester so that you can make necessary adjustments to achieve the grade that you desire.
 
Topic outlines:
An outline will be available for each topic we cover this semester.  This will include learning objectives, or the major themes of each topic, an outline of what will be covered in lecture, and the laboratory assignments including questions you need to answer and the structures you need to learn.  Please print these before we start a topic and bring them to class with you.
 
Evaluation of your performance:
You will be evaluated based on your performance as follows:  
 

Exams and Practicals:
You will be given 1.5 hours to complete all exams.  These will emphasize material in class lectures and but may draw on laboratory dissections for examples.  Exams include multiple choice, short answer and essay questions.  The final format will be similar to that of the exams and cumulative; expect the final to be approximate 150% as long as a typical quiz.  During practical exams you will be asked to answer two questions at each of 25 stations (50 questions total).  You will be given 60 seconds to answer the questions at each station.  You will be asked questions about the identity of specimens, identity and function of structures, and in some cases evolutionary history of specimens or structures at each station.  Am example practical will be set up before the first practical to help familiarize you with the format.  Spelling for all structures counts on your practicals!  Each question is worth 2 points.  You must spell the structure correctly to receive full credit.  You will loose 0.5 points per word if < 3 letters are incorrect or out of order.  You may be given one point if the structure is recognizable but has > 3 incorrect letters (this must be at the instructor’s discretion). 
 
Missing exams: 
PLEASE contact Dr. Hood BEFORE the exam by phone or email if you are not going to be able to make an exam.  It is especially difficult to give make-up practical exams.  Therefore, ONLY DOCUMENTED university excused absences will be accepted.  You may be given a different assignment, which will likely be more difficult, in place of the practical portion of your exam. 
 
Lab assignments: 
The primary goal of our laboratories is for you to gain an understanding of vertebrate structure.  You will learn to dissect vertebrates as a method of learning about and understanding vertebrate design.  You will learn to recognize tissues, the relationships between structures and will become versed in the language of anatomy.  You should approach laboratories as you might a language, you not only need to know the appropriate terms but need to be able to visualize what the structures are and how they function.  Like words as you develop a sentence, you need to understand the relationships between the structures that you will learn.  To help you focus on understanding the functions and relationships of structures as you complete your dissections, you will be given questions to consider and answer as you complete each dissection.  You will have a similar assignment that you will need to complete when we visit the North Carolina Museum of Science.  The due date for each lab will be given in the corresponding outline.  Labs must be turned in on time for credit.  These labs are very much considered study guides and thus will be considered informal.  Unless I request otherwise, you do not need to type these assignments but please do make your answers legible.

Dissection of unknown vertebrate:
One of your final assignments of this class will be for your group develop a structure list and present their dissection of an ‘unknown vertebrate’.  These animals are unknown in that they are not presented in your lab manual.  Each group will be assigned a different animal.  The assignment will be posted on webCT at the beginning of the semester.  Please complete this assignment at your leisure during the semester.  This assignment will give you the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills that you have acquired dissecting the shark, mudpuppy, and cat to a new organism.  You will be graded on dissection quality, your structure list, and presentation of your animal.  Your final practical will be based on these 6 animals, in addition to the final topic on excretion and reproduction.

Group participation:
You will notice that group participation is given a very strong emphasis.  Active participation and cooperative learning are essential to success in Comparative Anatomy.  As in any business, hospital, or academic department, your group will be stronger as a group if the background, interests, and skills of your members are varied.  Groups will be assigned based on your prior knowledge so that each individual in the group will offer a unique contribution.  This should not only help you learn more but also more rapidly.  In lab, you will be working together to complete dissections and are encouraged to discuss (but independently answer) the questions associated with each lab.  You must work as a group to make sure that your dissections are complete and well done.  You can receive up to 50 points for participation if you are an equal contributor to your group.  As participation is difficult to judge, you will be asked to help develop the scoring policy. 

You will be score primarily based on the relative amount of time you spend in the lab during open lab times relative to your group members.  Please sign in for time spent working in the lab outside of class time.  Please only sign in for time spent working on assignments.  Do not include time spent purely socializing or strictly reviewing after assignments have been completed. 

Your contribution will be evaluated at the time of each of the 4 practical/exams. 

Each of the 4 evaluations is worth a maximum of 12.5 pts (12.5 * 4 = 50 pts total).

• 100-75% effort = 12.5 pts
•  75-50% effort  = 8.5 pts
• 50-25% effort = 4.5 pts
• < 25% = no points

In addition, group members will evaluate themselves and their partners after each practical.  These evaluations will be anonymous; your group members will not have the opportunity to view you assessment of their performance.  However, you will be required to put your name on your own evaluation. 

For each evaluation, you will be asked to complete 4 short independent evaluations.  The first evaluation will be of yourself and then one evaluation will be completed for each of your group members.  You will be asked to rank yourself or a group member on a scale of 0 to 3 for participation on each assignment. 

• 3 points should be given to yourself or your group members if they were a strong contributor to the group. 
• If a student’s effort was ~50-75% of the strongest contributors, the student should be given a 2. 
• If a student’s effort was ~25-50% of the strongest contributors, the student should be given a 1. 
• If a student was 25% or less of the strongest contributors, the student should be given a zero. 

These scores will be used to make sure that the time signed in adequately reflects effort.  Adjustments will be made to your score if these assessments of contribution do not match.

Each participation score will be posted on webCT.  Please realize your group members are depending on you.  If you receive less than full credit, please discuss with your group how the work load can be more evenly divided.  Please let Dr. Hood know if serious problems arise within the group.

All of the specimens that your group will be dissecting throughout the semester will be kept in a Rubbermaid tub assigned to your group.  You must make sure that your specimens are properly stored so they don’t dry out.  The ‘state’ of your specimens will be checked randomly once a week.  Each member of your group will lose 5 points from your total grade if your specimens have not been stored properly.  You will also lose 5 points every time you do not fully clean up your work space and put always everything you have used properly after working in lab.
 
Academic dishonesty:
I encourage you to discuss laboratory assignments. However, you MUST supply the answers on laboratory assignments with your own reasoning and words, outright copying and paraphrasing will result in 0 for the assignment.  All students involved in copying or cheating on an exam, practical, or the final will receive an F in the course.  “I didn’t know what I did was plagiarism” will not be accepted as an excuse.  Please come discuss any source of ambiguity prior to the quizzes or laboratory assignments.