BIOL213-17S2 (C) Semester Two 2017

Microbiology and Genetics

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 17 July 2017
End Date: Sunday, 19 November 2017
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Friday, 28 July 2017
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Friday, 13 October 2017

Description

An introduction to the fundamental principles of microbiology and microbial genetics.

To develop familiarity with working with microbes including the use of biochemistry, ecology, physiology. A variety of microbes are used in the course including fungi, viruses and bacteria. The course interfaces with BIOL231/BCHM202 and both courses use many common techniques. Most importantly, the course is designed to build research and employment skills. You should expect this course to be a significant ‘step up’ from stage 100. Prepare for this by:
- Reserving more time for self study. At the 200 level the Science Faculty recommends that the average student is expected to spend approximately 3.2 hours of additional study for each contact hour. Allow about 100 hours of good self study for this course. It is your responsibility to make the best use of contact time, such as spare time during the laboratory, to achieve an understanding of the material (leaving the lab early is a lost opportunity).
- Taking responsibility for identifying what you don’t know and using all available contact time to seek answers.
- Completing assigned readings and recorded material in advance of lectures and laboratories.
- Asking questions during lectures and laboratories.
- Self testing by using questions in the recommended text books.

Learning Outcomes

As a student in this course I will develop the ability to:
Critically competent in the core academic discipline
- Learn methods for studying microbes safely (assessment task: laboratory assignments).
- Understand and interpret experimental evidence (assessment task: test, exam, laboratory assignments).
- Demonstrate competence in quantitative skills necessary to perform dilutions and manipulations for studying microbial growth (assessment task: laboratory flowsheets, laboratory assignments).
- Understand microbial growth and physiology together with environmental microbiology (assessment task: test and exam).
- Understand the special tools and features of microbial genetics (assessment task: laboratory assignments).
- Be competent with fundamental research questions in genetics (assessment task: exam).
- Construct hypotheses to guide my own learning process (assessment task: laboratory flowsheets, laboratory assignments and final exam).

Engaged with the community
- An ability to formulate questions and practice scientific communication (assessment task: tutorials and problem sets).

Transferable Skills Register
As a student in this course, you will develop the following skills:
- I can express myself as a scientist. This will be important for any career in research, journalism or business where you will need to communicate science to both experts and lay readers. We will have sessions in writing laboratory assignments to assist you in developing your abilities to demonstrate deep understanding of science. (Critically competent in the core academic discipline)
- I can competently synthesise information. In everyday life and in many job situations you will be required to read information from different sources, construct your own understanding and shape your own viewpoint. In lectures/tutorials and laboratory sessions we will discuss different sources of evidence and types of experiments and how they lead to current understanding. (Critically competent in the core academic discipline)
- I can competently analyse data. Important for research, police work as well as in a number of private-sector organizations. This skill will be further developed when we assist you to analyse the data we generate in the laboratory. (Critically competent in the core academic discipline)
- I can confidently ask questions, and do so in a culturally appropriate way. A key skill is to identify what you don’t know and have the confidence to ask for clarification. Moreover, it is important to know how to be effective in getting answers, and this often requires some knowledge of the culture of those whom you seek knowledge. It is expected that you will practice this skill during lecture/tutorial/laboratory sessions. (Biculturally competent and confident)
- All cultures have special relationships with microbes. You will be encouraged to discover how they link to yours. (Globally aware)
- Competence in personal time management to ensure preparedness for tutorials and laboratories (Employable, innovative and enterprising)
- Ability to work to an irregular schedule. This will be developed by taking personal responsibility for recording the time and location of class activities and ensuring your ability to attend. (Employable, innovative and enterprising)

Prerequisites

Recommended Preparation

Timetable Note

Labs run dis-continuously, see MyTimetable for occurrence details. For any changes in lab allocation please contact the lab technician: Craig Galilee

Course Coordinator / Lecturer

Jack Heinemann

Lecturer

Daniela Remus

Lab Technicians

Craig Galilee and Thomas Evans

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Final Exam 30%
Laboratory & Tutorials 40%
Course/Lab Test 30%


* Attendance at labs is compulsory (unless you have a medical certificate). To gain a pass in this course a student must achieve a mark of 50% overall plus achieve an average of at least 40% in both laboratory assessments and written tests/examination. The laboratory practical covers six weeks, one day/week. Students repeating this course will be exempt from labs with the approval of the course co-ordinator.

Notes

Feedback from 2016

Question: The materials provided helped me to understand what was required to succeed in this course.
Median student ratings: 4.00
Selected comments: “The lab manual had a good amount of reference material at the front which I found helpful.” [Action: no change]

Question: The organisation of this course helped me learn.
Median student ratings: 4.00
Selected comments: “There were some discrepancies between the lecturers of when things were due, which was confusing at times.” [Action: better communication between course instructors.]

Question: I found the workload was appropriate to the level of the course.
Median student ratings: 4.00
Selected comments: “I found the weekly flowsheets and prelab assignments to be quite a stressful workload, especially when we had the midcourse test to study for at the same time.” [Reply: The assignments are provided weeks in advance. Time management is an important skill to learn. However, number of pre-lab assignments reduced.]

Question: I found the assessments appropriate for the course.
Median student ratings: 4.00
Selected comments: Would have preferred to write a lab report after our labs instead of all the pre assignments.” [This is a common form of assessment, offered in nearly all other courses. This course has specifically chosen to emphasize other important transferable skills that are best learned through our chosen assessment.]
“Having more lab assessment is much better than heavily weighted tests and exams.” [Action: no change.]

Question: Where I sought feedback on my assessments, I found it helpful.
Median student ratings: 4.00
Selected comments: No comments.

Additional Course Outline Information

Academic integrity

It is essential that you are aware that plagiarism is considered a very serious offence by the Academic community, the University and the School of Biological Sciences. Plagiarism is defined as taking content from another work or author and presenting it, without attribution, as if it is your own work. Content here includes text (sentences or major parts of sentences), display items (graphs and tables), and overall structure (the detailed sequence of ideas). Plagiarism includes:
• re-use of previous assignments (even if each individual sentence has been rephrased to say the same thing in different words, if the overall structure is re-used)  
• copying of another student’s work (with or without their consent)
• the unreferenced use of published material or material from the internet e.g. cutting and pasting of paragraphs or pages into an essay.
For most pieces of in-term assessment you will be given information concerning the use of direct and indirect quotes from previously published work. If you are in any doubt about appropriate use of published material, please speak with a member of academic staff. If you are still unsure what plagiarism is, then seek advice.

It is a School policy that courses may request you submit work electronically for subsequent analysis of originality using Turnitin. Students agree that by taking courses in BIOL, required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism.  All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers.  Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the Terms and Conditions of Use posted on the Turnitin.com site.

Assessment and grading system

SBS Grading
A+ 90% or above
A 85 – 90
A- 80 – 84
B+ 75 – 79
B 70 – 74
B- 65 – 69
C+ 60 – 64
C 55 – 59
C- 50 – 54

A restricted pass (R) may be awarded to those who are close to a pass (i.e. an overall score of 48-49.9%) AND who have achieved at least a 40% overall score in both in-course assessment and tests/exams. If an R grade is awarded you gain credit for the course but cannot continue into papers that require this course as a pre-requisite. NB. The R grade is only available at 100 and 200 level - it cannot be awarded for third year papers.

Failing grades:   D   40-49             E  0–39

Late submission of work

Reports and assignments should be handed in on time. Extensions may be granted if you have a valid reason. If you require an extension, you should request one from the course co-ordinator (or the lecturer responsible for marking the work), with as much notice as possible.  Please do this BEFORE the deadline for the assignment. If you have been given an extension you should hand the work DIRECTLY to the course coordinator (do not put it in the drop box as it may not be cleared after the due date).
If an extension has not been granted:
• work must be handed in by the due date to gain full credit
• work handed in up to 7 days after the deadline will be marked, but the marks will be discounted 25% before they are recorded to the student's credit
• any work handed in more than 7 days after the deadline date will not be marked or earn credit.

Notes

What if I have written more than the word or page limit?
If there is a word limit on an assignment, it is usually there to stop you doing too much work and to encourage you to write succinctly.  It also makes things easier to assess.  You can be up to 10% over without too much worry, but if the length increases beyond that your mark may suffer due to failure to follow the requirements.  If you find yourself way over the word limit have a chat to the lecturer concerned about how to trim your assignment to an acceptable length.

Requests for extensions

Reports and assignments should be handed in on time. Extensions may be granted if you have a valid reason. If you require an extension, you should request one from the course co-ordinator (or the lecturer responsible for marking the work), with as much notice as possible.  Please do this BEFORE the deadline for the assignment. If you have been given an extension you should hand the work DIRECTLY to the course coordinator (do not put it in the drop box as it may not be cleared after the due date).
If an extension has not been granted:
• work must be handed in by the due date to gain full credit
• work handed in up to 7 days after the deadline will be marked, but the marks will be discounted 25% before they are recorded to the student's credit
• any work handed in more than 7 days after the deadline date will not be marked or earn credit.

What do I do if I’m sick?

What do I do if I have to miss something or if my performance was impaired?
If you feel that illness, injury, bereavement or other extenuating circumstances beyond your control have prevented you from completing an item of assessment worth 10% or more of total course assessment or if these circumstances affected your performance in such assessments, you should apply for Special Consideration. Applications for Special Consideration should be submitted via the Examinations Office website http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/regulations/general/general_regs_aegrotat.shtml and notify the course co-ordinator within five days of the assessment or its due date. If this is for medical reasons you should visit a doctor within 24 hours of the assessment (application form available on-line or from the Student Health Centre). The Special Consideration provisions are intended to assist students who have covered the work of a course but have been prevented by illness or other critical circumstances from demonstrating their mastery of the material or skills at the time of assessment – they do not excuse you from doing the assessment within a reasonable time agreed with the course co-ordinator. You should expect to be required to submit additional work if you miss a major assignment (e.g. a field trip for which a major write-up is required).

In rare cases you may not be able to complete an assessment or attend a field trip, because of involvement in international or national representative sport or cultural groups. In such cases you should also apply for Special Consideration. Please review the Special Considerations policy because very few kinds of activities will be eligible for consideration (e.g. holiday trips, birthday parties etc. are not given special status in the University policy).

Students prevented by extenuating circumstances from completing the course after the final date for withdrawing, may apply for Special Consideration for late discontinuation of the course. Applications must be submitted to the Examinations Office within five days of the end of the main examination period for the semester.

For further details on Special Consideration applications, please refer to the Examinations Office website http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/regulations/general/general_regs_aegrotat.shtml.

What do I do if I have to miss something?

In rare cases you may not be able to sit a test or exam, or attend a field trip, because of involvement in international or national representative sport or cultural groups. In such cases see the course co-ordinator, and a course of action (usually the sitting of an equivalent test or exam at a different time, or submitting an equivalent piece of written assessment) will be arranged. This should be done well in advance of the set date for a missed exam/test/assignment. Please note – holiday trips, weddings, birthday parties etc. are not given special status in the University policy, so please do not ask for special consideration in these circumstances.

What if I fail part of the course?

In BIOL, we require a satisfactory level of achievement in both the theoretical aspects of the discipline and in practical activities. This means you must attend all class activities and submit all items of assessment unless you have a very good reason not to (e.g. medical reasons). A student must attain an average score of at least 40% for in-course assessment and average score of at least 40% in the course exam/test, AND score at least 50% overall for the course, to be awarded a passing grade.

What’s the best way to give feedback?

We welcome constructive feedback at all times – help us to make this a valuable course for you.  We endeavour to remain approachable at all times.  If you would rather give feedback anonymously, please use the on-line course survey or talk to lab demonstrators, or your class rep (who will all report back to the staff-student liaison committee that includes a representative from each of the undergraduate classes). Class representatives will be selected from each class at the start of course.

What’s the best way to complain?

If you feel you have not been fairly treated during this course, please raise the issue with the lecturer or course co-ordinator in the first instance.  Other avenues include your class rep., who can raise issues anonymously, or the UCSA education coordinator.

Where to submit and collect work

All assignments should be placed in the designated collection box in the foyer of the 2nd floor of the School of Biological Sciences (near the main office), unless directed otherwise by the course co-ordinator. All assignments must be accompanied by a cover sheet signed by you stating that the submitted work is not plagiarised. Cover sheets are available on top of the collection boxes, or you can download one from the Biology website (under Undergraduate). In addition, you may also be asked to submit your work electronically (via Learn) for analysis in Turnitin. You will be given instructions on how to do this in the assignment handout.

Marked assignments can be collected from the Secretaries' Office, unless directed otherwise by the course co-ordinator. Teaching staff will endeavour to return work as soon as possible, and should contact you if there are likely to be any delays that will prevent return within the maximum 4-week timeframe.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $848.00

International fee $3,713.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see School of Biological Sciences .

All BIOL213 Occurrences

  • BIOL213-17S2 (C) Semester Two 2017