BSCI 124

PLANT BIOLOGY FOR NON-SCIENCE MAJORS

General Information



Instructor: Dr. Paul J. Bottino, Associate Professor

Office: 4110 H.J. Patterson Hall

Email: pb23@umail.umd.edu (this is the best way to contact Dr. Bottino)
Lecture, Reading and Exam Schedule

Welcome to BSCI 124, a three-credit course in plant biology specifically designed for the non-science student. The goals and objects of the course are:

  1. To gain an understanding of the fundamental concepts and processes involving plants;
  2. To examine the diversity of plants and their role in the biosphere;
  3. To develop an appreciation of the importance of plants to humans; and,
  4. To provide information needed for intelligent management of the natural world.
Important! The course has CORE approval in the science/math area ONLY as a lab science when taken in conjunction with BSCI 125 (Laboratory in Plant Biology, 1 credit hour).

COURSE READING: The examinations will focus entirely upon material presented in lecture. Students will therefore be responsible for this material and readings from the Required Textbook that are used to support each lecture.

Required Textbook: Plants and Society, Estelle Levetin and Karen McMahon 3rd Ed. 2003. McGraw Hill. Assigned readings from the text are listed on the lecture schedule.

Lecture Outlines: A fair amount of additional material will be covered in lecture and will not appear anywhere else. Therefore, a brief outline of each lecture will be provided. This outline is intended to guide you through the lecture. Thus, lecture attendance is strongly correlated with your grade.

FILMS AND SLIDES: During this course, films and slides will be shown during your regular lecture periods. They are not merely for entertainment purposes, but are a regular part of your class lecture, and you are responsible for understanding the material presented.

ATTENDANCE: Attendance is strongly correlated with grade. If you are wise, you will attend class every time it meets.

EXAMINATIONS: All examinations will be held on the days given on the lecture schedule. Four examinations will be given, each worth 100 points, each requiring 50 minutes to take. All exams start on time; no one will be permitted to take an exam if any student taking the exam has left the room. NOTE: The final examination will be held in the regular classroom but at the hour noted on the lecture schedule.

There are no extra credit assignments.

GRADING: The total number of points available in this class is 450points. Each exam will count 100 points, and there will be in class activities worth an additional 50 points. There will be no curve for the final grades. They will be assigned in the following way:

MAKEUP EXAMINATIONS: Make up exams are offered as guided by University policy (see the Undergraduate Catalog section on attendance and assessment for details). Make-up exams will be offered for those students with official university-approved excuses accompanied by appropriate written and verifiable documentation, or by consent of instructor. The only acceptable form of documentation for an illness will be a written doctor’s note stating specifically that the student was unable to attend class on the date of the missed exam. The generic time-stamped visit verification slips from the University Health Center will NOT be accepted. Dr Bottino should be notified of the need to take a make-up exam within 24 hours of the in-class exam date. This can be an email or phone message. Make-up exams are at the same level of difficulty as the regular exam, but may (at the instructor's discretion) be administered as essay or oral exams, and may differ in content from the regular exam.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: Students are reminded that they are subject to the University's Code of Academic Integrity approved by the Campus Senate on 13 Feb 1989.

Academic dishonesty is described as:

  1. Cheating: intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise.
  2. Fabrication: intentional and unauthorized falsification or invention of any information or citation in an academic exercise.
  3. Faccilitating Academic Dishonesty: intentionally or knowingly helping or attempting to help another to violate any provision of this code.
  4. Plagiarism: intentionally or knowingly representing the words or ideas of another as one's own in any academic exercise.
BEHAVIOR: Eating and drinking are not permitted in the lecture hall. Students are expected to be alert, to behave with decorum, and to actively pay attention in the class. Students who disrupt the ability of others to pay attention and concentrate will be ask to leave the lecture room.