Florida International University

Department of Biological Science

Biscayne Bay Campus

Animal Physiology - PCB 4723

Dr. Richard Brinn

Updated January 11th

 

 

Email:  brinnr@fiu.edu When sending email please include student name and panther ID in the subject.

 

Webpage :   www.fiu.edu/~brinnr

 

Lecture Notes: All lecture notes will be posted as PowerPoint presentations in Blackboard.

 

Text: Animal Physiology, Fourth Edition � Hill, Wise and Anderson � Ed. Sinauer Inc.

There is a case bound version and a loose leaf version. Both have the same content but the loose leaf is cheaper.

 

Reading assignments: You will be required to read  and understand several scientific articles during the semester.

 

Attendance:  Be prepared to participate in ALL the course as scheduled! Attendance is mandatory and students who miss often should expect to receive a failing grade. Not all material that is discussed in class will be found in the readings or slides on Blackboard, yet the exams will include it. Students will be graded on their participation, discussions and other class activities. Students should also be aware that frequent and extreme lateness in coming to class will be noted by the professor, as it is in every class. The best way to convince your instructor that you don�t care about the class is to be late or absent. Habitual extreme lateness is rude, disruptive, selfish, and immature. The correlation between high grades and punctual attendance is very high in just about all classes.

 

Help: If you need additional assistance with the information presented in this course, seek the assistance of the professor. If the office hours on the Biscayne Bay Campus are inconvenient, other arrangements can be made.

 

Sexual Harassment Policy: The Faculty Senate voted to require each professor to include a statement about this in the syllabus. FIU�s sexual harassment policy is available online: http://www.fiu.edu/hr/eop/Forms/Policies/Sexual_harassment.pdf

Cheating or plagiarism will not be tolerated!!! : Students caught cheating during an examination or plagiarizing will be subject to the Academic Misconduct procedures and penalties.

 

Exams: There will be 3 major exams, article discussions and student presentations.

 

Learning Outcomes: Students that pass this course will be able to fully understand the scientific method, the process of scientific production  and able to critically read  peer reviewed scientific literature. Students will fully understand the several different physiological mechanisms used by animals to adapt to their environment.  This course is evolutionarily based so the observation and understanding of differences between lower and higher vertebrates and their mechanisms will be deeply studied.

 

Extra Credit

The exams and assignments listed above will be the only grades you will receive for the class. Extra credit assignments will not be allowed under any circumstances, so please do not ask if you can do one. Experience shows that the expectation of being able to do extra credit simply encourages students to take regular assignments less seriously, and allowing it is also unfair to students whose schedules don�t permit them to participate in it. Also, the time spent on extra assignments takes away from time needed to do better on subsequent regular assignments.

Emergency: This section covers situations that prevent you for attending the class or/and exams. For this course, �Emergency� is determined as an unpreventable event that prevents attendance to class or/and an exam.

Emergency situations are:

1.Medical emergency with Medical Doctor�s note/emergency room.
2.Automobile accident with police report (lack of ride is NOT an emergency case).
3.Death of immediate family members.

Emergency also includes natural events such as hurricanes, floods, or fires that causes the closure of FIU-BBC.

 

Make-Up Exams: Make up exams will not be allowed unless you have a very good and official excuse, like a note from a doctor, hospital, parole officer, or court (not a mechanic). You must notify your Professor in advance or within 48 hours of the incident by email and present your original official excuse within 1 week. In any case, the make-up test will consist of the following essay question: "Please discuss the key material that we have covered in class since the last exam". You will be evaluated on your ability to determine what the most important ideas and concepts are and to present them clearly and concisely." You will have 1 hour to write your essay, closed book (no notes). If you arrive to an exam more than 30 minutes late, or after the first person finishes the test (whichever comes first) you will not be allowed to take the exam.

IMPORTANT : If you miss any exam on the scheduled dates you must send an email to the main professor within 48 hours after the exam and show proper documentation within 1 week to be eligible for a makeup. If these rules are not followed your grade will be a zero for that exam.

Grades:

Exam 1, 2 and 3

Presentations

Other Activities (participation, article discussion)

 

Exam 1,2, and 3

55%

Article Discusssion

25%

Attendance 10%

Other Activities

10%

 

Letter Grade

Range

Letter Grade

Range

A

above 92

C+

76 - 78.9

A-

89 - 91.9

C

70 - 75.9

B+

86 - 88.9

D

60 - 69.9

B

82 - 85.9

F

< 59.9
B- 79 - 81.9    
   

Incomplete Grades: An incomplete grade is a temporary symbol given by the instructor for work not completed because of serious interruption not caused by the student�s own negligence. In any case, more than half of the work of the course has to have been completed. An incomplete grade must be made up as quickly as possible, but no later than two consecutive semesters or it will automatically default to the grade the student earned in the course (which is normally an F in the absence of all work completed). There is no extension to the two consecutive semester deadline. The student must not register again for the course to make up the incomplete. In order to receive an incomplete for this class, valid documentation must be provided for the reason the student is requesting the incomplete. The reason, again, must be out of the student�s control.

Schedule may be subject to change when deemed necessary.

 

Jan 8

Syllabus, Finding Scientific Articles

 
Jan 10

Fundamentals of Physiology

 
Jan 15

Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, and Internal Transport

 
Jan 17

Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, and Internal Transport

 
Jan 22

Article Discussion

 
Jan 24

Food, Energy and Temperature

 
Jan 29

Food, Energy and Temperature

 
Jan 31

Food, Energy and Temperature

 
Feb 5

Article Discussion and Review

 
Feb 7 Exam 1  
Feb 12 Integrating Systems  
Feb 14

Integrating Systems

 
Feb 19

Movement and Muscle

 
Feb 21 Article Discussion  
Feb 26

Movement and Muscle

 
Feb 28

Movement and Muscle

 
Mar 5

Article Discussion and Review

 
Mar 7 Exam 2  
Mar 12 No Classes Spring Break  
Mar 14 No Classes Spring Break  
Mar 19 Student Presentations  
Mar 21 Student Presentations  
Mar 26 Student Presentations  
Mar 28 Student Presentations  
Apr 2 Student Presentations  
Apr 4

Water, Salts and Excretion

 
Apr 9

Water, Salts and Excretion

 
Apr 11 Weird Animals Physiology  
Apr 16

Article Discussion and Review

 
Apr 18 Exam 3