Florida International University
Department of Biological Sciences
Biscayne Bay Campus
BSC 4931
Senior Seminar
UPDATED December 17th
Dr. Richard Brinn
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Email: brinnr@fiu.edu When sending email please include student name and panther ID in the subject.
Webpage : faculty.fiu.edu/~brinnr
Lecture Notes: All lecture notes will be posted as PowerPoint presentations in Blackboard.
Text: There is no required text for this course but there are several scientific articles that will be used during the semester:
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. 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. If you miss more than 2 classes your grade will be lowered by 1 full letter grade unless a official
Tips on ways to fail this class: PLEASE do not follow these tips but since some students frequently ask this is how to fail my course. 1) Procrastinate as much as possible and wait to attend the 2 required seminars at the end of the semester when they are no longer available. 2) Miss or come late to many classes. 3) Miss the ETS exam. 4) Create a last minute half fast presentation. 5) Write a last minute half fas review paper. 6) Miss presentation and paper deadlines.
Tips on ways to pass this class with an "A": Do not follow the tips above!!
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://hr.fiu.edu/uploads/file/EOP/Sexual_Harassment_Policy_as_of_02-10.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 no major exams but article discussions, papers and student presentations will substitute that grade.
Learning Outcomes: After completing this course students will be able to properly research scientific literature, critically read and comprehend scientific articles, compare the quality of good and bad science. Students will learn how to create and present a public seminar using Powerpoint, Prezi or similar tool.
Course description: This is a capstone course for B.S. in Biology and the B.S. in Marine Biology in their senior year with at least 90 credits. The main objective of this course is to help students integrate knowledge from different fields of Biology in conducting scientific research, applying for a job or public speaking. All jobs in the Biological and Medical fields require that employees have their knowledge in science updated which will also be covered in this course.
Prerequisites: PCB 3043, PCB 3063, PCB 4023, and PCB 4674 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. Important Information: You will need to follow all policies as stated in the student handbook. Failure to do so will result in dismissal from the class and the course. If you are not familiar with these policies and/or have never read them, we strongly encourage you to do so. Make-Ups Make ups 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 Professors in advance by email and present your original official excuse within 1 week of the occurrence. Fail to meet the deadline will void the excuse.
Grades:
Incomplete Grades An incomplete grade is a temporary symbol given at the discretion of 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.
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