Course Syllabus

Spring 2024 | BIO-1140-VO03 - Human Biology

Online Class

Online courses take place 100% online via Canvas, without required in-person or Zoom meetings.

Faculty

Steven Rauch
View Faculty Credentials

Hiring Coordinator for this course: Danielle Lafleur Brooks

General Education Requirements

VSCS Natural Science

Note

Many degree programs have specific general education recommendations. In order to avoid taking unnecessary classes, please consult with additional resources like your program evaluation, your academic program catalog year page, and your academic advisor.

Courses may only be used to meet one General Education Requirement.

Course Description

This course is a survey of human anatomy and physiology. Topics include the organization and structure of the major body systems, including muscular, skeletal, nervous, circulatory, digestive, excretory, endocrine, and reproductive. Emphasis placed on the integration of bodily processes and the impact of technology on human biology.

Essential Objectives

1. Describe the structure and function of a cell and understand the major processes involved in its physiology.
2. Understand the anatomy and physiology of how the nervous and endocrine systems control body functions.
3. Describe the processes of development and reproduction at the cellular and structural levels and be able to discuss the role of genetics in this system.
4. Explain the basic anatomy and physiology of the cardiovascular, lymphatic, and respiratory systems.
5. Explain the basic anatomy and physiology of the digestive and urinary systems.
6. Understand the specific and interrelated functions of the major body systems.
7. Identify the placement of the major bones and muscles of the body and understand their basic physiology.
8. Understand the structure and function of the human sensory organs.
9. Explain how technology affects human biology and discuss the ethical issues associated with this topic.
10. Utilize the scientific method to evaluate well-researched evidence in the area of human biology.
11. Demonstrate proficiency in understanding, interpreting, evaluating, and applying quantitative data and information.
12. Explain how knowledge created in the natural sciences has contributed to the creation, maintenance and dismantling of social inequalities and discuss the impacts of diversity and inclusion on scientific research and practice.

Required Technology

More information on general computer and internet recommendations is available on the CCV IT Support page. https://support.ccv.edu/general/computer-recommendations/

Please see CCV's Digital Equity Statement (pg. 45) to learn more about CCV's commitment to supporting all students access the technology they need to successfully finish their courses.

Required Textbooks and Resources

This course uses one or more textbooks/books/simulations.

Spring 2024 textbook details will be available on 2023-11-06. On that date a link will be available below that will take you to eCampus, CCV's bookstore. The information provided there will be specific to this class. Please see this page for more information regarding the purchase of textbooks/books.

BIO-1140-VO03 Link to Textbooks for this course in eCampus.

The last day to use a Financial Aid Advance to purchase textbooks/books is the 3rd Tuesday of the semester. See your financial aid counselor at your academic center if you have any questions.

Methods

Teaching Methods -Textbook Readings in Human Biology by Sylvia Mader. The 16th edition is the latest one however the 11th thru the 15th editions are essentially the same and are less expensive. One might need to purchase the 11th thru 15th editions elsewhere than the CCV bookstore, such as Amazon. This course does not use the textbooks' online resources so a new text is not required.

This TEXTBOOK is the core 'lecture' material. The illustrations and other visual learning content of the text is very useful. Generally one should read entire chapters however if there are sections we will not cover, the details will be in the Syllabus. I have power point summaries of each chapter on the course site to help in focusing your study as well. I have suggested links to Khan Academy audio/visuals and these kinds of visual lectures can be found in the online Harkness Library. The information you will be tested on is outlined in the 'Summarizing the Concepts' section at the end of each chapter. They are a variety of ways to learn this 'outlined' material if reading does not work well for you. The textbook also has very good illustrations {I think at least} for more visually oriented learners. All are encouraged to build mental images of some of the major physiologic processes of the living body.

DISCUSSION FORUMS. Participation in the Discussion Forums with at least five postings per week on questions of your choice is required for attendance and is part of your grade. These posts are due by Saturday night. Note that the class 'week' starts on Tuesday morning and ends on Monday night. The content of these postings is graded. Half the grade is just for participation and the other half is on the content. Each week I will post a number of Discussion Forum questions. These serve to directly ask about what I think are the most important points of physiology and anatomy to learn in that chapter and also a few ethical or opinion based questions that might get some discussion going online. The questions are over material in the text in which case your answers represent putting your developing knowledge into your own words. Other questions are not directly about the material but involve the process of sorting between fact and speculation or about ethical issues. Response posts are optional and not graded. Response posts can be to Discussion Forum questions, Clinical Scenario posts or Internet Research posts. Reading other's posts is encouraged, however each student will be unable to read other students posts until after they have submitted their own response, which can be edited for an hour after posting.

WEEKLY QUIZZES. These will be open book quizzes, generally multiple choice, and focus on the core material. The quizzes are not meant to be tricky but rather to reinforce the main learning points and to encourage all students to keep up in their readings. Many are taken from the textbook itself, modified slightly.

Exam ESSAY QUESTIONS. Part of each exam will include about 4 to 6 essay questions taken from a larger list. I will provide the complete list of questions at the start of each third of the semester that the exam covers. You will have a choice between two questions for each of the 6 essays on the exam. The idea is for you to work up answers to all the questions on the list. These questions will cover the core material and you can use your answers on the exam. You may not, however, cut and paste from prepared answers. One must re-write the answer {there is reason behind this!}. Cutting and pasting on exams would result in non acceptance and no points for that essay. You must type your answers, so keep the length of your answers to a length that can be written on the exam. This is one to two paragraphs generally. I can work with individuals on essays or other questions at any time through the course.

EXAMS. The three exams are open book and without time limit. They cover only the material since the previous exam the questions are similar to the quiz questions plus essay questions.

CLINICAL SCENARIOS. Each week we will look at a clinical situation taken from my memory of these real cases. This will be done in a separate Discussion Forum than mentioned above. The scenario will involve content from that weeks readings but will require some extra information which I will either provide if it is beyond the depth of this course or ask students to find answers to off the Internet. I will be trying to stretch your thinking ability some with these cases. If there is a particular scenario that an individual student would like for us to cover as a group, please let me know and we can discuss it and likely do that instead. Participation with at least one posting per week on the scenario is required. This is due by Monday night. Simple participation is half of the grade for this part of the course but the content is the other half so students are encouraged to put thought into these postings.

INTERNET RESEARCH. This part of the course explores how to use the Internet to obtain scientifically valid information. The topics will be on the material being covered that week. One post is all that is required. It is due by Monday night. Some weeks I will direct you to a specific article to read and comment on. Other weeks will have you exploring on your own. These posts are graded half for participation and half on content.

TOPICAL REPORT. Each student will write a 1000 word {3-4 or so pages} report on any topic of their choice that involves some aspect of human biology. This can be a disease process, a topic involving social debate and disagreement, or some technological aspect of providing health care in our society. It is a chance for an individual to explore a subject they perhaps always wondered about but have not pursued in much detail yet. At least 3 references from either online or library sources is required. These reports are due just after mid-semester to allow some discussion and response

Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Summary

Weekly Discussion Forum participation is 20% of the overall grade. Participation is five postings per week and is used to determine attendance.

Clinical Scenario Forum participation and content is 15% of the overall grade. Participation provides half the grade and evaluation of the quality of the content is the other half. For a general sense of A vs B vs C content, see the grading criteria section.

Weekly Quizzes are10% of the overall grade. The percent correct on all the quizzes is used to figure the final quiz grade.

Internet research reports are15% of the overall grade. Half the grade is for participation and the other half is on the content of your returned assignments. See the grading criteria section for a sense as to how the content will be graded.

A single Topical Report during the semester is 10% of the overall grade.

Exams: there are three exams, each covering only that third of the course material and together are 30% of overall grade. Each exam is 10% of the final grade. There is no overall final exam. The percent correct on all three exams is used to figure the grade. Each exam will have essay questions and multiple choice or fill in the blank type questions.

Again, all questions are not intended to be tricky. The student who has kept up on the readings, discussions, essay question attempts and quizzes can reasonably hope to do well on the exams.

Grading Criteria

CCV Letter Grades as outlined in the Evaluation System Policy are assigned according to the following chart:

	High	Low
A+	100	98
A	Less than 98	93
A-	Less than 93	90
B+	Less than 90	88
B	Less than 88	83
B-	Less than 83	80
C+	Less than 80	78
C	Less than 78	73
C-	Less than 73	70
D+	Less than 70	68
D	Less than 68	63
D-	Less than 63	60
F	Less than 60
P	100	60
NP	Less than 60	0

Weekly Schedule

Attendance Policy

Regular attendance and participation in classes are essential for success in and are completion requirements for courses at CCV. A student's failure to meet attendance requirements as specified in course descriptions will normally result in a non-satisfactory grade.

• In general, missing more than 20% of a course due to absences, lateness or early departures may jeopardize a student's ability to earn a satisfactory final grade.
• Attending an on-ground or synchronous course means a student appeared in the live classroom for at least a meaningful portion of a given class meeting. Attending an online course means a student posted a discussion forum response, completed a quiz or attempted some other academically required activity. Simply viewing a course item or module does not count as attendance.
• Meeting the minimum attendance requirement for a course does not mean a student has satisfied the academic requirements for participation, which require students to go above and beyond simply attending a portion of the class. Faculty members will individually determine what constitutes participation in each course they teach and explain in their course descriptions how participation factors into a student's final grade.

Participation Expectations

Class participation requires 5 of the discussion questions to be answered each week.

Missing & Late Work Policy

As this is an asynchronous course, our schedule is week to week. I do not penalize for work a day or two late. Eventually, no credit is given for work not turned in in a reasonable time.

Accessibility Services for Students with Disabilities:

1. Provide disability documentation to the Accessibility Coordinator at your academic center. https://ccv.edu/discover-resources/students-with-disabilities/
2. Request an appointment to meet with accessibility coordinator to discuss your request and create an accommodation plan.
3. Once created, students will share the accommodation plan with faculty. Please note, faculty cannot make disability accommodations outside of this process.

Academic Integrity