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Preceptors |
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how
does on-line biology work?
Course Components: This course has been designed to give you as much involvement with the processes of science as is possible. Major topics in biology are organized into instructional “modules”. These modules utilize several instructional tools that are described below.
- Essential Biology by Campbell and Reece: Each instructional module begins with readings from the textbook. You should read with pen in hand and loose-leaf notebook paper close by. Practice “reflective” reading. This means that you stop frequently and handwrite your thoughts about each short passage in the textbook.
- Multimedia Activities on the located on the CDROM that came with the textbook OR are located on the Essential Biology web site. (Instructions for logging into the Essential Biology web site are located in the inside cover of your textbook.)
These Activities are interactive and can be repeated for better understanding. Your doing (and understanding) them is critical to your success in this course. There are one to ten of these Activities for each topic. Practice reflective writing as you complete these activities. Stop frequently to jot down what you are learning.- The Process of Science activities are also located on the textbook’s CDROM as well as the Essential Biology web site. These applications are designed to simulate the research process, whereby you can conduct simulated experiments to gather data and make conclusions. Again practice reflective writing as you complete these activities. Stop frequently to jot down what you are learning. (Some of the Process of Science activities may be very time consuming. These activities are IMPORTANT but you may need to skip one occasionally to best utilize your time. Don’t get into a habit of doing this though!)
- Review Questions can be used to assess your level of knowledge and understanding of the topic. These are essentially practice quizzes that may be repeated until you are comfortable with your understanding of the topic.
- There are ten lab Investigations that you must complete and submit for grading. These can be done at home and require little in the way of materials. These Investigations emphasize a discovery process and will place you in the role of a modern scientist.
- Each student will conduct a Research Project. The project compares two consumer products for several characteristics. A research proposal is submitted in advance and a formal research report is submitted for evaluation.
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