BIO 208 MICROBIOLOGY - Learning Assistance

As you proceed upward in course level difficulty from 100 to 200-level you need to develop greater responsibility for your own learning. The ultimate goal of college is to develop independent learners and critical thinkers. Therefore, you may find that less structured learning assistance is provided for you in this course than was provided in BIO101/110. This does not mean that I am not still happy to help you with any material during my office hours.

In order to succeed in this course you should plan to attend all lectures, bring the note outlines, supplement them carefully during lecture, allow ample time to read and study assigned material and turn assignments in on time. You will get more out of lectures if you read (or at least skim) the assigned readings before lecture and then reread relevant material carefully soon after lecture.

You should plan on spending a minimum of two hours of study time for each hour of lecture. This is standard academic advice you will find in any book on how to study. This is a minimum requirement for most students to perform satisfactorily (C level). If you desire to earn an A, you will probably need to put in more time than this minimum recommendation. If you begin to fall behind, make every effort to catch up quickly, otherwise you may find yourself swamped with too much material to assimilate before a test.

Many of you will find attending lectures, reading the text, and performing careful laboratory work is all the support you will need to do well in the course. Some of you may have problems with some of the material. We offer several forms of assistance to help you with difficulties you may experience.

1. You are free to email questions to us at any time.

2. An Open Laboratory will be available every Friday from 9:00-5:00 for you to spend extra time with laboratory material as needed.

3. Study Questions at the end of each chapter will help you identify material you may not understand. Answers to study questions are available at the end of the textbook.

4. The text comes with a website (http://www.masteringmicrobiology.com/) that is very helpful. In your text, Mastering Microbiology icons indicate correlating material that is at the website. The website also includes additional quiz questions and other materials.

5. Summaries of articles from newspapers, magazines, tv programs, or seminars concerning microbiology and occasional other assignments may be turned in to your TA or to myself for "Extra Credit" (include name and lab section number on each submission). Final course grades may be increased after adding extra credit points to the total course points but poor lab attendance or attitude will subtract from any extra consideration.

6. All the teaching assistants have office hours and will be happy to meet with you during these hours. You are not limited to the TA for your lab section but may visit any of the teaching assistants for the course. TAs may offer additional study sessions at their discretion.

7. A tutoring service is provided by the university free of charge, phone 4-3465.

8. I am available for individual consultation regarding any aspect of the course. If you have unanswered questions or concerns, or are in serious academic trouble, see me! I will provide whatever assistance I can to help you do well in this course; however, ultimately the grade you earn is your responsibility.

Schedule of Learning Assistance for 208 – see Contact TAs for office locations

Time	Monday	Tuesday		Wednesday		Thursday	Friday
9-10		Tom and Matt OH		Matt OH			Open Lab 9-5 BR 130
10-11			Alm OH			Alm OH
11-12	Alm Lecture			Alm Lecture
12-1	Sasha OH			Craig OH	Sasha OH
1-1:30				Alm OH
1:30-2
2-3		Craig OH		Tom OH		Craig OH
3-4
4-5	Alm OH

OH – office hours – see Contact TAs link for location