Spring 2013

Instructor: Dr. Paul Kelly

Office: 535 Meier Hall

Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 8:00 - 10:00

Telephone: 978-542-6709

E-mail: paul.kelly@salemstate.edu (anything with attachments will be deleted; only plain text messages will be read.)

Kelly Web Page: http://www.salemstate.edu/~pkelly

Canvas: https://salemstate.instructure.com/login

Required Text: McMillan, V. E. 2011. Writing papers in the biological sciences, 5^th ed. Bedford/St. Martin’s, Boston. (any edition will do)

Required Equipment: An internet-enabled laptop computer will be required at our class meetings. It is your responsibility to arrive for class with your machine in working order with the battery charged. If you have a computer-related problem use the college help services to get it fixed as soon as possible.

Course Description: Student oral presentations and written reports on topics in Biology based on recent publications or projects in which the student has had significant personal involvement. Open only to Seniors. Required of Senior Biology Majors, except those in the Environmental Biology or Nuclear Medicine Technology concentrations. Three hours per week. Not open to students who have completed BIO417N. Open only to Senior Biology majors.

Course Goals: This course is designed to teach the following:

1. methods of oral presentation of scientific reports to groups

2. interpretation of published data and participation in scientific discussions

3. preparation of a professional resume

4. search techniques for jobs and internships

5. interviewing skills

Grading: Your grade will be based on the following:

Participation in discussions/class work	10%
Peer Evaluations (from both talks)	20%
Assignments	30%
Short Talk	15%
Long Talk	25%

University Policies:

1. All students are expected to be familiar with the academic regulations, including those regarding Academic Integrity, for Salem State University as published in the college catalog. In addition, each student is responsible for completing all course requirements and for keeping up with all that goes on in the course (whether or not the student is present).

2. Salem State University is committed to providing equal access to the educational experience for all students in compliance with Section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act and The Americans with Disabilities Act and to providing all reasonable academic accommodations, aids and adjustments. Any student who has a documented disability requiring an accommodation, aid or adjustment should speak with the instructor immediately. Students with Disabilities who have not previously done so should provide documentation to and schedule an appointment with the Office for Students with Disabilities and obtain appropriate services.  

3. In the event of a university declared critical emergency, Salem State University reserves the right to alter this course plan. Students should refer to salemstate.edu for further information and updates. The course attendance policy stays in effect until there is a university declared critical emergency. In the event of an emergency, please refer to the alternative educational plans for this course located at Canvas. Students should review the plans and gather all required materials before an emergency is declared.

Cell Phones, Pagers, Laptop Computers, I-Pods, etc.: In class you are encouraged to interact with the other people in the room. To facilitate this you are required to turn off ALL electronic devices (including computers) and put them away and out of sight, BEFORE ENTERING THE CLASSROOM. Cell phones are to be put inside a bag or your pocket, not on your belt or your desk; they are not to be used inside the classroom, including the time before and after class. If you use any electronic device inside the classroom, or if one makes an audible sound during class, quietly leave the room immediately. You will be marked absent for that session. Do not wait for me to ask you to leave. A second offense will result in your being barred from class for one week.

Course work: Despite the fact that you only receive two credits for this course, you will be required to do a bit of work (probably more than you think is fair) and invest some time and energy here. The reasons for this are: 1 - you cannot graduate without it; and, 2 - this course is designed to help you gain some skills you may need in the future, such as the ability to prepare and deliver a coherent presentation and the ability to give a good interview. Your responsibilities will be as follows:

1. Attendance: Your presence is required at all sessions. Because this is a student-centered course, absences will adversely affect your ability to learn the class material. Some of our time will be used for informal research sessions, which we will use to find papers and prepare the talks; you may be excused from these if I feel you are keeping up with the work. Missing your scheduled talks or your classmates’ talks is STRONGLY discouraged. If you miss a scheduled talk, you will be downgraded for that talk and you will be given a make-up date.

2. Homework and participation in discussions: We will be working on several aspect of being a professional in the sciences. You will have some in-class and homework writing assignments and will be preparing a professional resume and a job application.

3. Peer evaluations: Your classmates will evaluate each of your talks.

4. Talks: You will give two talks to the class based on current primary literature in biology. Your first talk will be 10 minutes; the long talk, 20 minutes. Following your talk you will answer questions from the class. I will evaluate each of your presentations. After your presentations we will have individual conferences on how to improve your skills.

Biology 415N Spring 2013 Tentative schedule

The schedule may change without notice. Check Canvas for updates and assignment due dates.

week of	topics
1/14	Mon.: Introduction to Senior Seminar; course requirements; Wed.: discuss theme for talks; choose paper for 1^st talk Fri.: Class discussion: reading a scientific paper
1/21	Mon.: MLK Day- no classes Wed- Fri.: Power Point; graphics prep for short talk
1/28	Mon. - Wed. Short Talks (10 minute) Fri.: preparing your resume
2/4	Mon.- Fri.: more Short Talks
2/11	Darwin Festival - attend DF events
2/18	Mon.: Discussion of Short Talks; Discussion of Darwin Festival Wed. - Fri.: editing resumes; Job/Internship search
2/25	Mon.: Writing exercise Wed. - Fri.: Interview Skills!
3/4	Mon. - Wed.: mock interviews Fri.: no class
3/11	Spring Break!
3/18	Job/Internship application and resume prep
3/25	Job/Internship interviews
4/1	Long Talks
4/8	Long Talks 2
4/15	Long Talks 3
4/22	Long Talks (if necessary)

Electronic resources for searches. These vary from Internet search engines to electronic journals to the web sites for traditional journals. Some articles are available in full on line, others

will have only the abstract, others only the title.

SSC Library Databases: http://www.salemstate.edu/library/research/databases/ (for our purposes, Academic Search Premiere is probably the best database available here)

Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/advanced_scholar_search

Conservation Ecology: http://www.consecol.org/Journal/ an electronic journal

http://www.sciencekomm.at/journals/environ.html

Environment, Conservation and Ecology Journals. Includes the web sites for hundreds of journals

http://www.esd.ornl.gov/journals.html A list of Environmental Science Journals

http://www.bio.net/BIO‑JOURNALS.html The BIO‑JOURNALS Table of Contents Archive. Includes tables of contents, and a search engine

http://www.noblenet.org/ NOBLE: North of Boston Library Exchange

Over 1500 full‑text magazine and journals are available online to cardholders of NOBLE member libraries through EBSCO. See also the subsections of the site below.

http://www.noblenet.org/scitech.htm NOBLE: North of Boston Library Exchange: Science, Math and Technology