Instructor: Dr. Christopher Rose

Office hours: MF 8:30-11:00; if I am not in my office, look for me in my lab; email me for an appointment outside of office hours.

Office: Burruss 213 Lab: Burruss 339

Phone: 568-6666 (O) email: rosecs@jmu.edu

Course Syllabus

Please BE AWARE of the Course Announcements page since this is where you should look for instructions regarding class cancellations, unplanned changes in course schedule and any other "breaking news" that I cannot communicate to you directly.

General description: This course provides an introduction to the basic patterns, processes and mechanisms of animal development. The primary focus is on vertebrate animals, but the approach is comparative, drawing on selected invertebrates to illustrate conserved and divergent aspects of development. The fundamental processes and mechanisms involved in fertilization, morphogenesis, organogenesis, and postembryonic developmental phenomena are explored at both cellular and molecular levels.

The majority of lectures address embryogeny, focusing on frog, chick, mouse, fish, human and fruit fly systems. The final lectures address postembryonic phenomena including regeneration, metamorphosis, growth, and reproduction. The first third of labs complements lectures with microscope slide investigations of frog and chick developmental anatomy. The second third of labs introduces the students to live embryo observation and experimentation. The final third involves the presentation and discussion of student research papers on topical issues in developmental biology.

Prerequisites: BIO 214 and BIO 224.

Course time and place: Lectures are scheduled on MWF at 11:15-12:05 and labs on MF 1:25-3:00 (section 1) and MF 3:00-4:30 (section 2). Lectures are in Burruss 336 and labs in Burruss 355.

Required texts and materials: The required reference text is "Developmental Biology (8th edition)" by Scott F. Gilbert, and the required lab manual is "Laboratory Studies of Vertebrate and Invertebrate Embryos, Guide and Atlas of Descriptive and Experimental Development (8th edition)" by Gary C. Schoenwolf. A selection of colored pens/pencils is recommended for note taking in lecture and lab.

Registration: The deadline for adding fall classes on E-campus is Tuesday, Sept. 4, and the deadline for adding fall classes with instructor and department head signatures is Thursday, Sept. 13. The last day to drop a fall class without a W grade is Tuesday, September 4. The last day to drop a fall class with a W grade is Thursday, October 25.

Disabilities: Students with disabilities who require reasonable accommodations to fully participate in course activities and/or meet course requirements must register with the Office of Disability Services (ODS) and contact me to discuss access issues. ODS will provide you with an Access Plan Letter that will verify your need for services and make recommendations for accommodations to be used in my classroom. ODS is located in the Wilson Learning Center, Room 107; Phone: 568-6705

Grading: Grades will be based on the scores of three lecture exams, two lab exams, a research paper and presentation, and one or two formal lab reports or reading assignments. All exams will cover material from class plus the assigned readings. Please see the course syllabus for exam dates and due dates for papers and lab reports. Late lab papers/reports will not be accepted. The grade breakdown is:

Lecture exams will consist of objective, short answer questions (definitions, identifications, fill-in blanks, etc.) and short essay questions that may require the use of diagrams (colored pens/pencils will be helpful). Lecture exams might include material from assigned readings. Lecture exam III will focus on the final third of the lecture material, but approximately 1/4 of the questions will address concepts/themes covered throughout the course.

TO DO WELL on lecture exams, students are recommended to do THREE THINGS. First, you attend class, pay attention, and be active note takers, which means that you do not limit this task to just copying what is put on the blackboard. Second, after each class, you review your lecture notes and do the assigned readings, and if you still don't understand the material, you seek clarification in office hours at that time. Third, you prepare and use study notes before each lecture exam.

The first lab exam will involve the identification of developmental anatomy from microscope slides, whole-mounts and/or models. The second lab exam, which will be open-book, will test experimental skills including hypothesis formation, designing experiments, and interpreting results.

The research paper will be a 10-12 page (double-spaced) essay on a current research topic in developmental biology. A list of Research topics is provided, although you may select your own with my approval. Students are required to select a research topic by Oct. 17 and submit an outline of their paper by Nov. 7. You will be requested to attend a brief meeting with the instructor before Thanksgiving to discuss your research outline and finalize the content of your presentation and paper. You will be required to research your topic through library searches of primary literature and books. Although you may research the topic in pairs (in which case an equal division of labor is required by the Honor code), the paper itself must be written independently by each student. Although you are encouraged to use the Internet, all papers must have a minimum of seven references to books and/or primary literature from peer-reviewed scientific journals. The use of WIKIPEDIA and other similar internet encyclopedias is not allowed as they teach you nothing about how to research a scientific topic or read scientific literature.

Research papers must be written in your own words, and you must paraphrase all information taken from other sources. Plagiarism is very easy to spot and will be dealt with according to the Honor code. Proper science writing permits only occasional use of direct quotations, specifically when the writer wishes to retain the particular emphasis or eloquence of the original author. I will not tolerate direct quotes as a short cut to paraphrasing. When paraphrasing information from other sources, you must properly cite and reference the articles used. Citing an article means listing the author(s) and year in parentheses, e.g., (Jones and Bentley, 2001), at the end of a sentence or group of sentences that paraphrases that author(s)' work. Referencing an article means listing it alphabetically in a reference list at the end of the paper; all articles must be listed using a single format that is already used by a developmental biology journal; you can choose which journal to follow.

I strongly discourage the common writing strategy of editing other people's words with minor word substitutions, rearrangements, additions, and deletions. I am a much happier (and more generous) grader when the writing style is obviously the student's. The implication is that after you read something, you must think about it and try to express it in your words. The more you combine thoughts and ideas arising from different sources into your retelling of the story, the better.

Research papers will be graded on the basis of their content, organization, writing style, and originality. Content includes whether the paper addresses the developmental concepts and mechanisms needed to explain the phenomenon in question, plus the depth, clarity and completeness of the explanation. Organization refers to the overall structure of the paper, i.e., does the paper have a clearly defined introduction, body and conclusion, are ideas presented in a logical sequence, and do paragraphs have clearly defined opening sentences. Writing style refers to grammar, spelling, conciseness, and the flow and coherence of ideas. Originality refers to how well the author defines the problem in his/her own terms and presents his/her own synthesis of the information available.

Prior to its submission for grading, the research paper will be given as an oral presentation to the class. This can be done either singly or in pairs. Some form of visual aids is generally considered essential to any presentation in biology. You can use overhead, slide and computer projectors, although blackboard illustrations/outlines are acceptable. Depending on the number, presentations will be 15-20 minutes in length, with 5-10 minutes for questions and discussion. Presentations will be graded on the basis of their content, organization, effectiveness of communication, and efforts to answer questions and stimulate discussion of the topic.

Lab reports are to be 4-6 pages (double-spaced) and written in proper scientific format, i.e., with separate sections for Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion and References (if necessary). See How to write a lab report for more information. Each student will submit an individually written report, and must follow the same rules for citing and referencing paraphrased materials.

Reading assignments are to include 1-2 page summaries of one or more articles from the scientific literature. A portion of the grade might be determined on the basis of participation in a class or group discussion. All summaries must be written in your own words.

Final letter grades will be assigned using the standard numerical scale (e.g., > 90 = A, 80-89 = B, etc.). Grades of WP and WF will not be given out in this class.

Study notes: To facilitate studying for the final exam, each student is required to produce a 1 page study note for each of two lectures. These are due the Monday of the last week of classes (except study notes for the last two lectures which are due the Friday of the last week). This way, the instructor has time to assemble a study note package that will be distributed to each student on the Wed of this week. Study notes will not be graded, but their completion is required to pass the course. Students will be assigned individual lectures on an alphabetic basis midway through the term (check Study note assignments). The goal of a study note is to summarize and consolidate the important information of each lecture into an accessible point-form format on one side of paper. Wherever possible, students are encouraged to synthesize information by drawing connections between material covered in different lectures, and comparing similar phenomena in different systems. The more thinking that goes into preparing a study note (as opposed to simply listing details from lectures), the more useful the study note will be in answering thought-provoking questions.

Missed exams: If you have a valid excuse (official school business, sickness with doctor’s note, death in family) for missing an exam, contact me by phone or email before the time of the exam and you will either be given a make-up exam or have your grade calculated on the basis of the remaining evaluations. If you do not have a valid excuse or fail to contact me before the missed exam, your grade will be zero.

Final exam schedule: in Burruss . If this exam time is cancelled because of weather, the new final exam time will be announced on the course webpage.

Laboratory policy: Some laboratory exercises will involve the manipulation of frog and chick embryos. All procedures will be done in accordance with government regulations protecting animal rights and welfare. If any student objects to the use of live material for such educational purposes, he or she is strongly requested to bring their concern to the instructor's attention at the start of the course (i.e., in the first week of classes). Depending on the circumstances, the student may be given an alternative lab assignment or advised to reconsider their enrollment in the course. All students are requested to treat all laboratory exercises and animals with the respect and maturity befitting serious scientific inquiry.

Honor Code: All students are expected to be familiar with and abide by the JMU Honor Code. Work submitted for this course must be your own and written for this course. Direct quotations (which are rarely used in scientific writing) and paraphrased materials must be properly cited in the text and referenced in the bibliography (see above). Forms of academic dishonesty include lending your work to another person to submit it as his or her own, deliberately creating false information on a works cited or reference page; and plagiarism, presenting another person’s writing, ideas or results as your own, whether intentional or not.

Goals and Objectives

Additional reference texts and lab manuals (all of which are available for short term loan from me, the lab room or the library).

Developmental biology webpages

Developmental biology videos: for lab days when the animals are not cooperating (or dead).

Introduction to Development - Indiana University (057)

A Dozen Eggs: Time Lapse Microscopy of Normal Development (057)

Manipulation of Mouse Embryos (057)

Human Development (Multimedia lab)

Miracle of Life - NOVA (1 hour edited version, Multimedia lab)

Laser disk movie of frog development (Multimedia lab)

Vade Mecum (with Gilbert text)

CDs for Principles of Development (Wolpert), Developmental Biology (Gilbert),

EMBRYO: CD Color Atlas for Developmental Biology (Schoenwolf)

Consult the following websites for information on educational rights and privacies:

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974

FERPA for Parents

FERPA for Faculty

JMU compliance with FERPA

Course Syllabus

Return to Chris Rose's Personal Webpage

Return to Faculty Home Page

Return to Biology Home Page