BIOSCIENTIFIC TERMINOLOGY

GB 325

Spring, 2004

Faculty: Dr. David Saunders Rm. 167.

Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday 2:00 - 4:00, Tuesday 10:00 - 11:00, and By Appointment

Meeting time: Tuesdays, 12 to 12:50, Room 156.

Required Textbooks: Bioscientific Terminology, by Donald M. Ayers, University of Arizona Press, 1993; and Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms, by Donald J. Borror, Mayfield Publ. Co., 1971; both available in bookstore.

Class Procedure: At the beginning of each class period, we will have a quiz over the previous class exercises. Following the quiz we will work on two or more numbered lessons from the textbook. Each lesson has an introductory section, including a section on "New Bases," an "Exercise" section with defined terms, and "More Words to Work With" listing undefined terms. Prior to each class, I will give you a selected list of terms taken from the "Exercise" and "More Words to Work With" sections. Before class time, I expect you to prepare by carefully studying the material at the beginning of each lesson and then working through the assigned words. I urge you to first try to figure out the words using the word root, prefix, and suffix components of each word using your book and the recommended book rather than to simply look up the word. You will learn much more by first trying to figure out your newly-learned word parts in new combinations.

Class time will be used in an informal type of recitation, much like a translation time in a traditional language course. We will take turns analyzing the selected words for that lesson. Analysis will include taking the entire word, breaking it into its roots, prefixes, and suffixes, explaining the meanings of each of these parts, then explaining (if it is not obvious) how that combination of pieces results in the meaning given (for words in "Exercise" section). In the case of words from the "More Words" section, you also need to give the meaning of the word. These will take more effort, and you will find that a good standard dictionary will be helpful.

Because the textbook has forty lessons, and we have only 16 weeks, we will spend the first half of the semester working with Greek words, and the last half of the semester working on Latin words.

Grading: There will be a total of 15 quizzes worth 10 points each. Your grade will be based upon your performance on each of the quizzes. If you should miss a quiz, a make up quiz will be given at the end of the year during the final examination time of final’s week (Tuesday, May 11th, 8:00 a.m.). Should you miss more than two quizzes, each additional missed quiz will be recorded as a zero.

                                                            A = 92.50% - 100%

                                                            A- = 89.50% - 92.49%

                                                            B+ = 87.50% - 89.49%

                                                            B = 83.50% - 86.49%

                                                            B- = 79.50% - 83.49%

                                                            C+ = 75.5 - 79.49%

                                                            C = 69.50% - 75.49%

                                                            D = 59.50% - 69.49%

                                                            F = < 59.50%

Other Comments: This is a rather unusual class in that it is quite informal. In addition to active participation from each of you, I encourage an active give-and-take among members of the group. We will try to include a wide variety of words that are likely to be encountered by individuals entering various subdisciplines within the biological sciences. Because so much of our technical scientific terminology is based on Latin and Greek, many of the bases we will be studying will crop up again and again during your course work and in your future careers.

Emporia State University will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented disabilities. Students need to contact the Director of Disability Services and the professor as early in the semester as possible to ensure that classroom and academic accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion. All communication between students, the Office of Disability Services, and the professor will be strictly confidential.