EXAMS: There will be three (3) examinations that cover lecture, lab, and assigned reading materials. Exam 1 covers lectures 1-11 and readings and will be worth 125 points of your final course grade. Exam 2 covers lectures 12-21 and readings and will be worth 125 points of your final course grade. The final exam will primarily cover lectures 22-29 and readings, but questions related to some material from prior lectures may be asked, and will be worth 150 points of your final course grade. Thus, the exams are worth 400 points or 40% of your final course grade.
QUIZZES: There will be five quizzes this semester. The first four will be lab quizzes, and may or may not may be cumulative. The fifth quiz is a field quiz and will be cumulative. Your lowest quiz grade will be dropped. The our quizzes will be worth 75 points each for a maximum of 300 points or 30% of your lab grade.
LAB MANUAL: Your lab manual includes a lab exercise for each laboratory period. The exercise is to be completed and handed in at the end of each lab. It will be graded and returned to you the following week in lab. The completed lab exercises will be graded and collectively worth 300 points or 30% of your final course grade.
EXTRA CREDIT: There will be several ways to earn extra credit in the course.
1) Disease collection: You may make an optional disease collection to replace low quiz grades. See details on page 10 for collection requirements and extra credit value.
2) Review of forest pathology literature:You may summarize, analyze, and critique a minimum of eight forest pathology research (not review or book readings) papers published in a recent (last 8 years) scientific journal. Each review is not to exceed one typed page (single spaced) in length. Your reviews will be graded 0, 1, 2, or 3. An average of 1-1.49 will be worth 1%, 1.5-2.49 will be worth 2%, and 2.5 or > will be worth 3% added onto your final class average. See me or TA for details of what constitutes a good review. NO REVIEWS WILL BE ACCEPTED AFTER APRIL1, 2008!!!
3) Dated material: As time passes, new discoveries are made or a new concept develops in science, such that older readings often contain dated material. To help you to realize this reality, I will add two points to any exam score for anyone who finds dated material in any of the class readings, and who updates it properly. Each student will be limited to a maximum of 10 examples (for a total of 20 points). Once an example is found it cannot be used by another student unless found in a different reading.
SUMMATION: So there is a total of 1000 possible points for this class. Your final grade is based on your percentage of the maximum number of 1000. There are also ample opportunities to obtain extra credit.
ALL REQUIREMENTS MUST BE SUBMITTED TO RECEIVE A PASSING GRADE.
ANY REQUIREMENT HANDED IN LATE WILL BE PENALIZED 10 POINTS FOR EVERY DAY LATE, INCLUDING WEEKENDS. ABSOLUTELY NO EXCEPTIONS!!!!!
INSTRUCTOR:
JOHN D. CASTELLO, RM 332 ILLICK HALL, PHONE: 470-6789, EMAIL: jdcastello@esf.edu
WEBSITES: The course syllabus, course requirements, and useful resources are provided on 3 websites for the course as follows: www.esf.edu/efb/castello/340/coursereq.htm. www.esf.edu/efb/castello/340/syllabus.htm www.esf.edu/efb/castello/340/usefulresources.htm
TEACHING
ASSISTANTS:
There are three TAs for the course:
Kathleen Pitcher Rm 452 Illick (kmpitche@syr.edu) Monday lab
Mike OÕBrien, Rm 458 Illick (obrienmj@syr.edu, or mikey.j.obrien@gmail.com) Tuesday lab
Eli Polzer (elpolzer@syr.edu). Thursday lab
TEXTBOOKS:
1. Manion, P.D. 1991. Tree Disease Concepts. Prentice-Hall Inc. Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 402 p. (Available at Orange Student Bookstore).
2. J.D. Castello. Laboratory Manual for EFB 340: Forest and Shade Tree Pathology. Spring 2008. You MUST purchase this manual from the Business Office. Cost will be about $10.
3. J.D. Castello. Assigned Readings Manual for EFB 340: Forest and Shade Tree Pathology. Spring 2008. You should purchase this manual from the Business Office. Cost will be about $10.