Plant Biology 111 Lecture 1, October 1, 2020

This course is PLB 111, Plant Physiology. This is an upper division course with
prerequisites, required for Plant Biology majors.

Some course mechanics

Please get out the syllabus, and we will go over some of the material on it.

This is the second time Professor Shih and I have taught this class. In addition to
putting the course online, we are making refinements to the material from last
time. Some of what you heard about the class before may not apply this time.

Our intention is to pre-record the lectures and have them available at the start of
the week in which they are delivered. We will use the regularly scheduled
class time for exams and for office hours via Zoom. This is not an extra set
of required classes and there will be no new material delivered during this
time. You may treat them as you would normal office hours – come if you
have questions or want to meet with us, but don’t feel obligated to attend.

Repeating: We will use the regularly scheduled class time for exams.

There are also Discussion sections. These will be handled by your TAs, more in a
minute. You need not sign up for Discussion sections 1) to take this class,
and 2) if you want to attend them.

If you have a question that requires the individual attention of Professor Shih or
myself, you can write an email and ask for individual appointments. I would
discourage you from writing to me saying you cannot make my or your TA’s
office hours or any Discussions and so you’d like to go over the week’s
material in private. I usually say no to that. I will have at least one office
hour, your two TAs each have one, and in addition there are three discussion
sections each week. If you have questions about the material, I would think
you could get them answered during one of these scheduled meetings. That
said, please don’t hesitate to ask for an individual meeting if you have
something we need to discuss more privately.

Copyright Steven M. Theg, 2209. All federal and state copyrights reserved for all original material presented in this course through any medium, including lecture or print.

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Plant Biology 111 Lecture 1, October 1, 2020

Your TAs are Min-Yao Jhu and Esteban Feliz. Min-Yao will lead the discussions in
the optional discussion sessions on Wednesdays; Esteban will lead the
optional Thursday discussion section. Optional means you need not sign up
for the discussion sections to take this class. They are for an additional 1
unit. If you do sign up, your attendance is not optional – it is required. It is
graded Pass/No pass. If you miss two Discussions you will receive a No pass.
More about that when we talk about grading.

The text for this course is PLANT PHYSIOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT, TAIZ ET AL., 6th Ed.
It’s on the syllabus. With a few exceptions, the text is for clarification of lecture
material. Therefore, reading is generally voluntary, but I recommend it. Tests will
come from lecture notes. You won't be required to hand in homework problems,
but you are unlikely to do well in the course if you don't do them. Suggested
problems and solutions will go up regularly on the class website. Try to do problems
first before looking at the answers.

We will use Canvas, with the URL canvas.ucdavis.edu, to handle things like
announcements, problem suggestions, solutions, grade postings, emails, etc. Please
make a habit of regularly checking the Canvas site for the class. If you are
enrolled in the class, then this will show when you log into Canvas. If you do not
see the class in your Canvas, then 1) there is a problem with your enrollment in this
class and/or 2) I can enroll you by hand. For the latter, send me an email.

Is there anyone here today that didn’t get an email from me? If so, that means
you are not on the roster or the waitlist. You should send me an email after class
and we’ll see what’s wrong.

A few of you are still on the waitlist or still trying to enroll in the class. I would
say that you should wait a little to see if you roll from the waitlist into the class as
students drop, and there will be some of that. If you don’t roll in, I can add you by
hand if you send me an email.

We will also use Canvas for emails to the entire class. I might use this in emails to
the class, but sometimes I will go through the Canvas Announcements, and then
alert you to new Announcements via email. Sometimes I get questions from one of
you that I think others might like to hear the answer to. In that case I will
remove the identifier from the original email and post a reply to the class email
list.
Copyright Steven M. Theg, 2209. All federal and state copyrights reserved for all original material presented in this course through any medium, including lecture or print.

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Plant Biology 111 Lecture 1, October 1, 2020

Grading:
We will have four tests, on the dates given on the syllabus. We will drop your
lowest grade, so each test will be worth 33.3% of your grade.

We will keep it reasonable, but it is a lot. I will count on the fact that you have
taken some biology and chemistry before, and have a some knowledge of plants
from at least the BioSci 2A,B,C series.

Grading is for performance, not effort.

We will grade on a curve. The class mean will be the last B-, and we will divide the
scores above by 6 and give out letter grades that way. Same below the mean.
Where we draw the line … This means I can’t tell you after the first midterm that
you are getting an A, etc.

Pass/No pass. Because of Covid-19 you will be allowed to take this class Pass/No
Pass, even if you are taking it for your major. To pass you will need a C- at the end.
I have put some information on the class Canvas site about this. Please have a look
if you are considering this option. I just heard today that some professional
schools (medical schools, etc.) are not allowing this option. So beware.

Exams will be during class on the dates indicated on the syllabus.

Alternate times/dates for the exams will not be considered. Please don't ask -
changes for reasons such as another exam in another class cannot be considered
due to the high enrollment of this class. If you feel like you do have a good reason
to take an exam at another time, speak to us well in advance of the exam. We will
probably say no, but you may have a reason we haven't anticipated. Do not go to
your TA with this; she has no authority to grant your request.

If you miss an exam for medical or any other reason, you must bring us something
that allows us to know that you were sick or why you missed the exam. We will
work out what to do about that at the time. Options could include an oral exam
later, when you are well.

If you are enrolled in a discussion section, you will receive a Pass / No pass grade.
You are required to go, and attendance will be taken. If you miss more than two
Copyright Steven M. Theg, 2209. All federal and state copyrights reserved for all original material presented in this course through any medium, including lecture or print.

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Plant Biology 111 Lecture 1, October 1, 2020

discussions, you will earn a No pass. If you miss any discussions, you will be asked
to justify it.

ABOUT EXAMS: Exams will be some calculations, some short answers, some
Scantron format. If you are asked for justification of an answer, the answer will
not receive full credit without it. Partial credit can be given, but only if you show
work. We will talk more about the exams as their dates approach.

CHEATING!
Don't cheat. If you do, we can't help you. Your material will be sent directly over
to judicial affairs. We will make it easier for you not to cheat by:
Close proctoring of the exam
Having more than one version of the exam given out

Lots of students have been busted using Chegg during exams. Very risky. This is
cheating, and if you are caught you will get a zero for that exam.

Lectures will be pre-recorded and posted by the Monday of the week covering that
material. You will find them on the Canvas site. I will also post the PowerPoints.

Discussion sessions and office hours are a good time to see problems
worked. We have six of them scheduled during the week; see syllabus for
schedule. They are scheduled at different time slots, so we shouldn’t have anyone
who can make none of them. Individual appointments to go over class material are
not encouraged, as we all have a lot to do. I’d much prefer to see you during office
hours for this. If you have a particular problem that requires individual attentions,
then write to me for an appointment and I will schedule you.

I encourage you to come to office hours. That is almost the only way I will
get to know who you are, and this year it will be particularly challenging o get to
know you. Generally, students who have done well in my past classes have often
been those who’ve come to office hours. It’s also helpful if I know you if you are
planning on asking for a letter of recommendation later on when you apply to
medical school or some other program.

I would encourage you to form or join a study group. An excellent way to

Copyright Steven M. Theg, 2209. All federal and state copyrights reserved for all original material presented in this course through any medium, including lecture or print.

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Plant Biology 111 Lecture 1, October 1, 2020

interested in being in a study group but you don’t know anyone in the class, send me
a note and I will try to connect you.

Professor Shih and I have reviewed and handled the pre-requisite petitions.
I think they are all done.

Finally, here’s what you can expect from us for the class. We will record lectures
and have them up by Monday of the week in which the material is covered. The
syllabus is in the format of live lectures, which obviously won’t apply here. But the
timing is about right. The material for any given day will likely be broken up into
more than one shorter video.

Sometimes in my notes I use Comic Sans MS font. This is not open to

QUESTIONS ABOUT COURSE FORMAT?

Copyright Steven M. Theg, 2209. All federal and state copyrights reserved for all original material presented in this course through any medium, including lecture or print.