Students are advised to carefully read through these preparatory notes as they will assist in
maximizing your experience in this course.
1. Lectures:
a. Lecture Notes:
i. The redacted lectures are posted online before the relevant lecture in order for
students to read, prepare (and print!). Students are expected to fill in further
information at each lecture and/or add supplementary notes from their own
reading.
ii. Lecture notes are not made from any single text but represent the product of
reading (by the lecturer / tutor) from several sources. Students are expected to
read for their degree from texts, internet sources and recently published papers on the
subject(s) under consideration.
b. Attendance at Lectures:
i. Lectures start on the hour and end at five minutes before the hour, so please be on
time for morning lectures.
ii. While attendance at lectures is not mandatory, it is highly beneficial for the
student. At times important information on concepts, which furthers understanding,
is put in context orally by the lecturer in ways that it may not be possible to be
covered as well by writing.
iii. While brief questions for clarifications are sometimes entertained, it is not
possible to entertain many questions in lectures. Tutorials are designed to
cover that need.
iv. Students are NOT to reserve seats for latecomers, as those who arrive late
invariably disturb others (including the lecturer!) as they try to access seats when late.
v. During this course students will NOT be allowed to sit in the walkways, steps or
any other place besides the seats provided. This means that when all the seats are
taken, there is no further admittance of students; no extra chairs or other
furniture are allowed either.
2. Tutorials:
a. You are expected to attend one of the many weekly tutorials provided.
b. Tutorials are designed for student activity. They are NOT another lecture period. Students
are encouraged to avail themselves of the opportunities to further understand the
concepts covered by participating in these tutorials.
3. Laboratories:
You will be given a pre-lab quiz before each lab beginning week 2. This quiz will be based
on the lab manual content for that week’s lab activities. The pre- lab quiz will open on
OurVLE during the weekend before the week of the scheduled lab. It will be open from
7pm Friday to 9am Monday Morning.
a. Laboratory sessions begin on the hour (at 10:00 am), last for six hours, with a
lunch break typically between 1 – 2 pm. However, the lunch period may be
scheduled for earlier if necessary. Students must promptly leave the laboratory for
lunch and at the end of the lab session (5:00 pm).
b. Students are required to be always attired in a laboratory coat.
c. Students are required attend a minimum of 75% of the laboratory sessions.
d. Students are responsible for the security of their personal possessions. You are warned not
to unnecessarily bring to the lab expensive equipment, money, jewellery, or other valuables.
e. Students are responsible for ensuring that their laboratory report(s) is (are) submitted on
time as directed by Lecturer(s), Teaching Assistants and Demonstrators.
f. Students are also required to collect their marked laboratory reports promptly and to pay
attention to corrective advice given by the demonstrators/TA/Lecturer in writing or
orally. Uncollected reports will be discarded periodically during the course.
g. Duplicating the work of others (i.e., copying!) will NOT be tolerated and offenders will be
subject to the UWI sanctions on plagiarism.
h. Students MUST attend the laboratory group for which they are registered. Attempting to
move between laboratory groups may affect the security of your lab marks.
4. General:
a. The Lecturers, Tutorial Assistants and Demonstrators in this course rightly assume that
the material taught to you in previous courses will be used where applicable in this
course (e.g. the care and use of the microscope in BIOL1017).
b. The material learned in this course is foundational for courses in higher levels of your
degree programme in this department and will NOT be re-taught at Levels II or III.
Lecturers at those levels will rightly assume that you already know these concepts.
c. If you use another email address other than your ‘uwimona’ account, you must
ensure that any mail sent to your ‘uwimona’ account will be forwarded to the
email address that you customarily use. No excuses will be tolerated for not
receiving posted notifications due to the use of other email accounts.
d. Lecturers are NOT available at the whim and fancy of students. Please
observe the consultation times posted by each Lecturer.
Denneko Luke, PhD (Bot.)
BIOL1262 Course Coordinator
