The Biology of Plants and Fungi
Syllabus for Labs, Fall 2012
Laboratory coordinator
Brianna Wright, Department of Botany, College of Arts and Sciences, Room 138 B Aven Nelson Memorial Building, telephone 307 766-2923, e-mail bwrigh13@uwyo.edu
Office Hours: Mondays 9 - 11 AM and Wednesdays 2 - 4 PM or by appointment
Graduate teaching assistants
Janet Chen, Program in Ecology, Room 210 Berry Center, e-mail jchen9@uwyo.edu
Office Hours: Mondays 12:45 - 1:45 PM
Raju Kandel, Department of Plant Sciences, Room 1 Agriculture Building, Phone , e-mail rkandel@uwyo.edu
Office Hours: Thursdays 1 - 3 PM
Meeting place and times
Lab sections meet in Room 223 of the Aven Nelson Building which is immediately south of the Classroom Building. Lab sections will meet at the following times:
LIFE 2023-10: Mondays from 2:10PM to 5:00 PM.
LIFE 2023-11: Mondays from 7:00PM to 9:50PM
LIFE 2023-12: Tuesdays from 2:10PM to 5:00PM
LIFE 2023-13: Tuesdays from 7:00PM to 9:50PM
Required materials
Please bring the following to lab meetings:
A printed copy of the lab exercise for that meeting or an electronic tablet with the exercise loaded on it.
A personal notebook of your choice with your name and contact information written on the inside cover.
Pencils and Sharpie markers
A 2 GB flash drive (or larger) for transferring image files between devices
A small, low cost digital camera (optional). Cell phone cameras can serve this purpose.
Course Objectives
The lab sections of LIFE 2023 elaborate on the concepts presented in lecture. They also equip students with a small set of practical laboratory skills. The lab activities are intended to stimulate your interest in plant and fungal biology and to keep you actively learning throughout the semester.
Grading
Lab points will be assigned for participation in lab meetings and scores in the lab practical exam. A total of 160 points may earned in the lab.
Each lab section meeting is worth 10 points. A total of 120 points may be earned for lab meetings. You must attend your assigned lab section meeting and turn in completed documentation to receive credit for the meeting.
The remaining 40 points possible for lab are earned by taking 2 Lab Practical Exams worth 20 points each The Lab Practical Exams will be opportunities for students to demonstrate the practical skills and knowledge they have acquired during lab activities.
Lab Safety
Food and drink are not allowed in the student laboratory. Students should wear comfortable clothing that exposes relatively little skin. Closed shoes are also necessary. Additional safety precautions will be described for specific lab exercises.
Visitors to the lab are allowed but only at the discretion of the lab instructor and this should occur rarely to avoid overcrowding of the room. Students are also asked to refrain from talking on cell phones or playing music in the lab as a courtesy to others.
Disability Support
If you have a physical or learning disability, we encourage you to speak with your lab instructor about appropriate accommodations. In addition, there other resources available to you across campus that may assist you. Contact the University Disability Support Services and for more information.
How to complete lab exercises
Lab exercises for each lab meeting will be available for download as pdf files from the bottom of this web page prior to the lab meeting. You may print these for use in the lab or download them to an e-reader or tablet computer. These files are the directions for the lab work you must complete in each lab meeting.
Use a personal notebook of your choice, a digital camera, and a flash drive to record data, images, answers to questions, and other information that you generate during the lab exercise. You will transfer these to a lab notebook that will be a record of your work in lab.
Lab notebook templates for each lab meeting will be available for download as doc files from the bottom of this web page prior to the lab. Data, images, answers to questions, and other results of your lab work should be entered into these files from your personal notebook, camera, and flash drive. Completed lab notebook files should be submitted to your lab TA as e-mail attachments within 48 hours of the lab meeting. If you have technical difficulties or must miss lab because of an excused absence, arrange an extension of the 48 hour deadline with your lab instructor. The lab instructor may also extend the deadline at their discretion. Lab notes that are submitted late will have one point of credit subtracted for each day they are late.
Lab schedule
The lab schedule below is tentative and may be revised depending experimental results and on the availability of materials and equipment. Revisions to this schedule will be shown in red text. Lab exercises may be rescheduled for individual students if they are in time conflict with an official university function, if the student has three exams on the same day, or in cases of family emergency. Rescheduled exams and lab exercises must be completed within 2 weeks of the regularly scheduled time, if possible. Please do not attend other lab sections for this purpose if they are already full.