Course Essentials

Course Description 

Biological function and chemical classification of nutrients. Effects of nutritional deficiencies and excesses. Recommended nutrient intakes and the role of diet in the development of chronic disease.

• This is a fully online 12 week course. This course resides on the course management, Canvas. It is accessible from MyPortal.  The course begins Monday Jan 5 and ends Thursday Mar 26  (FYI:  the course will open early, on Fri Jan 2, for those who want to get a head start)

• This is not a self-paced course.  Due dates and deadlines occur on a set schedule throughout the 12 weeks.

Important  - Know This!

Faculty are required by law to clear their rosters of “no shows” during the first week. 

To keep your spot in this class and not be identified as a “no show” and therefore dropped, log onto the course on Canvas and fill out a short questionnaire (Welcome to Bio 45 Survey) by the deadline THURSDAY night of Week 1. 

FYI: Students who add the class after registration closed will have 2 days after they register to do this task

Not doing this task by the deadline will get you dropped as a “no show”.  

Get in touch with me in the first few days of the quarter if there is a hardship that prevents this quick and easy task before the deadline.

Need Accommodations in This Course? 

Students with limitations due to a disability may receive support services from De Anza's  Disability Support Services. Those students with mobility, visual, hearing, speech, psychological and other other health impairments as well as learning and developmental disabilities are served.   Register with their offices in the first week of the quarter to receive accommodations in time for the first exam.

Be Aware

The last day to drop (with a “W” ) is Friday Feb 27th at 11:59 pm.

If you realize after this date that you are not getting the grade that you desire, please do not ask me to drop you. College procedures do not allow me to do so. Know your grade throughout the course so there are no surprises in the last week of the quarter.

What's a Student Learning Outcome?

Student Learning Outcomes are the goals you will ideally achieve by the end of this course.

Upon completing Biology 45 successfully you will be able to:

• Evaluate a meal plan or a diet for meeting the criteria of a healthy diet

• Demonstrate a coherent understanding of the relationship between diet and the major chronic diseases

Virtual Lectures

The backbone of Bio 45 consists of  Virtual Lectures  (VLs) -- something that I have created. There are 11 VLs in all,  one for each week of instruction. These are NOT videos of my giving a lecture. A VL is a something that you read (although there are a few short videos embedded within some VLs). Essentially, a VL replaces what a student would get in 4 hours of class time/lecture in an in-person section of Bio 45, but in a visual presentation.  The VLs and the textbook make up the course content.

Recorded Mini-Lectures

Your instructor has recorded and posted a 1 hour "Mini-Lecture" for you to watch each week. They include explanations of some of the more challenging topics from that week's Virtual Lecture. No new material will be presented. They are offered to help you "get" some of the more complex material. Plan to watch all of them, from beginning to end, at least once (better, watch them twice. Repetition helps promote learning). Take notes while you watch.  

Be clear: They do no replace reading the Virtual Lectures.

Practice Quizzes and Worksheets

There will be many practice quizzes and worksheets offered throughout the quarter. They are designed to help you in your process of learning.  Take them. And be sure you check the answer keys once they are posted. This will help you do well on the corresponding exam. Your scores on Practice Quizzes are not counted . They earn no points and so they have no direct impact on your course grade. But they have a powerful indirect impact: Taking the practice quizzes and doing the worksheets will help you to do well on the corresponding exam :-)

Asynchronous Discussions

10 points will be earned for participating on 2 asynchronous discussions. The discussions will happen during 1 separate weeks of the quarter (weeks 3 and 5). Individual discussions will be open for one week only. 

Full participation on one discussion (following all prompts) earns 5 points. To earn all 10 points you must participate on both discussions. See the Quarter at a Glance for the dates that each discussion closes.

Know that participating on discussions is required; it is not optional. These points are NOT Bonus Points. They are part of the total points for this course. If you don't participate on the discussions, your score will be 0/10 which will reduce your course standing

General Information

The exams will either be taken ONLINE on Canvas or in person on the DeAnza campus, on specific dates, at specific times (listed below)

If you take the exams online, you can only take them while you are on Zoom with your VIDEO turned ON. This is a requirement.  Exams taken while not visible on Zoom will not be accepted--your score will be 0. 

There are rules for taking exams online.  These rules will be found on the course on Canvas, in the Module Your Course Toolkit, on the page Everything you NEED to Know about the Exams.

Exams

• There will be 5 exams 

• For students who take all 5, the lowest score will be dropped from your cumulative score.  Thus, if you’re happy with your scores on Exams 1, 2, 3 & 4 you don’t have to take Exam 5.

• I'm very sorry, but I cannot accommodate a student who missed taking an exam on that exam day

There are no make-up exams. If you miss an exam, that is the one that is dropped

• All exams consist of 40 True/False, Multiple Choice and Short Answer questions. Each question is worth 2 points for a total of 80 points.

• You will have a maximum of 50 minutes for each exam.

• Students registered with the DeAnza Disability Support Services https://www.deanza.edu/dsps/dss/ who are entitled to extended time will take the exams between 8 am - 5 pm on the day of the exams. 

Optional Exam Review Sessions

Exam review sessions will take place on Zoom the night before the exam day, from 8-9 pm.  The sessions will be recorded and posted on Canvas.

Vitamin and Mineral Graded Quiz

Besides the Orientation Quiz, there be ONE graded quiz on the course content. It will consist of 10 questions about vitamins and minerals (True/False, Multiple Choice and Fill in the Blank). Each question is worth 1 point. It will be open for 2 days only, in the last week of the quarter. (FYI: There ARE many practice quizzes throughout the quarter. The scores on those are not recorded and do not count)

WHAT Will Be on Each Exam?     

Exam 1: All of the topics from Weeks 1 & 2 (Introduction through -- including -- Digestion) 

Exam 2: Topics from Weeks 3 & 4 (Carbohydrates and Lipids )

Exam 3: Topics from Weeks 5 & 6 (Protein and Energy Metabolism) 

Exam 4: Topics from Weeks 7, 8 & 9 (Diet and chronic diseases & Phytochemicals, Body Weight, Overview of the Micronutrients & Dietary Supplements)

Exam 5: Topics from Weeks 10 & 11 (Water, Vitamins and Minerals)   

Words to the Wise:  Complete Parts 1 & 2 EARLY (and get 10 Bonus Points!)

It's not ideal to try to do all 3 parts right before it's due. That's a recipe for stress, possibly doing a substandard job and receiving a low score.

To encourage you to finish Parts 1 & 2 early, if you submit them by the deadlines listed on the course schedule and your submissions are complete, each submission will earn 5 Bonus Points. Incomplete submissions will NOT earn bonus points.

NOTE: To get 5 Bonus Points for Part 2, your Part 1 must be submitted by the time you submit Part 2.

10 Bonus Points can REALLY make a difference in your grade. Plan ahead for completing Parts 1 & 2 in time to receive those points. These are the ONLY Bonus Points offered in Bio 45.

Late Submission will be Accepted (with a late penalty)

The Diet Assignment can be submitted late, up to 9 days past the due date but with a penalty:  1 point will be deducted from your score for each day late that it is submitted. This late penalty is NOT punishment. It's an incentive for you to submit it on time. 

• No assignments will be accepted after 9 days past the due date. 

• ADVICE: If getting an A is your goal, plan to finish the Diet Assignment by the due date. It's not ideal to submit it late -- not only because of the point deduction, but because working on it then will take away from much-needed time and energy that you might need to be spending on other academic tasks during Final Exams week.