Announcements: .
updated 15 Aug 2011

Philip Stoddard stoddard 'at' fiu.edu  tel 305-348-0378 Office Hours: Thurs 9:00-noon HLS 219b

“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never think up anything original.” - Sir Ken Robinson

"If you trust in yourself and believe in your dreams and follow your star
you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and
learning things and who aren't so lazy." - Terry Pratchett

Juniors Fall term - Course schedule & links to readings

Course Goals:
UNDERSTANDING:
Where our scientific understanding of the world originates and the many ways it is transmitted.
Science as a process equal in importance to the body of knowledge it has produced.

CRITICAL SKILLS:
How to read and digest scientific papers from the primary literature.
How research studies are crafted.

Sending e-mail to your professors:
Please follow a few simple rules so I can provide quality service (i.e., so I don't go nuts).

• SUBJECT LINE:
  In all email to us, please make sure the subject line starts with "QBICJC" and then contains a reasonable title ("first assignment") so your message doesn't wind up in our email spam folders.
• ATTACHMENTS:
  Please name your attached file something like
  QBICJC_[your-name-here]_[short_assignment_name].pdf
  Example: QBICJC_Suarez_journal_list.pdf
  Otherwise our attachments folder will receive 24 attachments named "journals.pdf", which makes it hard to sort out which file is yours. If it has your name, you will be more likely to get credit.

Grades:
Weighting of graded credit for this course:

Scoring: Check plus = 100; Check = 75; Check minus = 50; irrelevant essay = 0.
You can drop one quiz score (or one absence).
Three (3) unexcused absences will result in a Failed grade.
Showing up late twice equals one unexcused absence.

Life's Unexpected Problems:

If you experience life complications that interfere with your performance, please put them in writing, signed and dated, and they will be taken into consideration. Explanations provided in advance receive higher consideration than those provided afterwards. Excuses provided long after the fact are not taken very seriously. Bad traffic and difficult parking are not good excuses (leave home earlier). If your grandmother passes away, include a copy of her published obituary. If you're just totally overwhelmed by school, life, cyclones, global warming, or any combination of these, come by my office, I'll give you a piece of chocolate, and we'll see what we can do to help you make it through. It DOES get better.

Hints to the wise:

• Make a schedule of your work for the semester.
• Do all assigned work on time. Early never hurts but late kills.
• Work on this course with your classmates. Science is a collaborative effort. Start now.
• Run assignments through your peers for editing and constructive criticism.
• Skim the New York Times every day <http://www.nytimes.com> to know what's going on outside the insular world of college.
• Check out the New York Times Science page, which comes out every Tuesday: http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/index.html.
• Useful links :

FIU Library connect from home (enter full number from back of ID card)

ISI Web of Science (link from FIU Library)

Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com/

Pubmed - U.S. National Library of Medicine www.pubmed.gov

"Florida International University is a community dedicated to generating and
imparting knowledge through excellent teaching and research, the rigorous
and respectful exchange of ideas, and community service. All students should
respect the right of others to have an equitable opportunity to learn and
honestly to demonstrate the quality of their learning. Therefore, all
students are expected to adhere to a standard of academic conduct, which
demonstrates respect for themselves, their fellow students, and the
educational mission of the University. All students are deemed by the
University to understand that if they are found responsible for academic
misconduct, they will be subject to the Academic Misconduct procedures and
sanctions, as outlined in the Student Handbook."