Anthropology 301 Fall 2009 (unique no. 30155)
Introduction to Physical Anthropology (Self-Paced)
COURSE WEBSITE: http://www.utexas.edu/courses/physanthro/
PLEASE READ THIS SYLLABUS CAREFULLY AND ENTIRELY. YOUR SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THIS COURSE DEPENDS UPON YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS SYLLABUS!!
Students with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations from the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities, 471-6259.
COURSE E-MAIL ADDRESS: sp301@uts.cc.utexas.edu
Include your last name in the "Subject" field and be sure you include your UT EID in the body of the email message.
INSTRUCTOR: Dr. John Kappelman. Office Hours: Tu Th 11-12 pm in EPS 2.132, or by appointment; office telephone: 471-0055
TEACHING ASSISTANTS: Hannah Baker, Saikat Maitra, and Angel Zeininger. Office hours are held in EPS 2.103 during review hours (see page 7 of this syllabus).
INTRODUCTION: This course is designed as an introduction to the study of physical anthropology. During the semester you will investigate numerous and diverse subjects including modern evolutionary theory, sexual reproduction, human genetics, biological variation in populations of modern humans, mammalian phylogeny, primate behavior, biology, and ecology, the fossil record of primate and human evolution, and archaeology. The diversity of these topics will illustrate how the different areas of physical anthropology are integrated and will offer you an understanding of the place of humans in the world.
To successfully complete this course, the student must be able to learn the material without the benefit of a lecture and laboratory session. The only meeting of the course is the initial orientation meeting. Students are responsible for setting their own proper study pace for the course, but must comply with due dates for the exams and assignments. This class is not less time consuming than other classes, but it permits the student some latitude in arranging their study and testing schedule. The course may be completed before the end of the semester by working in a more concentrated manner and testing before the due dates. Any student who has not completed the first exam and first three labs by their due dates will receive zeros for these assignments.
As with any course, all of the work submitted in this course must be that of each individual student. Students ARE NOT permitted to collaborate in the completion of laboratory assignments by sharing answers, nor are they permitted to assist each other by sharing questions or answers from the examinations. Any violation of this policy will be treated as cheating and will be referred to UT’s office of student judicial services for investigation and disciplinary action. Students will be required to sign a policy compliance statement at the beginning of the semester which states that they agree to follow these rules and understand the serious nature of any violation.
REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS: The following materials are required for the course:
•Essentials of Physical Anthropology, Jurmain, Nelson, Kilgore, & Trevathan, 2009, 7th edition (new and updated). NOTE: the title and cover of the 3-ring binder version of the book for this course are different from the book that is used for the lecture version of Ant 301. Be sure to purchase the correct book!
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•Virtual Laboratories for Physical Anthropology, Kappelman, 2007, Version 4. Labs are on-line with a student pass code that is included with the book. The log-in site is: http://west.ilrn.com/ilrn/authentication/welcome.do
REQUIREMENTS: The requirements for this class include:
Ten computer exams based on readings from the textbook, Essentials of Physical Anthropology. All ten exams based on the textbook are completed in the Physical Anthropology Computer Lab (EPS 2.103). Sign-up sheets for reserving testing times are available on a bulletin board outside the classroom (EPS 2.103). There are DEADLINE DUE DATES for these exams. See page 4 of this syllabus for deadlines.
Twelve lab assignments are based on the Virtual Laboratories for Physical Anthropology. Again, these assignments have DEADLINE DUE DATES. The assignment is completed by downloading each assignment from the course website and then emailing the file to the course email address as an attachment. See page 6 of this syllabus for the deadlines and detailed instructions.
The Virtual Laboratories assignments are completed via the web on PC-compatible computers running Windows. Do not try to complete your assignments on a Macintosh computer. The 12 lab assignments are available for downloading from the course web site. The Undergraduate Student Microcomputer Facility (SMF: Flawn Academic Center, FAC 212) has a large number of computers available for use by undergraduates. If you do not already have an account there, it is strongly recommended that you set one up so that you can use these computers. We do not recommend using public computer clusters other than the Undergraduate Student Microcomputer Facility. You must know how to send an attached document using your UT email address.
A valid UT email address is required for submission of the twelve Virtual Lab assignments (see #2 above and page 6 below). If you do not already have a UT email account, you can sign up for one by going to http://www.utexas.edu/computer/email/ Students who have used non-UT email accounts (including Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, and Gmail) to submit their lab assignments have experienced numerous difficulties.
Students must complete a “Check Status” four times during the semester. Check Status is done in the testing lab and shows you your progress and grade in the course up to that date. You may Check Status during testing lab hours as frequently as you like, but you are required to Check Status on at least four occasions:
a) You must Check Status after completing Exam 2 and Lab Assignment 3 but no later than 18 Sept, and before you proceed to Exam 3 or Lab 4.
b) You must Check Status again after completing Exam 5 and Lab Assignment 6 but no later than 16 Oct, and before you proceed to Exam 6 or Lab 7.
c) You must Check Status after completing Exam 7 and Lab Assignment 9 but no later than 6 Nov, and before you proceed to Exam 8 or Lab 10.
d) You must Check Status again after completing Exam 9 but no later than 25 Nov, and before you proceed to Exam 10.
Course Website: http://www.utexas.edu/courses/physanthro/
The course website is designed to aid you in completing the course. It is strongly suggested that you visit the site frequently and at least weekly to view any announcements posted to the bulletin board. In addition to the complete
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syllabus, the website contains links to interesting sites related to physical anthropology. Most importantly, the class web site also allows you to complete your Virtual Lab assignments for the email submission as an attachment.
We only use the Blackboard course manager for posting a copy of the syllabus for this course
EXAMS
All information in the Jurmain et al. textbook is considered fair game for the exams. Be sure to read all of the material carefully, including figures and the "boxes" which highlight certain important historical and scientific events. In order to answer some of the multiple-choice questions, you will be required to work Punnett squares (Mendelian genetics), complete phylogenies and timelines, and identify bones and features in figures and plots.
The testing lab opens on 2 September 2009
A WORD OF CAUTION: exam deadlines fall on Fridays. It is best to complete testing earlier in the week before the Friday deadline because of potential overcrowding on Fridays. Unless you have reserved a testing time slot in advance, you will NOT BE ABLE TO COMPLETE AN EXAM ON FRIDAY.
EXAMS MUST BE TAKEN IN NUMERICAL ORDER!
Exam 1 = chapters 1 and 2
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Exam 6 = chapter 9
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Exam 2 = chapters 3 and 4
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Exam 7 = chapter 10
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Exam 3 = chapter 5
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Exam 8 = chapter 11
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Exam 4 = chapters 6 and 7
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Exam 9 = chapters 12 and 13
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Exam 5 = chapter 8
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Exam 10 = chapter 14
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