Instructor: Roberta S. Lacefield	Room Location: Rm 143A and On-line
Virtual and Face-to-Face Office Hours: http://www.waycross.edu/faculty/rslace/schedlace.htm	Phone#: 912 285-6027 (OFFICE) or 912 283-8243 (HOME) Please do NOT call the home number after 8:45pm.
NOTE: Discussion area and email will be checked twice daily weekdays and generally NOT during the weekends. See schedule for Virtual Office Chat Room hours.

Text and Other Required Materials

• There is no required text book for this course. Resources and readings are all in the Course Materials section of WebCT VISTA. The following symbols appear on the various content pages as a guide to the material types.

  NOTE: You are responsible for getting into VISTA. If you already have a VISTA user ID and password (from a previous term), log in after the first official day of classes. If you do NOT have a VISTA user ID and password, email me or come by my office. (See my schedule.) VISTA is located at http://waycross.view.usg.edu.

  If you have never used the internet, you should reconsider taking this class. It can be overwhelming.

  	This symbol indicates reference materials. This type of material will not be tested. It is simply there for referral.
  	This symbol indicates a reading. You should try to get an overview from each reading. You will not be tested on each detail of the reading, only the big idea.
  	This indicates lecture materials. These are the things you MUST know for the class. This information will be tested. Treat materials marked with this icon as you would the words an instructor speaks in class.
  	This icon indicates an assignment list.
  	This icon indicates a quiz or mini-evaluation item. Sometimes there is no icon and only "quiz" appears. Quizzes are scattered throughout the course and are always referenced on the assignment sheet.
  	Materials marked with this icon need only be done if you are in the lab section. Lab materials are located in a second WebCT location.

• A binder notebook.
  This is the kind of notebook that allows you to add and rearrange pages. It will help you organize your printed out assignment lists.
  
• An Internet Service Provider (ISP) at home or daily access to the internet at some other location.
  

Course Objectives and Outline
This course is a bit different from the average science or mathematics course. Understanding the course objectives is a very important part of succeeding in this course. Because of this, the objectives are part of the lecture materials in the first module. Reading the objectives and taking the graded quiz is part of the first assignment.

• Module 1 - Introduction to the Course
  Intro to terminology
• Module 2 - Fundamentals of Mathematic and Scientific Knowledge
  Ways of knowing
• Module 3 - Critical Analysis of Information
  How knowledge becomes scientific
• Module 4 - Social and Ethical Implications of Knowledge
  The human side
• Module 5 - Final
  Integrating concepts

Grades

Weighted Averages (by type):   Participation - 50%     Online Quizzes and mini-evaluations - 25%   Final Exam - 25%

100% - 90% = A (Excellent work/excellent participation) 89% - 80% = B (Good work/good participation) 79% - 70% = C (Satisfied minimum criteria in all areas) 55% - 69% = D (This grade may not satisfy some program requirements/see catalog) Below 55% = F (No credit)

Attendance
Classroom attendance is not part of this course--participation IS!! For each discussion topic, you must post at least once on at least two different days. Thus, you need to log into the course and post at least twice per week. Experience has shown that most successful students will log in more often than that.

Note: The instructor reserves the right to edit/delete posted materials which may be offensive and/or fall outside the objectives of this course.

ADA
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination on the basis of handicap and obligates colleges and universities to make certain adjustments and accommodations to ensure that handicapped persons have the opportunity to participate fully in all educational programs and activities. Please contact the instructor immediately if you are facing accessibility challenges--PARTICULARLY with pdf files.

(THE SMALL PRINT:)
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is prohibited. Plagiarism is defined by Webster as the stealing and passing off of the ideas or words of another as one's own. Further, the MLA Handbook states, "Plagiarism may take the form of repeating another's sentences as your own, adopting a particularly apt phrase as your own, or even presenting someone else's line of thinking in the development of a thesis as though it were your own." Alleged violations involving plagiarism and other academic misconduct will be handled according to the procedures outlined in the Waycross College Student Handbook.

Course Drop/Withdrawal
Waycross College policy states that a student who secures the necessary approval may officially drop a course without academic penalty by the designated date published in the Academic Calendar and receive a "W" grade for the quarter. The "W" grade is not computed in the student's grade point average. A course is officially dropped by completing the course drop request form and following the prescribed approval process. (Warning: To remain eligible for financial aid, a student must successfully complete two-thirds (67%) of the hours for which s/he is enrolled. A grade of W or WF is considered noncompletion for financial aid purposes.

Students who stop attending classes without processing drop or withdrawal forms will receive a grade of F or WF. In order to officially drop a course without penalty, a student must contact his/her advisor and fill out a Drop/Add form. To withdraw from college, contact the Registrar's office before the designated date published in the Academic Calendar in the College Catalog. A nonpunitive grade for courses dropped after the published deadline can be assigned only with the approval of the Vice President and Dean of Academic and Student Services and in cases of extenuating personal hardship. DO NOT DISAPPEAR!! Contact me and we will work something out.

These pages are the property of Waycross College.