Instructor:	Dr. Susan Allen-Gil
Office:	253 Center for Natural Sciences
Phone:	274-1066
Email:	sallen@ithaca.edu
Office hours:	Monday or Friday 1:00-2:00 or by appointment

General Information		Welcome to the ETox Research Team! In this course, we are a research team investigating a real pollution site.  We have been asked by Toxics Targeting Inc. to research the old city dump, and particularly whether it is impairing the water quality of Cayuga Inlet.  Our job is to evaluate gather as much background information as possible, to plan and perform any testing for contaminants, to conduct any ecological studies that might be advisable, and to ad vise Toxics Targeting and the City of Ithaca on the distribution of contamination as it might impact the planned dredging and sediment disposal of the Cayuga Inlet. This course has a research team format, as opposed to a lecture format.  This means that you must participate fully as a useful team member, including completing the required tasks, reading the assigned material prior to the class, and coming to class prepared to contribute fully.  You should expect to be called on during every class to contribute to the discussion in a meaningful manner.  Students will rotate taking the responsibility of leading the discussion and bringing in supplemental material.
	Syllabus  (PDF)
	Writing Evaluation and Tips
Access via Blackboard
(password protected)
	Assignments, Readings,
	Lecture Notes, Review Sheets,
	& Past Exams

Textbook:  Walker, CH, SP Hopkin, RM Silby and DB Peakall 2006.  Principles of Ecotoxicology.  Taylor and Francis Publishers, NY. 

Attendance Policy:  Consistent class attendance is expected.  If you miss class, you are still responsible for any assignments announced and for all material presented during class.  Although there is no automatic point deduction for missing occasional classes, it will be very difficult to get an A or B in the course without attending class consistently.  Ten percent of your grade will be based on attendance and participation during class and in lab.

 Integrity (academic honesty): These are outlined clearly in the student handbook:  “Academic honesty is a cornerstone of the mission of the College”.  Please familiarize yourself with the definition of plagiarism.  Academic dishonesty can lead to a zero grade on that assignment, a failing grade in the course, academic code probation, suspension or expulsion from the College depending on the gravity of the violation and the decision of the judicial board.

Accommodation: In compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, reasonable accommodation will be provided to students with documented disabilities on a case by case basis.  Students must register with the Office of Academic Support Services (607-274-1005, TDD 607-274-7319, acssd@ithaca.edu) and schedule an appointment with their instructors as soon as possible to discuss their needs.

Academic Honesty:  All work in this class must be your own, unless stated otherwise.  Confirmed instances of academic misconduct will result in a zero for that test/assignment and referral to the school judiciary system.  Please refer to the Student Handbook for a detailed description of the policies regarding student academic conduct.

Course goals/learning objectives: As part of the research team, I expect you to learn the following content and master the following skills:

    Content:

1. The major classes of contaminants and the factors that govern their fate and behavior in the environment.
2. The organ, individual, population and community level impacts associated with contamination.
3. The techniques and methods used to evaluate the impacts of contaminants on ecological systems
4. The principles and process of ecological risk assessment.
5. The role that environmental toxicology plays as a science in society

    Skills:

1. How to locate data and background information on a particular issue
2. How to design a field sampling strategy for contaminants within budgetary and time constraints
3. How to design and perform a laboratory based ecotoxicology research project
4. How to work as part of a research team
5. How to evaluate your own work, as well as that of your peers and supervisors
6. How to analyze data, produce graphs and interpret data for the public
7. How to communicate scientific results effectively to the local community both orally and in writing

Assessment of Learning Objectives:

This course will operate as a highly interactive and participatory class.  Class periods will be devoted to: group discussions of the project, explanations and exploration of new material through discussion of scientific literature.  Each student, therefore, must come to class prepared to discuss the appropriate material.  This emphasis is reflected in the grading as outlined below.    As all assignments are announced well in advance of the due date, late assignments will be penalized 10% of the grade for each weekday past the due date.  

1.      Reflective Work Journal:  You are expected to keep all your work in one notebook.  This should be divided into sections: 1) notes on your readings, 2) a log of the research that you conduct, and 3) a weekly reflection of what you are learning and how it fits into your knowledge base and understanding of science and society - this will be collected and graded every 2 weeks.  These will test your ability to interpret physiological data (Content Goals #1-5, Skill Goals 1-3).   This will be collected by me randomly during the semester and returned within 24 hours.                                                                   

20% of your grade

2.      Midterm/Reaction paper: This will be a take-home essay in which you will be required to integrate information from the readings and class discussions.  This will test your progress on Content Goals #1-3. 15%  of your grade

3.      Self-designed Lab Project:  Working alone or with a partner, you will perform a lab-based experiment to investigate the toxic effects of the site.  This will take between 4 and 8 weeks.  Three lab projects (20% of the grade).  These will test your progress on Content Goal #3, and Skill Goals #3,5 &6.    

20% of your grade

4.      Self and Group Assessment:  at the end of the 4^th and 10^th week, you will write a 1-page assessment of the quality and productivity of: 1) your work individually, 2) the team work, and 3) my work as a mentor.  I will do the same.  We will meet individually to review your and my assessments.  This will be used to assess you mastery of Skill Goals #4&5.

20% of your grade

5.      Final Report:  The final product is the report we produce as a team, given the time and financial constraints that we are working under.  As happens in the workplace, the team is assessed as a whole; therefore, all students will receive the based on the quality and professionalism on the final report. This will reflect your progress on Content Goals 1-5 and Skill Goals 1,2,6,7.

25% of your grade

Grading of written work: 

A= exceptional work, extremely impressive, near flawless in terms of content and presentation

B= above the expectations of the assignment, but has room for improvement in terms of content and/or presentation

C= meeting the obligations of the assignment, lacking sufficient attention to content and presentation

D= does not meet obligations of assignment, and lacking sufficient attention to content and presentation

F =  unacceptable level of effort for the assignment

Grade scale:    A = 93-100,  A- = 90-92, B+ = 87-89, B = 83-86,  B- = 80-82,  C+  = 77-79, 

                        C = 73-76,  C- = 70-72,  D+ = 67-69,  D = 63-66,  D- = 60-62,  F < 60

There is no extra credit.

Midterm Essay                        15%                 5 pages typed

Reflective Journal                   20%                 Includes attendance and contribution    

Self-designed Lab Project:     20%                 Written and oral (10% each)

Self/Group Assessment:          20%                 ½ your critical review, ½ my assessment of your work

Final Report:                           25%                 Assessment of the work in its entirety

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry - this is the home page for the federal Center for Disease Control's division responsible for toxic substances.  It contains new stories, health advisories, public health assessments and access to databases of hazardous substances.
ATSDR Public Risk Assessments - this will take you directly to a list of public risk assessments.
BasicBIOSIS - this link brings you to Ithaca College's alphabetic list of indexes and databases where you can enter the BasicBIOSIS home page.  Here you can also search for scientific journal article titles and abstracts by subject, keyword, author, title, year, or journal.
Cal/Ecotox - this link brings you to the home page of the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA).  You can search at this site for a variety of information, including articles, exposure factor data, and toxicology data.  You can search by chemicals or species, and download reports.
Ecotoxnet
Environmental Contaminants Encyclopedia - Compiled by the National Park Service, this web page provides access to detailed reports on fate, behavior, effects and levels of concern for 120 environmental contaminants.
Infotrac - this link brings you to Ithaca College Library's infotrac search engine where you can search Expanded Academic ASAP for scientific journal articles and print abstracts or full text articles.
National Council for Science and the Environment - this link brings you to a cyberspace universe of environmental information.  Updates, pending federal legislation, maps, on-line environmental journals, and jobs - you name it, it's here.
Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry - this link brings you to the SETAC home page, where you can proceed to search the online journal of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry by subject/keywords for useful titles and abstracts of articles from this journal.
Risk Assessment as a Career - personal essay by an EPA Risk Assessor
ToxNet

Some excellent sources for environmental updates and news articles:
Environmental News Network
Envirolink News Service
PlanetArk Environmental News

 

Back to the Biology Department Home Page

Back to the IC Home page