Overview

Lab Rules/Regulations

1. No food or drink at the lab benches.
2. No personal electronic devices will be permitted in the lab. This includes laptops, tablets, and phones. Computers will be provided for completing the laboratory activities, and you are welcome to bring a lab notebook that is designated for lab use only (it should not be the same binder with notes from your other classes).
3. You must wear closed-toed shoes, a lab coat, and chemical splash goggles. Long hair must be tied back. Disposable masks can be provided at the start of each lab, but are not required.
4. During the lab, we will be enforcing proper lab PPE protocols – this means that lab coats must remain buttoned up at all times.
5. Your lab coat and goggles should be stored in a sealed plastic bag within your backpack – you should not have your lab coat coming into contact with your other possessions in your backpack during travel. Large bags will be provided at the first lab.
6. Arrive 5 minutes prior to the start of your lab. If you arrive late, you must speak to the TA before being permitted to enter the classroom to ensure the safety of everyone. If you are more than 15 minutes late, you may not be permitted to join the rest of the class. This will be dealt with on a case by case basis.
7. Failure to comply with the lab rules will result in removal from the lab for the remainder of that lab session. Our most important priority during this semester is keeping all of you safe, and we ask that you all follow the health and safety protocols we have established to keep our lab environment a welcoming one.

Note – A lab coat is required for this course, and may be required for other courses that you may take during your degree. That said, you may not always need your lab coat. For that reason, ReCoat partners with the McMaster community to keep lab coats in the lab and not the landfill. Instead of tossing used lab coats in the garbage or the back of a closet, ReCoat promotes our circular economy by collecting lightly used lab coats and redistributing them to students. To join our circular economy, take the ReCoat Sustainability pledge and pledge to donate your lab coat when you are finished with it. 

Course Schedule and Deadlines

Table I: Schedule of Topics, Assessments, and Deadlines

Course Structure

The LIFESCI 2L03 course will use a grading system called “specifications grading”

What does this mean for you, as students?

Table II: Bundling Scaffold for Assessment Completion Tied to Overall Course Letter Grades (the GradeGrid)

Modules

There will be weekly modules consisting of:

1. Online lecture(s) – asynchronous
2. In-person lab activities – synchronous
3. In-person tutorials – synchronous
4. Assessments – deconstructed lab reports, lab test, end-of-term reflection. These will not occur every week.

Textbook

You do not need to purchase a textbook for this course.

Module activities (i.e. lab and tutorial activities) and assessment instructions will be provided in this Pressbook.

Some content in the Pressbook will be password protected. This password will be provided to you on Avenue to Learn.

Pressbooks is designed to be viewed through your web browser, but we will provide a downloadable PDF version on Avenue to Learn. If we make edits during the semester, we will notify you so the updated version can be re-downloaded from Avenue (edits will automatically update in the web version). The web version will provide a better experience as it contains interactive features, is easier to navigate, is formatted correctly, and will directly play videos that are embedded within it. The downloaded PDF version will contain all the content (e.g. videos will be provided through a link), but will not contain the interactive features, and the formatting won’t be as clean.

Lectures

The lectures are available asynchronously online via Avenue to Learn/Echo360

You should watch the lecture video(s) for the module before your scheduled virtual lab. There will be Echo360 Lecture Engagement questions included in these asynchronous lectures, with completion and accuracy being considered in meeting specifications. Questions must be completed by the specified due date to be accepted as on time. Review the GradeGrid to ensure you are familiar with your chosen goal for lecture completion/accuracy of polling question responses.

Labs

Laboratory learning will take place in ABB 106 at the time specified on Mosaic for your laboratory section, and will be facilitated by a TA. 

You will be expected to arrive 5 minutes prior to the start of the scheduled lab time. In general, the format of the labs will be the same week to week. The first part of the lab will be an overview of the lab activities, and possibly a demonstration led by the TA, and the remainder of the lab time will be used to work on these activities and complete your electronic lab notebook on Crowdmark. The TA will be available during your lab time to answer questions. The data collected during the lab will be used to complete the lab notebook.

The quantity of labs attended/lab notebooks completed is tied to your letter grade in the course. Review the GradeGrid to ensure you know how many labs you will choose to complete to meet your course goal.

Tutorial

The tutorials will take place in your designated tutorial classroom (refer to Mosaic schedule for room number for your tutorial section) and will be facilitated by a TA.

Please arrive on time to your tutorial section, as activities will begin promptly. Tutorials are an opportunity for higher level engagement with the application of laboratory techniques/research tools in the broader world, through the use of case studies led by your TA. These case studies will delve deeper into a scientific problem related to the laboratory content completed that week and societal implications of such research.

Assessments

Follow along with the Course Schedule and note which assessments are due when. The majority of assessments are completed during class time to reduce the amount of homework you are completing outside of class time for this course.

The types of assessments include:

• In-lab Assessments: students will submit work completed during lab time on the day of the lab. This may include raw data, processed data, responses to questions, etc. These are your Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs).
• Deconstructed Lab Report Assignments: there will be five deconstructed lab reports (DLRs) completed throughout the semester.
• Case Studies: students will complete case studies during tutorial time.
• Laboratory Skills Test: this will be an in-person test that will evaluate your skills and knowledge related to the overall course.
• Final Video Reflection: this is a final reflection submitted at the end of term through Microsoft Teams.

Academic Integrity

Communication Between Students and the Instructional Team

Emails

Any e-mails addressed to the instructional team (instructor, IA or TAs) must:

• Have a brief, relevant subject line
• Come from an @mcmaster.ca e-mail account
• Copy in all relevant parties (e.g. other markers, other group members).

All e-mail communication addressed to students will be sent to their @mcmaster.ca e-mail account.

Students are strongly encouraged to ask general course- or assessment-related questions by posting in the designated MS Teams Channel made available to them. Questions of this nature sent via e-mail may be directed to be reposted to the MS Teams Channel.

If the inquiry is not a general course- or assessment-related question, this should be directed to the instructional team by email. If it is personal enough to be sent privately, it should be formally documented by email. Please do not contact the instructional team by MS Teams chat, especially if it is an issue that can be resolved by posting to the appropriate channel (see table III below), or involves a query that needs to be documented (e.g., re-assessment request). Chat messages cannot be tracked and organized efficiently and will not be answered.

Table III: Guide for directing correspondence

Booking Office Hours

Instructor (Dr. Ana Tomljenovic-Berube)

• Offered virtually (online) over Microsoft Teams OR in-person: Available by appointment. Office hour days/times will be announced at the start of term.
• Please email Dr. Tomljenovic-Berube at tomljeam@mcmaster.ca to schedule a meeting time outside the above scheduled office hours.

Instructional Assistant (Alastair Tracey)

• Offered in-person or online over Microsoft Teams
• 3:00-4:00 PM, Monday to Friday in ABB 112C
• Please email Alastair at atracey@mcmaster.ca to schedule a meeting time outside the above scheduled office hours.

Policies on Submitting Work, Missed Work and Late Penalties

We recognize that the use and reliance on the MSAF by students is closely tied with both stress and time management. This section contains information on how and where to submit your work for this course, and what to do if you do not submit something. Ensure you have carefully read the information in this section before submitting an MSAF, as the accommodation we will provide is likely described there. In general, individual assessments are eligible for MSAF accommodation while group assessments are not.

Refer to the University policy on the MSAF

When using the MSAF, enter the Instructional Assistant and email (LS2L03@mcmaster.ca) as the contact for the course. You must also report your absence to the instructional assistant immediately (normally within 2 working days) using the email LS2L03@mcmaster.ca. Students MUST follow up with the instructional assistant – failure to do so may negate the opportunity for relief. 

What if you do not send the MSAF to the correct email address? We will still accept the MSAF, but please note that it may take some extra time as we will not have received it in the correct location. To ensure we can address it efficiently, please ensure you use the correct email (LS2L03@mcmaster.ca) when submitting the MSAF.