Anatomy and Physiology II

Anatomy & Physiology II (BIOL202) is a 4-credit course administered by the Department of  Anatomical Sciences at St. George’s University, Grenada. BIOL202 is a direct continuation of Anatomy & Physiology I (BIOL101). BIOL202 continues the student's introduction to the structure and function of the human body with a focus on the nervous, endocrine, reproductive, urinary, cardiovascular-blood, lymphatics, and immune systems, integuments. The student’s basic understanding of the anatomy and physiology of the human body will continue to develop throughout the delivery of the course. Students will continue to learn and apply their knowledge of human anatomy and physiology to normal, healthy individuals as well as clinical correlations that are relevant to the health sciences.  

• Course Director:
  • Feimatta Sowa, MD fsowa@sgu.edu       
• Associate Course Director:
  • Mohamed Abdelrahim, MD mabdelra@sgu.edu
• Secretarial Staff:
  • Ms. Maisha Y. Archibald myarchibald@sgu.edu  
• Teaching Faculty: 
  • Vasavi Gorantla, PhD               vgorantl@sgu.edu 
  • Elio Plevneshi, MD                  eplevne1@sgu.edu
  • Woongkee Baek, MD              wbaek@sgu.edu  
  • Crystal Antoine-Frank, MD    cantoinef@sgu.edu                                    
  • Michael Montalbano, MD   mmontal1@sgu.edu  
  • Geobrina Hargrove, MD         ghargrov@sgu.edu 
  • Feimatta Sowa, MD                fsowa@sgu.edu                                   
• DES Facilitator
  • TBA

All communication between students and teaching faculty, course director or secretarial staff will only be done via SGU email accounts. Correspondence from other sources will not be entertained due to privacy issues.   

For all administrative questions and problems including exams, grades etc. please contact the course director at:  fsowa@sgu.edu and mabdelra@sgu.edu

For notification of an absence from any scheduled laboratory session, lecture quiz or lecture exam, please send an e-mail to:  myarchibald@sgu.edu 

Faculty Appointments   

All faculty appointments need to be made through online platform with the course secretary between the hours of 09:30 – 15:30 only. 

Content Related Questions 

For all content-related questions, the most efficient way is the use of the Forum in My Courses. It is a convenient site to interact with other students and is moderated by faculty.   

Forums in My Courses:   

Use only professional language relevant to course material: no derogative remarks or inappropriate language is allowed. All posts must be accompanied with the full name of the person posting.  Inability to provide your full name is a violation of the honor code and will result in your post being deleted.  

Announcements:   

Announcements regarding e.g. exam venues, grades, program and schedule changes etc. will be posted in My Courses.  

Students are expected to attend all scheduled course activities as they are an essential component for your success and no make-up sessions are available.  

Attendance (as printed in the 2015-2016 St. George’s University Student Manual p.10)  “Students are expected to attend all classes and clinical rotations for which they have registered. Although attendance may not be taken at every academic activity, attendance may be taken randomly. Students’ absence may adversely affect their academic status as specified in the grading policy. If an absence from individual classes, examinations, activities or from the University itself is anticipated or occurs spontaneously due to illness or other extenuating circumstances, proper notification procedures must be followed. A particular course may define additional policies regarding specific attendance or participation.”  

1. Textbook:  Tortora & Derrickson: Principles of Anatomy and Physiology, 15th Edition  
2. Lecture Handouts  
3. Online image banks in MyCourses  

The textbook and the lecture notes are meant to serve as the primary source for all necessary knowledge in this course. Successful students will become familiar with the textbook, read and review required sections, and use the text to complete course learning objectives. 

Professionalism  

Professional behavior, communication and interpersonal skills will be assessed. It addresses timeliness, compliance, accountability, appearance, interactions, teamwork, motivation, and respect. It is anticipated that students will always demonstrate professional behavior, and therefore, earn their full professionalism points. Should there be documented evidence of a student’s failure to demonstrate expected professional behavior as assessed, he/she may experience loss of all professionalism points. You will lose points based on your activities relating to attendance, compliance, and participation in course sessions. 

Lectures  

All lectures will be conducted virtually via pre-recorded videos on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10:00am – 11.15am. 

A detailed lecture schedule is available in the My Courses - Resources folder.

The emphasis in the lectures is to give an outline of what students are expected to know, prioritize important aspects, and explain some of the difficult concepts. The lecturer may not be able to cover all the aspects listed in the handouts. Students are expected to cover the remaining portions by themselves following the course objectives. There are assigned Direct Learning Activities (DLA,s) with course objectives that students should do self-study for. These topics/objectives include exam content and should be studied and expected in exams.  

 It is an important learning exercise for students to learn to read textbooks and study important information. Pre-reading of the objectives and lectures notes will be of great help in understanding the lecture.   

Laboratory Sessions  

Two laboratory sessions take place during the term and will be carried out as live sessions with videos and image materials to be discussed. Laboratory sessions are designed to be an active, student-driven, hands-on experience. You will work in small groups with your peers to discuss laboratory topics and identify anatomical structures, specimens, and images. Faculty will be available for assistance. Each lab session will end with 15 question on images from course content and 5 questions from cadaver/video specimen (total of 20 clicker/scantron quiz  questions) based on material discussed during recent lectures and the lab session.  Lab. points will be lost is a student is absent for the live Lab. sessions. Attendance is absolutely necessary, and no make-up sessions are allowed.  

Online Quizzes  

There are 11 online quizzes that will be posted on My Courses throughout the term. Each online quiz is only open for one week. The Online Quiz schedule lists the opening and closing dates for each online quiz and is available in the My Courses - Resources folder. All students are strongly advised to take the online quizzes soon after they are posted and are encouraged not to wait till the end of the week. All students must complete the quizzes individually. Your access to these assignments will be recorded and traceable. Upon completion of the online quizzes, you MUST attain at least half of the required points to be awarded full points for each quiz, eg. If total awarded points for a given quiz is 1 point, you must attain 0.5 point and above to get full credit for that quiz participation. Points below the required mark will not be awarded a grade for that quiz and student will receive a zero, (0) grade.

Do not print/distribute any of the on-line questions. To do so is a violation of both copyright law and the SGU Honor Code as outlined in the Student Manual.  

Assignments  

There are assignments in the course, and you will be informed by the course team of the specifics to the assignments. 

Buzz Sessions: These are live sessions where you will be placed in a group and allowed to discuss topics related to already given lectures. You will then present your discussions to the entire class and faculty as a team. You will lose points for absence from sessions or lack of participation with team members. No make-up sessions are allowed.

Examination Attendance  

All matriculated students are expected to attend all assigned academic activities for each course currently registered. Medical excuses will be based on self-reporting by students. Students who feel they are too sick to take an examination or other required activity on a specific day must send an email to the Course Director and the Career Guidance Center of the School of Arts and Sciences. The email must state that the student does not feel well enough that day to take an examination or participate in another required educational activity. Students should realize that the faculty and administration expect this to be an infrequent occurrence. Students are only allowed two such excuses a year. The third excuse will result in a mandatory medical leave of absence. The policies regarding make-up examinations are at the option of the Course Director. 

Students are advised to adhere to Examination Services rules and regulations during an exam setting. For example, students are not allowed to have certain items during exam settings (phones, hoody sweaters/coats, etc..). Failure to abide by rules will lead to disciplinary actions by the exam services department. You will be informed of the rules from this department via emails. Please be aware.  

Course objectives are a detailed list of learning objectives given to the students for each lecture topic of the course and linked to the required textbook. Course objectives are available in the My Courses - Resources folder. 

The My Courses site contains multiple tools and applications that facilitate the administration of the course. 

COMMUNICATION  

Announcements – Important notifications, quiz and exam results etc. 

Forums - Students may post academic and administrative questions on the forum. Faculty will moderate the forum and provide feedback on questions and answers. It is a requirement to always put your name at the end of each posting. Anonymous messages are in violation of the student honor code and will be deleted.  

COURSE TOOLS  

Resources – Important course material. 

Course Information - Class schedule, online quiz schedule, course syllabus, course objectives, laboratory checklists etc. 

Images – Bank of anatomical images that may be used for laboratory and quizzes and examinations. 

Lectures - All course lectures are available as PDF documents.  

Tests & Quizzes – Student access to online quizzes. 

Gradebook – Student access to all course assessments, scores, and grades. TurningTechnologies – registration of clicker devices used for attendance and lab quizzes. 

All exams will be done via ExamSoft software. Quizzes are set on the SGU Sakai site, under test and quizzes.  

The exams each contain 50 multiple choice questions on course material presented in each quarter of the course. The date, time, venue, and other details related to the exams will be made available on My Courses. Exams are cumulative and may include up to 10 -15% of cumulative content.  

Grades are awarded objectively based on points earned in the course. A higher letter grade may be missed (or gained) by a tenth of a point. The course director cannot curve grades and there are no options for extra points. All grades are final based on points earned during the term. 

Please do not send emails or seek appointments to discuss this issue. Grade appeals will only be considered if an error has been made in recording or calculations.  

Exam Question Review  

All SGU examinations are sequestered and are not available for individual review. Students having any queries regarding examination questions should make an appointment to discuss their views with the Course Director, but exams will not be revised with students. 

Question Review Procedure  

The scoring process for written examinations includes consideration of students’ question review requests and statistical item analysis. If a test item (question) in the exam is deleted for any reason from any examination, all responses to that questions will be accepted as correct.  

Release of Examination Grades  

Results of all assessments will be published online in My Courses. Errors in published scores must be reported to the course director for validation within a period of two weeks. Any errors reported after the deadline will not be considered.  

Completion Exams  

A student can be eligible for a completion exam in the case of a medical excuse or an excused absence. The format of the completion exam may differ from the original exam format at the discretion of the course director. Completion exams may include a combination of multiple-choice questions, fill-in the blanks, essay questions or an oral exam. Students requesting completion exams MUST get a letter of permit email to the course directors about the need to be considered for a completion exam before it can be granted. Completion exams dates are at the discretion of the course director, usually set a week after all final exams for the course are completed or later.

Throughout the term, the internet, My Courses or other SGU sites may be down or inaccessible. Please submit the online assignments well in advance of the closing date and do not wait until the last minute. For any internet or My Courses problems, please contact the IT department directly. The Department of Anatomical Sciences is not responsible for any malfunctions of the university network or My Courses site or any of its components. 

• Attend all lectures and laboratories on time. 
• Actively participate in lecture and laboratory activities. 
• Ensure your computer and ExamSoft are up to date and in working order. 
• In case of an absence due to illness, inform the course director as soon as possible.  
• Check your SGU email daily – all course correspondence must use SGU email account. 
• Submit online assignments on time – do not wait until the last minute. 
• Check posted scores on gradebook – report any possible errors within 2 weeks. 
• Ask for assistance at the earliest sign of difficulty. 
• Voice your honest feedback on course surveys and evaluations. 
• Treat faculty, students and staff with respect. 
• Read the course syllabus & be familiar with all policies. 
• Read your student SGU handbook. 

• Practice good study habits. 
• Practice good time management. 
• Communicate with peers and faculty. 
• Do not think you have to do it all by yourself - work in a group with study partners. 
• Use the Department of Educational Services (DES) to assist you with study skills, time management skills and test taking skills. 
• Seek advice from your course director, program director and student advisor. 
• Respond promptly to all SGU correspondence. 

Success in the Course  

• Preview - read ahead for lectures and laboratory sessions.  
• Attendance - attend all lecture and laboratory activities. 
• Participate – be active in lectures and labs.
• Review - study material soon after lectures 
• Questions –ask questions before, during and after class. 
• Self-quiz – Make good use of your textbook and complete all figure and end of chapter review questions.

Disclaimer: It is your responsibility to read and understand the policies, laws, rules, and procedures that while they could affect your grade for a course, have not been specifically outlined in the course syllabus.  These are contained in the St. George’s University Student Manual.