1 Introductory Note Rules for Biochemistry Labs It is each student s responsibility to read and understand all of the Biology Department s rules and guidelines. Students are encouraged to resolve any questions or uncertainties regarding these rules by contacting their instructor at the beginning of the semester and before any work needs to be submitted in class. Students need to keep in mind throughout the semester that all students follow these rules STRICTLY. Exceptions may be made in extreme cases only (e.g. severe illness, death in family) and only when accompanied by proper documentation and depending on the Instructor s discretion. Safety Rules No eating or drinking is allowed in any of the laboratories or prep rooms. All drinks and food items (including chewing gum) need to be left outside the labs; trash needs to be disposed of in the hallway. Familiarize yourself with the location of all exits, the safety shower, the eyewash, the first aid kit (above lab sink) and the sharps container. Students need to wear closed-toed shoes (they need to cover your feet!), otherwise students will NOT be allowed to attend the lab. This will result in a zero for that lab (quiz, participation AND report/assignment) as the student did not perform the experiment and therefore is unable to write the corresponding report. Students are required to clean up their benches, place all lab materials back in heir proper place, push their chairs in and wash their hands before leaving lab. Keeping the workplace safe and in order is part of lab performance and will be considered as part of the participation grade. Students need to act with caution in all the laboratories as they may work with potentially hazardous chemical and agents, as well as open flames. Students need to be aware and alert at all times in the lab, and their focus needs to be on the lab work. Any personal business, such as talking on the phone and/or texting, will not be tolerated in lab/during lab time. Students using their phone may be asked to leave and will lose credit for that lab (5% for unexcused absence, additional points for not completing the lab work required to write reports/assignments). Cell phones MUST be stored away from the lab benches, e.g. in the students backpacks.
2 Laboratory/Grading Rules Attendance: Attendance (100%) is mandatory there are NO make up labs! If a student misses a lab, automatically 5% of their final lab grade will be deducted UNLESS the student has a valid excuse (severe illness, death in the family, etc.) AND contacts the their instructor before lab begins. Documentation/Absences: Any documentation needs to be submitted within 1 week, otherwise the penalty for missing lab unexcused and other penalties (e.g. late reports) will apply. This documentation will only be accepted if the instructor has been contacted (see above). If a student misses lab and is excused but a make-up lab cannot be scheduled, the student may still submit a lab report, but 5% of the report grade will be deducted as lab report grades include the actual lab work. Students need to be on time instructors will take each student s participation into account when calculating final grades. Points will be deducted if students act inconsistently with the Rules and Guidelines, e.g. students are not prepared for lab, don t clean up their work space, arrive late to lab, or use their phones. The instructor is not required to repeat information given in a student s absence. Students are responsible for ALL material covered during lab. If a student is late for lab, a proportional deduction will be taken of the assignments/reports based on that labs work, i.e. if a student misses 30 minutes of a lab with actual duration of 120 minutes, then 25% of the original report grade will be deducted (e.g. 5 pts of a report worth 20 pts). If a student misses more than two labs, consultation with the course instructor is required and completion of this course is NOT guaranteed. If lab is not taking place for any reason (e.g. weather cancellation) lab reports will still be due on time on blackboard and paper copies need to be submitted by the start of the next class session. Preparation for Lab: Students have to be prepared for lab. Students need to read over the experiment before coming to lab so that they are knowledgeable and organized while performing each experiment. All students in a lab group need to contribute equally to their group s in-
3 lab work. Again, your instructor will consider this factor every week for lab/report grades (participation). Students are strongly encouraged to create their own outline of an experiment at home in their lab notebooks so that they are more thoroughly prepared and can follow along more easily. This shows the instructor that you came prepared for lab. Report Submission/Late Reports/Turnitin/Receipts: Lab reports/assignments have to be submitted on time (at beginning of lab). This includes Turnitin reports as well as paper copies. Late reports may be submitted and a 10% per day day penalty will apply (counting in 24-hour intervals starting at beginning of lab). If a report is one week late (i.e. the following lab meeting, begin of lab) it automatically is assigned a zero. NOTE: Eligibility for full credit for a report is based on quality of the report itself as well as proper submission. NOTE: A printout copy of the Turnitin/Blackboard receipt needs to be attached to the front of your paper report when submitting it (otherwise 5% deduction). NOTE: All reports need to be submitted in Microsoft Word document format (.doc/.docx) to turnitin! Do not email your report to your instructor. In general, students have one week to complete reports. Students need to make sure they turn their reports in early on Blackboard/Turnitin to avoid any situations that may delay report submission. Technical issues, such as problems with Blackboard/Turnitin, with personal or NEU computers, or printers will NEVER count as an excuse. Report paper copies need to be submitted at the time the lab is scheduled to begin and will be considered on time until the time the lab instructor begins teaching or gives the quiz, whichever comes first. Reports may be submitted thereafter and a point deduction will apply (10% per day, see above). Again, technical issues will not be accepted as valid excuses for late submission. Back up your work! If your computer crashes, you are still required to hand in your report on time. Turnitin reports that are submitted even 1 minute late (the program marks late reports) will lose 10% per day (see above). Again, it is the student s responsibility to ensure the reports are submitted on time. Do not wait until the last day or even last hour to submit your reports!
4 NOTE: Rarely, Blackboard may be down for a while. Because students have several days to complete and submit lab reports, a technical issue with Blackboard will NOT be accepted as a valid excuse for late report submission! Make it a habit to turn your reports in EARLY. Then, if difficulties arise, students still have the opportunity to submit reports on time. Every report submitted by the given due date (usually 1 week after lab was completed) counts as the report that has officially been submitted and is the report that will be graded. No re-submission is allowed AFTER the deadline has been met. Make sure your report is COMPLETE as no changes will be permitted after the report has been submitted NO EXCEPTIONS! The Turnitin report and paper report must be identical! If a student s electronic copy differs from their paper copy, this will be considered cheating and may be referred to OSCCR. The student will receive a zero for the report. If correctly submitted (make sure you go through the complete submission cycle), Blackboard will send the submitter a receipt via email. Students need to save all their receipts as proof of report submission (create a special folder for that in your email) until the end of the semester. Please be aware that if no receipt is sent by Blackboard, the report submission did not occur properly and Turnitin never received a copy of the student s report. The student then needs to submit their report to Turnitin again until they receive a receipt. Students need to calculate this potential delay into their submission timeline! Again, a copy of the Turnitin/Blackboard receipt needs to be attached to the front of your paper report when submitting it (otherwise 5% deduction). Lab assignments/reports are usually returned after 1 week (longer reports may take up to 2 weeks). Instructors will always check Turnitin right away for plagiarism and if no dishonesty issue is apparent at that time, a grade will be assigned based on the student s work. However, throughout the semester Turnitin continues to update its records and source-matches, resulting in late detections of plagiarism and cheating. Because of this, an instructor may become aware of plagiarism/cheating after a lab report has already been graded and returned to the student. In these cases, the instructor reserves the right to withdraw this student s report and grade, assign a penalty based on the severity of the offense, and determine a new grade for the report (cheating/plagiarism will usually result in a zero for that report). If a lab report is due during the last week of the class, it needs to be on time! Since the instructor has to submit grades soon, late reports may be submitted only until one day after the original due date and will lose 10%. All reports handed in after that time will automatically be graded as zero.
5 Help/Contacting Your Instructor Listen carefully to the instructions given by your instructor - they will be helpful for conducting the experiments as well as the writing of your reports. Students may hear these instructions only once and need to pay close attention and take notes! Students are responsible for all the information provided during lab, even if they were not present during lab. Office hours are by appointment only and are only arranged for issues that cannot be solved in class or by email. Do not expect your emails to be answered immediately but you should expect a reply with 24 hours, so plan accordingly. Instructors will not review students reports before submission deadline. If a student needs help with their report, please email specific questions. If a student is unable to reach their instructor they may contact the Lab Supervisor, Frauke Argyros, at 617-373-2118, f.argyros@neu.edu (703 Behrakis). Safety/Cleaning/Following Rules: Cell phone use is not permitted in the labs as students need to be focused on their lab work for safety reasons. If a student is observed using the phone, s/he may be asked to leave the lab. The student will then lose credit for unexcused absence and may also lose points on the report/s/assignment based on that particular lab. At a minimum the student will lose a portion of the participation credit (typically 1-5%). IMPORTANT: Students are required to clean their workspace before leaving the labs. That includes placing all materials back into their proper place, discarding lab waste into the proper containers, pushing chairs in, removing all trash and washing hands. (This is included in participation grade for each report/assignment). Be Aware: It is expected that students are prepared for lab, participate and abide by the rules at any time. Only then will a student receive the full credit for participation. It may take only 1 or 2 adverse incidents (e.g. repeated use of phone, violating safety rules, disrespectful behavior) for a student to lose the full participation credit! Look for announcements on Blackboard regularly and make sure to check your email for announcements related to this class.
6 Plagiarism/Cheating Guidelines A Note On Plagiarism/Cheating: The Academic Integrity Policy For Northeastern University is posted at: http://www.northeastern.edu/osccr/academichonesty.html It is a student s responsibility to make sure they understand what academic dishonesty (including cheating, plagiarism) entails. If a student has any questions, please talk to your instructor BEFORE any problems may arise! Our policy on plagiarism and academic dishonesty is very strict and instructors are required to enforce it. In general, a student will receive a zero for the submitted report. However, depending on the circumstances and the severity of the offense, cases may be referred to OSCCR (Office for Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution) immediately. A student may then be put on probation or may even be expelled from this University. - Turnitin compares your work and checks it for originality against published resources this includes lab reports previously and simultaneously submitted by other students, books, papers, online sources and others. - Turnitin flags reports that have a high similarity to other works/literature. A high similarity index is NEVER due to coincidence but is proof that a student used someone else s work to complete their own or that students shared their work on their reports/assignments. - Avoid a common mistake: NEVER COPY and/or PASTE from other sources! Do not repeat your source verbatim! This will result in a zero for the student s work and referral to OSCCR. This includes taking sentences from sources and slightly changing them by replacing some words. Do NOT use quotations in scientific work/your reports as you are required to express any background information and all your work in your own words (offenses will result in point deduction or a zero). Do NOT work together with other students to complete your reports. Every student MUST write their reports/assignments independently from other students. - Present your work in YOUR OWN WORDS! The work you submit needs to be original work.
7 - Do not use reports/work from other students in any way to complete your own work! - There are no exceptions to this rule! Students are required to work independently and submit their own, original work. While experiments are conducted in groups, every student needs to formulate their own sentences, put together their own paragraphs, tables, graphs and outline for each report/assignment. Students must create their own ideas individually, come up with an analysis of the results, express their findings in their own words, answer questions independently and without help from other students this includes work completed and/or submitted by students from the current and previous semesters. Reports that are flagged by Turnitin because of similarities to other sources will be penalized (zero for report). If two students submit reports/assignments that are similar in organization and wording even if just for a portion of the report it is obvious that they worked together and both students will receive a zero for their report. NOTE: Make sure to take your own notes in class, and do not formulate sentences that you share with your group mates! Do not write your report or parts of it while discussing it with your classmates this will lead to similarities that will be flagged by Turnitin. All students with similar work will receive a zero for that report/assignment. All students have to set up, label, and title their own data tables. Tables may not be shared with other students; otherwise a penalty will apply. All students have to create, label, and title their own graphs. Graphs may not be shared with other students; otherwise a penalty will apply. Photos may be shared within a lab group of students, but labels and such need to be applied individually. Never copy and/or paste any words, sentences or paragraphs from any other source- do not repeat verbatim. This will result in a zero for the report. Always use your own words. Copying and/or pasting, even when a source is listed, is not acceptable in a piece of work in which students are required to submit their own ORIGINAL work. Students may paraphrase (repeat in your own words!) small portions but need to list their sources.
8 Do not use sentences from other sources that you have just changed slightly Turnitin will detect them as a close match to that source (zero!). Students MUST use their own COMPLETE sentences. Use citations sparsely in your reports (if at all), as you are expected to draw from your own knowledge and information covered in class. Source and year need to be listed in parentheses. DO NOT QUOTE! You need to demonstrate in your report that you understand the experiment, background and analysis. Do not use someone else s work/sentences. Quoting will result in a zero for the report. Students are responsible for the work they submit electronically and as paper. Students need to make sure they are submitting the version of their report that they intend to submit, and that the Turnitin version and paper version are identical (otherwise zero for report, possibly OSCCR). No altered submissions will be allowed after submission has taken place. Students need to make sure the complete report is written in their own words. If a student receives a zero on a report because it was flagged by Turnitin and this student has handed in another report before s/he was aware that his/her previous report got flagged, and this second report is also a product of cheating/plagiarism like the first one, the student will still be held accountable for the second offense, will get another zero and will be referred to OSCCR. Students are expected to be familiar with all the rules/guidelines outlined in this document and to adhere to these rules without additional warning. If a student is retaking this biochemistry lab and submits reports that contain any material that has previously been flagged by Turnitin (e.g. if students re-submit reports that have been flagged by Turnitin before), their work will be graded as zero. Students must not share their work with any other student, irrespective of whether these students are from a current or future semester. Because students are required to do their own original work, the student who provides their report/work to another student contributes to cheating and plagiarism, will get a zero on their report and may be referred to OSCCR. Students who have taken this class in the past or are currently taking this class and pass their reports/work on to students of following semesters may be referred to OSSCR as Turnitin will be able to match reports to theirs in the future.