Fall 2000
(http://academic.uofs.edu/faculty/cannon/bns/f00/)
Instructor J. Timothy Cannon, Ph.D.
Office AMH 204
Telephone 9414266 (Office) 586-2022 (Home)
Email cannon@scranton.edu
This lab is designed to complement and extend the knowledge you will gain in the lecture component of Behavioral Neuroscience. To some extent, the lab can be customized to your interests. Let me know at the beginning of the semester if you have any particular interests that you would like to pursue and we'll see what we can do.
There will be a number of assignments due throughout the semester and students are responsible for making sure they are completed on time. Satisfactory completion of all assignments and satisfactory performance on the sheep brain practical (see below) will earn you a course grade of "A". Your grade will be reduced for assignments that were not completed (you start out with a grade of 4.67--see lecture syllabus for explanation).
Your first project in this lab will be to master the sheep brain dissection. You are responsible for dissecting your own sheep brain (with the assistance of our sheep brain dissection guide found on the web at http://academic.uofs.edu/department/psych/sheep). This assignment will culminate with a practical during the 3rd week of the semester. The practical will be worth 1 1/3 letter grade (see, however, below) and performance on the sheep brain practical will be assessed as follows:
Percent Correct Grade Change
90%-100% no grade reduction
70%-89% .33 grade reduction
50%-69% .67
30%-49% 1 grade reduction
0%-29% 1.33 grade reduction
Failure to take the practical on time will result in a 1.33 letter grade deduction. If you fail to achieve a score of 50% on the practical, you must be retested on a weekly basis until this level of performance is reached. Every subsequent failure will reduce your lab grade by 1.0.
The remainder of the outline will consist of seven additional projects which will be described and/or demonstrated in your lab periods. These assignments will not be graded; however, failure to complete any assignment by the due date will result in a lowering of your lab grade by 1.0.
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| Must Complete: |
| Cut and mount brain |
| Nissl stain slides |
| Microproject and trace |
| Low-power microscope and framegrabbing |
| Low-power slide on web with links to description of structures |
| Low to high power microscope/web storyboard |
| Must Choose 1 of the following: |
| Non-survival stereotaxic surgery (chosen from lab manual) |
| Golgi stain and analysis |
| Snail axoplasmic transport dip |
You will be responsible for producing computerized, multimedia lab reports on lab activities. It sounds impressive, and it can be. Not to worry, however, it shouldn't be too challenging. The software we'll be using is very user friendly.
Because the scheduled lab classes will be used to demonstrate procedures and use of equipment, it will be necessary for students to come in at other times to complete work on their assignments.
Lab hours will be posted on the door along with sign up sheets for the following week. If the available hours are not satisfactory, it is possible to make other arrangements. In such instances, contact Dr. Cannon or Jenn at least one day in advance of the time you wish to use the lab. These guidelines must be followed in order to prevent confusion between both students and other researchers currently using the lab facilities.
Enjoy--Enjoy!!