Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Hello! Thanks for your interest in BI 112! 

This class is being delivered in a "hybrid" modality, with lecture conducted both in-person and as remotely-accessed video recordings.  Materials are provided at a shared website on D2L, 24/7, for students to access on their own schedule. This type of class requires a high degree of organization and self-direction from students, with the expectation that you will access and learn much of the material outside of the scheduled meetings on campus.

For lecture, we will have a required meeting once a week on campus, which is where you will also take quizzes and exams, review lecture material, and practice concepts with in-class activities. A second weekly lecture will be accessed online through D2L, with students taking notes and filling out assigned worksheets on your own time.

Lab will be held on campus, once a week, in a separate, three-hour session in a laboratory classroom.

The draft lecture and lab syllabus for Fall 2025 can be viewed at the following links:  for the lecture syllabus, click here; for the lab syllabus, click here.

Once you sign up, there are a few things you can do to get yourself prepared:

1. Lecture textbook: Campbell: Biology In Focus, 3rd ed. by Urry, L., Cain, M., Wasserman, S., Minorsky, P., and Reece, J. (2023). New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc. (the access to “Mastering Biology” is not required).  Electronic versions, used copies, or the second edition are also acceptable. 

The cheapest option at the PCC bookstore is a special "2nd custom edition" for PCC (bound soft cover in blue) - this is cheaper than the full hardcover textbook.  Some students may prefer to pay for "rental" access to the web-based “eBook” from Pearson. If so, you can sign up for that at this website (note that this is a new 4th edition):  https://www.pearson.com/store/en-us/pearsonplus/p/9780138272579.html

1. Purchase the Sylvania BI 112 lab manual:  Available at the Sylvania bookstore, it is a bound notebook of activities and assignments for the lab class. Be sure to have it with you for every lab, and plan on reading through it ahead of time, prior to each lab.
2. Students should be able to access and upload documents as well as take quizzes through PCC’s D2L system. A course website under the D2L platform is where I will be posting class materials, grades, etc., and for student hours we will schedule any Zoom meetings through this platform. If you’re unfamiliar with the D2L Brightspace platform, go to the following link and view the tutorial videos listed there:  https://online.pcc.edu/shared/videos/quickstart-student/QuickStart-Student-Menu.html

I'm looking forward to meeting you on campus - see you in fall!