Course Guide MS 1

8/19/2019 Course Guide MS 1

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/course-guide-ms-1 1/6

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MS 1- Oceans and Us

Term: 9 January-19 March 2016

Course Guide

COURSE DESCRIPTION

An appreciation course on the functional balance between the health of the oceans and the

survival and improvement of our way of life.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

By the end of this course, you should be able to discuss the biophysical features of the

oceans, the impacts of human activities to it, and the management measures to mitigate

these impacts. Specifically, you should be able to:

1. Discuss the physical properties of the oceans;

2. Identify the world’s major oceans and describe global circulation patterns;

3.

Describe seafloor spreading and the features formed by it;4. Enumerate and describe the major groups of marine organisms;

5. Discuss adaptations of organisms to the marine environment;

6. Identify and discuss the structure and function of various marine ecosystems; and

7. Explain the impacts of human activities on the oceans.

COURSE MATERIALS

Most of our study materials are found in the website MarineBio which you can access by

clicking on this link: http://marinebio.org/. In the homepage, you will see buttons on the

leftmost column. The first three are “Marine Conservation”, “Marine Life”, and “The Ocean”.

“Marine Conservation” is usually displayed first, with its subtopics listed. Clicking on “MarineLife” and “The Ocean” will also lead to their respective subtopics. Click on a subtopic to go to

its page. Other materials including videos, podcasts and interactive quizzes are uploaded to

the course site.

COURSE OUTLINE

Introduction (Module 0)

Unit I. The Global Ocean

Module 1. Geographic and Geologic Features of the World’s Oceans

Module 2. Chemical and Physical Features of Seawater and the World’s Oceans Unit II. Living in the Marine Environment

Module 3. Challenges of Life in the Sea

Module 4. Perpetuating Life

Unit III. Marine Organisms

Module 5. Marine Microbes, Plants and Fungi

Module 6. Marine Animals

Unit IV. Marine Ecosystems

Module 7. Estuaries, Intertidal and Subtidal Communities

Module 8. Coral Reefs and Shallow Waters

Module 9. The Ocean Depths

http://marinebio.org/






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Unit V. Human Impact on the Sea

Module 10. Humans and the Sea (Resources from the Sea)

Module 11. Humans and the Sea II (Impact of Humans on the Marine Environment)

STUDY SCHEDULE

WEEK ACTIVITIES

WEEK 1

9-15 January

1. Read and do the activities in Study Guide 0.

2. Study uploaded materials on the following topics (Module 0):

Oceans Overview

Why Oceans Matter

What is Marine Biology?

History of the Study of Marine Biology

WEEKS 2-4

16 January-5

February

1. Read and do the activities in Study Guides 1 and 2.

2. Study uploaded materials for the following modules:

Module 1. Geographic and Geologic Features of the World’s Oceans

Module 2. Chemical and Physical Features of Seawater



Module 3. Challenges of Life in the Sea

Module 4. Perpetuating Life

6 February Long Quiz 1 (Coverage: Modules 0-4)

WEEKS 5-6

6-19 February



Module 5. Marine Microbes, Plants and Fungi

Module 6. Marine Animals

3. Participate in an online forum.

WEEKS 7-8

20 February-4

March

1. Read and do the activities in Study Guides 7, 8 and 9.


Module 7. Estuaries, Intertidal and Subtidal Communities

Module 8. Coral Reefs and Shallow Waters

Module 9. The Ocean Depths

5 March Long Quiz 2 (Coverage: Modules 5-9)

WEEKS 9-10

5-18 March



Module 10. Humans and the Sea

Module 11. Humans and the Sea II3. Answer and submit Long Quiz 3 (take home quiz; coverage: Modules 10-11)



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25 March Final Quiz (Coverage: Modules 0-9)

*This is an optional quiz for those

- who missed Quiz 1 and/or 2 or

- who want to improve score in Quiz 1 or 2 (will replace a lower score)

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

To pass MS 1, you need to:

1. Take and pass the three long quizzes (60%)

2. Submit one assignment (30%)

3. Participate in an online forum (10%)

Long Quizzes (60%)

The long quizzes will be administered online through MyPortal. Questions are objective-type

and are designed to assess your understanding of the content and its application. Link to the

quiz will appear in the course site according to schedule. It will open at 8:00 AM and close at

11:00 PM, Philippine Standard Time.

Assignment (30%)

You are required to submit one assignment in MS 1. Guidelines, instructions, and evaluation

criteria for the assignment is found in the first box of the course site. Assignment should be

submitted in the submission bin ONLY.

Forums

In this course, we place importance on your ability to interact productively with your

classmates and FIC. Interaction is mainly through forums. The forums in MS 1 can be found

in the course site AND in a Facebook (FB) group created for this class. Of these forums, onlyone type is graded (Show and Tell Forum- 10%)

a.) Forums found in the course site:

I will be the one to create a particular forum (a link in the course site that will direct you to a

particular forum page) and post a discussion topic. There are two forums in the course site:

Forum 0 - non-graded forum for self-introductions during the first week of the class.

Social Forum – a non-graded ‘clearing-house’ forum for posting questions related to

course administration only

b.) Forums in the Facebook group “UPOU-MS 1 (Oceans and Us)”: Facebook posts – the FIC will post selected illustrations, charts, videos, short

descriptions, clarification of terms, etc. that need to be understood better by

students. Students are encouraged to give comments or ask questions on these

posts.

Show and Tell Forum – a graded forum (10% of final grade) that is also a learning

activity for Modules 5-6. Participation in this forum will only be during Weeks 5-6.

Instructions on how to use and participate in this forum are included in Study Guides

5 and 6.

Note: All enrolled students in MS 1 will be included in the FB group. You may create asecond FB account for the MS 1 group to separate your personal and professional



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lives. However, if you do not want to make another account, there are strong privacy

options in Facebook that you can set up to prevent any unauthorized access to your

personal information. The FB group will ‘go live’ during the second week of classes.

Grading System

This is the standard grading scheme that that we will follow in MS 1:

Percentage Range Grade Remarks

95-100 1.00 Excellent

90-94 1.25

85-89 1.50 Very Good

80-84 1.75

76-79 2.00 Good

72-75 2.25

68-71 2.50

64-67 2.75

60-63;

55-59 AND passing

average score in long

quizzes and/or

assignment

3.00 Passed

50-54 4.00

Conditional (remove

within prescribed

period)

Below 50 5.00Failed (reenroll the

course)

A student may get a grade of DRP on the following conditions:

1. He/she made a formal application for dropping courses.

2. Student failed to attend the class.

3. Student failed to participate in/submit all or most of the course requirements (60-

100% of the requirements).

A student may get a grade of EXT only if his/her class standing throughout the semester is

PASSING (i.e., pre-final grade is 42% or better) but fails to submit the assignment.

Removal of 4.0 and EXT must be done within the prescribed time for removal or completion

(within one year).

To complete the EXT, you must submit the assignment

To remove the 4.0, you must take and pass a removal exam (coverage of the exam: all

topics in MS 1)

Please do not hesitate to communicate any difficulty you might have in relation with your

attendance in the course. I can give you advice on appropriate actions to take.



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General Guidelines/ Class Rules

1. Most activities in the course will be done online at the course site on MyPortal

(http://myportal.upou.edu.ph) thus it is important to familiarize yourself with it. You

can post a recent close up photograph of yourself for identification purposes. There

will be no face to face sessions in MS 1.

2. Resource-based teaching and learning is applied in MS 1. It means that you are

provided with different resources and activities to support your independent study.

Study guides are used to organize and integrate these learning resources and

learning activities for you to develop a deep understanding of specific topics. More

specifically, a study guide will help you navigate through each module by providing:

A commentary/annotation on module topics and learning resources;

A reference to essential and supplementary reading materials and other types of

media;

Study questions to reflect on while you read/study each learning resource; and

Learning activities for you to develop a deeper understanding of each topic.

3. Each module in the course comes with a study guide. When starting on a particular

module, ALWAYS READ the corresponding STUDY GUIDE first (i.e., for Module 1,

Study Guide 1; Module 2, Study Guide 2, etc.).

4. Our discussions are academic in nature. Observe proper netiquette. Please refrain

from asking questions not related to the course or posting statements not relevant to

the discussion. Some students inquire information that is already written in the

course guide or posted in the course site as announcement. Consider looking at

these two first before making query.

5. Submit assignment at the submission bin in our course site. When submitting

assignment, please do not forget to write your name. Also, write your the subject

title using the following format: AS_Surname (e.g. AS_Bautista)

6. Remember also that all required output should be original work. Academic integrity

is important in UP. In fact, a student found guilty of academic dishonesty maybe

penalized by suspension or expulsion from the university. Academic dishonesty may

include, but may not be limited to, the following: plagiarism, cheating, and tampering

with the academic work of other students. Always cite source details, especiallywhen you post in the forums and make your assignment.

7. Check the course site and open your emails often so that you can keep track of

reminders, announcements, detailed updates, additional readings, and new

discussion topics. Make the habit of checking the academic calendar so that you will

not miss any important date.

8. We will stick with the study schedule throughout the term. If there are major

conflicts (e.g. travel) between your own schedule and the course schedule, make

appropriate adjustments and inform me about it at least two weeks in advance. Quizschedules and submission deadlines are non-negotiable.

http://myportal.upou.edu.ph/






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Important Dates to Remember

Activity Date Remarks

Start of classes 9 January 2016

Dates of Exams

Long Quiz 1 6 February 2016

Long Quiz 2 5 March 2016

Long Quiz 318 March 2016

(submission deadline)Take home quiz

Final Quiz 25 March 2016 Optional

Deadline for dropping the

course/filing LOA27 February 2016

End of Classes 19 March 2016

ABOUT THE FACULTY IN-CHARGE (FIC)

If you have questions regarding the content of our course and related concerns, you may

send a MyPortal message or post a message in the Social Forum of our course site.

AURORA V. LACASTE

Faculty in Charge, MS 1

Faculty of Education

U.P. Open University

[email protected]

Office:

Faculty Room

U.P. Open University Headquarters

College, Los Baños, Laguna

mailto:[email protected]



Documents

Course Guide MS 1