Connecting students to knowledge
and its application
Southern Utah University
Lynn White, Ph.D.
Brain and Behavior
Attendance and Participation
I genuinely believe that you, your classmates, and I form a community of learners. Through lively face-to-face interactions, we will learn more than we would by working individually. For this reason, physical class attendance is required. You will receive 5 bonus points for each class you attend (4 points if tardy).

What happens if you are absent? I understand that you might have no choice but to miss a class or two. I do not deduct points from your grade if you are absent. However, you will not receive any bonus points that day.
Learning Pods & Reflections
Sometimes, it's hard to participate in a classroom full of people you don't know. So to help with that, you will be assigned to a learning pod for the first half of the semester, and then re-assigned to a new pod for the second half. There will be 3-5 people per pod. At the beginning of every class, you and your pod will engage in a "mandatory 5-minute chit-chat" on the material we covered in the class before. To prepare - before coming to class, identify one or two specific facts/findings/theories we talked about in the previous lecture or what you read about in your book. Choose something that you found particularly interesting. Think about why you found the topic so interesting. Was it because you have a personal experience that relates to this topic? Or maybe you thought of an interesting application for the material? At the end of the chit-chat, we will take a moment to share what we talked about.
Note that podmates can (should?) help each other in additional ways. For example, they can fill you in if you miss a class. You can also review each other's SARA slides before they are due. I would LOVE to see you provide and receive feedback on the color scheme (are the colors vivid or drab), fonts (size, type, and color), whether the fonts contrast well against the background, if there too much text on a slide, whether there is good use of pictures/clipart, whether the photos/clipart well positioned on the slide etc…
Time Commitment
As a two-credit class, we will have just 17 class meetings. The time required for work outside the class will obviously depend on the individual. My best guesses are outlined below. This means you will need to invest about 7 hours/week throughout the semester. This might seem like a lot, but it is less than the 9 hours per week expected from the Utah System of Higher Education and SUU policy 6.26. Plus, you will learn some real cool stuff!
Face-to-face class attendance 21 hours
module quizzes 8 hours
watching & taking video quizzes 2 hours
SARA project 12 hours
Watching & taking SARA quizzes 3 hours
Book chapter readings 4 hours
Preparing for the final exam 5 hours
Miscellaneous 10 hours
65 hours total
approximately 7 hours/week on average
