UC Davis Nutrition 111AV

Course Synopsis and Format
Synopsis. Nutrition111AV is an upper division, on-line course focusing on the normal metabolism of nutrients. The objective of this course is to explore how nutrients are biologically utilized during normal development and maintenance of health in the human. To accomplish this objective, this course will discuss the metabolism of nutrients by integrating basic nutritional biochemistry with functional physiology (see below: Note About the Chemistry).

Nutrition 111AV has been designed as the first part of a two part series. All Nutrition Science and Clinical Nutrition majors are required to enroll simultaneously in Nutrition 111B, non-nutrition majors are strongly encouraged to enroll.

Students are strongly encouraged to submit comments and suggestions on course material.

Format
This class is a self-contained computer based teaching (CBT) course. That is, there are no in-class lectures. All material is contained on modules that you will download to the hard drive of your computer. A tutorial is provided with the course that includes system requirements.

Office Hours, Electronic Chat Rooms
There will be two, one hour instructor-available times per week. In-person office hours will be held on Tuesdays between 12 noon and 1 pm in my Meyer Hall office. An electronic office hour via chat room will be held on Thursdays between 12 noon and 1 pm. The teaching assistant will also have two, one hour office hours per week (TBA). The chat room session will be placed into an archive for the student’s review. Instruction for the chat room will be provided at a later date. You may also e-mail me at anytime with questions, problems or just to say hi.

Optional Question and Answer Meeting
An optional question and answer meeting will be held via video conferencing on Tuesday from 6-7 pm. Questions and issues concerning the previous week's unit will be covered. Instruction for use of the video conference system will be provided.

Class E-Mail List and Class Communication
All students registered for this course will be automatically added to a course mailing list. The course e-mail address is nut111av-s07@ucdavis.edu. By using this address, you will send the message to all people registered in the course as well as the instructor and T.A. Be sure to include a statement identifying yourself as a Nutrition 111AV student in the subject line. I do not open messages without subject lines. If your message is directed at an individual, be sure to use their personal e-mail address. All messages sent to the list will be archived on the web enabling students to view past messages throughout the quarter:

http://listproc.ucdavis.edu/class/200703/nut111av-s07/

The primary means of communication in this course is via e-mail. It is essential that you read all messages carefully. It is a good idea to check the archives occasionally to ensure that you have not missed some important information. Uses of the excuse “I did not receive the message” will not be accepted.

A Note About the Chemistry, Biochemistry and Physiology Needed for this Class
The primary focus of this course is the metabolism of nutrients. Therefore, the approach of this course is to use chemistry, biochemistry and physiology to demonstrate how nutrients are used by the human body. Since this course has no prerequisites, having to dig up past knowledge of basic chemistry or physiology may seem daunting. RELAX; THIS COURSE HAS BEEN DESIGNED SO THAT EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW IS CONTAINED IN THE PRESENTATION. For example, in order to understand how nutrients are turned into the energy, one must have a working knowledge of how chemical energy (chemical bonding) is converted to mechanical energy (muscle contraction). DON’T WORRY!! WITH A CLICK OF THE MOUSE, YOU CAN NAVIGATE TO A CONSISE REVIEW PAGE OR IN-DEPTH WEB SITES THAT DISCUSS, IN EASY TO READ TERMS, HOW THE BREAKING OF CHEMICAL BONDS CAN BE USED FOR ENERGY.

Computers and Nutrition 111AV
The student is responsible for understanding the proper use of his/her computer. This includes proficiency in web browsing, using e-mail, downloading files from the web, file management, and using the MyUCDavis portal. If you are unsure about any of these operations, you are strongly encouraged to seek help from the computer consultants at Information Technology. Dr. McDonald, the teaching assistant, or staff in the Department of Nutrition cannot provide assistance in these areas.

Each module of this course has been thoroughly tested by students and faculty . We have not encountered any problems that are native to the software program. While it is still possible that we will encounter minor software-related problems, we have found that virtually all problems associated with the program have been due to user error or the user being unfamiliar with the operation of their computer.

Grades, Exams and Q & A Session
Your grade will be based on three, one-hour exams: two midterms and one comprehensive final. Each exam is weighted equally and your final grade is based on total points.

Exams will be given on-line in a computer lab on campus. We have reserved over four hours of computer laboratory time for each exam to ensure that all students can find one time slot that is acceptable. Dates of the exams are given below. Times and location of exams will be provided at a later date.

In addition to the exams, each student is required to complete 7 online quizzes covering reading from the text. Although there are no grades assigned to the quizzes, failure to complete all 7 will result in the reduction of 10 points from the total test scores. Questions from these quizzes will be included on the exams. The quizzes will be accessed through your courses list on MyUCDavis.

Schedule
Although there are no in-class lectures, there will be an introduction meeting on Tuesday April 3 at 6:10 in room 2205 Haring Hall. A demonstration of the CBT will be given at this meeting. This meeting is not mandatory.

Each Tuesday, except April 10th (you will be given two weeks to complete the first chapter), a new Chapter will be placed on the Nutrition 111AV web site for you to download to your computer hard drive.

April 3 - Introduction meeting (6:10, 2205 Haring); Carbohydrate Chapter Available

May 8 - Exam One (6-7 pm 2205 Haring); Water and Electrolyte Chapter Available