Instructor: Dr. Amanda Hodges

Office: 3105, ENY Building, 970 Natural Area Drive

Gainesville, Florida 32611

Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday 8:00am-9:00am or by appointment

Exceptions to Office Hours will be posted on the class listserv.

Phone: (352) 273-3957 E-mail: achodges@ufl.edu

Required Text Book: Sumner (ed.). 2003. Exotic Pests and Diseases: Biology and Economics for Biosecurity. Iowa State Press. 265 pages.

Additional Reading Assignments: Additional manuscripts, and web-based materials in some cases, are required for this course. Reading assignments vary by course (ENY 4905 or ENY 6905) and section (classroom or eLearning course). Students completing the course via Polycom at Research and Education Centers (RECs) will have the same reading assignments as classroom students located in Gainesville, Florida. Lectures, and tests for the asnynchronous eLearning will differ from the traditional classroom and Polycom course.

Course Announcements?

Click Here to Link to Course via UF eLearning

Course announcements will be posted on this course website and also the UF eLearning porta.

Where and When?

Entomology and Nematology Building (ENY), Natural Area Drive

Class Period 8: 3:00pm-3:50pm

Monday and Wednesday

Course is also available via Polycom (arrange meeting room at individual Research and Education Center) and by WebCT distance education.

Why a Course on Exotic Species and Biosecurity Issues?

Invasive species and agricultural biosecurity topics are increasingly important for professionals working in agricultural and natural area disciplines. Federal, state, local, and private sector employees often need employees with broad-based educational training. This course will be of particular interest to students in entomology, nematology, plant pathology, horticulture, agronomy, animal sciences, and other related disciplines who are interested in a multidisciplinary awareness and problem-solving experience.

Topics

• Emerging Invasive Species Issues

• Agricultural Biosecurity

• Pest Exclusion, Eradication, and Management Tactics

• Communication Processes and Policies for Correct Pest Identification

• Insect Vectors: Roles in Transmission for Plant, Animal, and Human Diseases

Course Prerequisites: Integrated Principles of Biology 1 and Laboratory (BSC 2010 and 2010L) and Integrated Principles of Biology 2 and Laboratory (BSC 2011 and 2011L) or equivalent.

Course Objectives:

From the lecture and course assignments, students will gain an understanding of the following agricultural biosecurity concepts:

• An awareness of hte importance of invasive species to U.S. agricultural and natural areas.

• An awareness of trade issues and their relevance to agricultural biosecurity.

• An understanding of the foundation principles and basic pratices of pest exclusion, eradication, and management.

• An ability to assimilate information on invasive species, and develop inferences from case study examples.

• A perspective on the research, extension, and regulatory components of invasive species issues.

• An appreciation of early detection and correct identification of new and emerging pest problems.

• An awareness of news reported in the scientific and popular medi on issue affecting the subject matter of this course.

• An awareness of the importance of insect vectors to animal and human health.

• An awareness of the importance of exotic animal disease threats to agriculture.

General Course Details:

Credits: 3

Catalog Statement: "Study of U.S. policies and programs affecting agricultural biosecurity. Attention is devoted to current agricultural extension and regulatory programs. Emphasis is on the policies and procedures involved in detecting and reporting non-indigenous species. Students will develop analytical capabilities to assess teh consequences of agricultural biosecurity threats.

You will be required to get a Gatorlink computer account through the university. This service is free to all students. Using this account, you will be able to send and receive e-mail and access the World Wide Web from home or school. Instructions for getting a Gatorlink account can be found at http://www.gatorlink.ufl.edu/ . You must correspond through this e-mail account.  Distance Education Students must have a Gatorlink account to access and complete exams as they will be delivered through WebCT Vista.  Other servers such as aol, yahoo, msn, google, etc. have trouble communicating with UF. If you use an account other than Gatorlink, your e-mails may not be received by your instructor. Also, I will communicate with you via a course list-serv using only Gatorlink accounts.

Course Outline

Note: This is the general course outline for ENY 4905, 6905 and the Web-based Distance Education Course. Note that additional assignments are required for ENY 6905. See ENY 6905 Syllabus for more details. Minor changes may be made to the syllabus prior to the beginning of class. Final Syllabi to be posted on August 24, 2009.

ENY 4905 Syllabus (PDF File)

ENY 6905 Syllabus (PDF File)

*Final reading list available during class on August 24, 2009. Readings will posted on UF/IFAS WebCT for students.

Distance Education Requirements

1. For general course information, go to: http://www.entnemdept.ufl.edu/Hodges/ENY4905_6905.html
2. Adobe Flash® player and high-speed internet access.
3. Link to http://lss.at.ufl.edu/ .
4. Enter your Gatorlink username and password and click ‘ok’.
5. Click on ENY 4905/6905 Fall Semester.
6. Weekly lessons will be posted by 5pm Monday ET.

Practice Exam

There will be a practice exam posted one week prior to the first exam so you can get a feel of online testing. This exam is brief and will not be graded.

Review Session

There will be a review session in the online chat room the night before the first exam at 8:00 pm (EST). The chat will last for 1 hour and you may post questions to be answered in real time from the instructor. If you are not able to attend the review, you may e-mail questions to your instructor, or view the chat log in ELearning. You may need to install JAVA to use the chat function.

Exams - Exams will be given electronically using WebCT Vista.

There will be two exams during the semester. The final exam will be comprehensive and will be composed of 100 points of new material and 50 points of previous material. You must have a Gatorlink account to access the exams. The exams will be available for one day 8:00 AM until 11:59 PM. If you need to take your exam on a day prior to the listed exam date, please contact your instructor at least one week in advance. You will not be allowed to take the exam after the exam date unless prior arrangements have been made. All exams are open book and notes, but you must independently answer all questions. You will be asked to lock your browser for the exam. You may not cut and paste information or consult current or former students for answers. You may be asked to submit exams to “Turn It In” for plagiarism evaluation. There is no time limit for the exam, but once you begin the exam, it must be submitted. On average, the exam takes about 90 minutes to complete. Please try not
to take longer than 2 hours on any exam. Grades will be posted one to two weeks following the exam using the ELearning grade book.

Missed Exams

Make-up exams will only be allowed due to clearly documented medical excuses or a death in your immediate family (spouse, sibling, parent, child, or grandparent).  You will need to provide the instructor with clear documentation, and contact details to verify the excuse.  Make-up exams will not be identical to either the classroom exam or the distance education exam.  It is the responsibility of the student to contact the instructor no later than 3 days following the missed exam.  It is the responsibility of the student to schedule a time with the instructor to complete the make-up exam prior to the last day of classes.  Make-up exams for students enrolled in the Distance Education Course will be in the form of an oral exam between the instructor and the student.  The Distance Education Course oral exam may be phone or internet-based.  Students failing to contact the instructor by this date will be assigned a numerical grade of ‘O’ for the missed exam.

Before the first exam, you will need to go to http://www.respondus.com/lockdown/information.pl?ID=364713981  and download the Respondus Browser Lock software. There is a video explaining the download process at

Plagiarism Information from the Entomology and Nematology Department

Plagiarism is a serious problem in academia today, especially with the ease of obtaining information from the World Wide Web.  Plagiarism is defined as representing the words or ideas of another person as one’s own, without attribution to the source.  All words and ideas must be attributed to a source unless they are considered common knowledge (i.e., widely known by many people and found in many different sources).  There are many kinds of plagiarism, as you will read on the Guide to Plagiarism website referenced below. 
Plagiarism is unethical, unacceptable in science, and prohibited by the UF Student Honor Code (http://www.dso.ufl.edu/sccr/honorcodes/honorcode.php). The consequences for plagiarism while at the University of Florida range from receiving a grade of zero for the plagiarized assignment or a failing grade for the course, to, for repeated offenses, expulsion from the university.  Plagiarism after graduate training calls into question one’s scientific integrity and can lead to banning of publication in journals and the loss of jobs/careers.
In some countries, it is an acceptable practice to write in a manner that faculty members at the University of Florida consider to be plagiarism.  Students studying in our university and with plans to publish their research in the English language need to know what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.
Students who plagiarize will be caught and consequences will be applied.  Many faculty in our department check all written assignments using an anti-plagiarism software called Turnitin® (http://www.at.ufl.edu/~turnitin/about.html).  You may wish to customize this section and put in your plans to use Turnitin and your consequences for plagiarism.
For further information and examples of plagiarism, I strongly suggest that you please read the George Smathers’ Library Guide to Plagiarism at http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/msl/services/tutorials/plagiarism/student_intro.html
Please understand that our purpose in bringing to your attention the matter of plagiarism is to help train you to be ethical scientists, not to impugn your character.