Lifespan Growth & Development Syllabus for 2018-2019
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Instructor Information

Course Information

Recording Policy

Disability Statement

If you have a disability (learning, mental, physical) that affects your ability to participate effectively and have access to any program or service at Amarillo College please contact Disability Services at (806) 345-5639 . Our offices are located in the Student Service Center office 112. More information may be found at www.actx.edu/disability.
Disability Services facilitates access to all programs and services according to the ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, as well as other federal and state laws.

Amarillo College Web Accessibility Policy Statement

Amarillo College is committed to providing equal access to all programs and services, including all working, learning, and service environments that affect equal access for persons with disabilities. This commitment to provide equal access and opportunity for persons with disabilities is in compliance with federal and state law. Amarillo College also strives to provide Electronic and Information Resources (EIR) that are accessible to all authorized users.

If you find you are unable to access material in an accessible format please contact the Disability Services Office at (806) 345-5639 . This office will work in conjunction with other campus resources to address and accommodate your issue in a timely manner.

Statement for Mental Health and Advocacy & Resource Center:

As a student you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning, such as strained relationships, increased anxiety, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, difficulty concentrating and/or lack of motivation. These mental health concerns or stressful events may lead to diminished academic performance or reduce a student's ability to participate in daily activities. Amarillo College offers services to assist you with addressing these and other concerns you may be experiencing. If you or someone you know are suffering from any of the aforementioned conditions, you can learn more about the broad range of confidential mental health services available on campus by calling the AC Counseling Center at 806-371-5900. The AC Counseling Center website is https://www.actx.edu/counseling/ . Also, if you are in need of social services (affordable housing, utilities, transportation, food, clothing, childcare, medical/dental/vision, legal), please call the AC Advocacy & Resource Center at 806-371-5439. The AC Advocacy & Resource Center website is https://www.actx.edu/arc

Amarillo College Tutoring for Success Policy:

Administrative Drop Policy

Students who do not attend class on or prior to the census date will be administratively dropped. Effective Fall, 2016

Student Withdrawal Procedures

Students who wish to withdraw from a course must complete all steps indicated on the Academic Withdrawal Request form by the course withdrawal deadline.

NOTE: Students who are attending Texas institutions of higher education, for the first time fall 2007 and later, may not withdraw from more than six courses during their academic career. This withdrawal limitation does not include dual credit or developmental classes (Senate Bill 1231 Rule 4.10.) For more information on Drop and Withdrawal Policies, please visit the Registrar's Office Web site.

Privacy Statement

The Amarillo College Privacy Policy is found at https://www.actx.edu/-amarillo-college-privacy-notice , and applies to all Amarillo College students.  If you have questions about this privacy statement or you believe that your personal information has been released without your consent, send email to humanresources@actx.edu .

Course

PSYC-2314-005 Lifespan Growth & Development

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: RDNG 0331-minimum grade of C or a score on a state-approved test indicating college-level reading skills

Course Description

Life-Span Growth and Development is a study of social, emotional, cognitive and physical factors and influences of a developing human from conception to death.

Student Resources Student Resources Website

Department Expectations

Occupational License Disclaimer

Notice to Students enrolled in an educational program for preparation of issuance of certain occupational licenses:

Students enrolled in an educational program in preparation for obtaining certain occupational licenses are potentially ineligible for such license if the student has been convicted of an offense. For further information, please contact:

Melodie Graves
Justice Involved Advocate
Student Service Center 117
mgraves24@actx.edu
806-371-5995
Make appointment at https://melodiegraves.youcanbook.me

You can also contact the Legal Clinic, or the faculty member in charge of the educational program that you seek to enroll in. The further information you will receive will include notification to you of your right to request a criminal history evaluation letter from the licensing authority in order to clarify your particular situation.

Hours

(3 sem hrs; 3 lec)

Class Type

Hybrid

Syllabus Information

Textbooks

Human Development 10^th Edition, Crandell, Crandell, and Vander Zanden

Supplies

Pencils or pens, paper or notebook for notes, and access to a computer with an Internet connection. If you do not have your own computer, you will need to use AC computers located on the 4^th floor of the WARE building.

Student Performance

Student performance and learning outcomes for PSYC 2314:

1.    Learn and gain mastery over the basic facts and research findings, terminology, principles, and theories important in the various areas of lifespan developmental psychology.

2.    Develop an understanding, the skills, and techniques for analyzing human behavior using a scientific approach.

3.    Gain a basic understanding of the interaction between genetic and environmental influences on human development.

4.    Gain a basic understanding of physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development across the lifespan.

5.    Gain a basic understanding of family, school, and work achievement, and death and dying, as they apply to lifespan development.

6.    Analyze current issues and controversies in the field of developmental psychology.

7.    Practice and develop critical thinking skills and written communications skills.

8.    Find ways to apply psychological findings to everyday life.

Students Rights and Responsibilities

Student Rights and Responsibilities

Log in using the AC Connect Portal

In order to receive your AC Connect Email, you must log in through AC Connect at https://acconnect.actx.edu .

If you are an active staff or faculty member according to Human Resources, use "Exchange". All other students, use "AC Connect (Google) Email".

Expected Student Behavior

Your grade will not be docked for missing a class; however, in class, I will lecture over material that will be on the exams, so attending lectures will help you identify what content you will need to learn and result in a better overall grade.  While in class, please do not use electronic devices for purposes other than notetaking.  If you are waiting on an important call, please tell me beforehand.  If you receive that call during class, you may then step out of the room to answer.  I would prefer you not to leave and reenter the room throughout the session as that can be disruptive.

All students are expected to be tolerant and respectful of other students and of me.  This includes refraining from talking with one another while I am lecturing – not only does this distract me, but it also distracts other students.  I will ask you to stop, and if it continues, I will ask you to leave the class.  Attendance is voluntary, so please do not come if you do not intend to pay attention.  There will be zero tolerance for any type of harassment.  AC also expects that each student will engage in academic honesty and refrain from cheating and/or plagiarism.  I require each student to complete his/her own work independently rather than copying assignments from classmates.  Exams should be completed independently, as should all other assignments for this class.  Penalties for cheating as well as plagiarism are outlined in the Amarillo College Student Handbook. 

I expect all students to complete assignments in a timely manner.  No extensions of any due date will be provided.  Take advantage of the time you have and plan ahead.  Even on exams, you will have at least five days to complete them.  If you would like to complete an exam before it opens, please contact me as soon as you can.  If you are unable to complete an assignment by deadline, you will receive a 0.  I do not extend deadlines or accept late work.

Grading Criteria

You can check your grades in our course in Blackboard.  For your final overall course grade, I will round up at the standard .5 and above.  Grading will be on the grade scale:

100-89.5% = A
89.4-79.5% = B
79.4-69.5% = C
69.4-59.5% = D
59.4% and below = F

The points will be earned:

50% of overall grade – Exams (4); each Exam is worth 12.5% of your total grade
20% of overall grade – Social Responsibility Assignment
15% of overall grade – Guided Notes (16 total, but 6 can be skipped or dropped); each 
                                         of the required 10 will be worth 1.5% of your total grade
15% of overall grade – Discussion Boards (2) are each worth 7.5%

• There will be four 50-question multiple-choice exams taken online in Blackboard.   
  • I will drop your lowest exam grade.
  • The exam questions will be taken from class lecture notes and the chapters in the book.
  • Exams are open-book and -note.
  • Exams will open at 12:00 a.m. on the date indicated on the course calendar and will close at 11:59 p.m. on the indicated day. 
  • You must complete the exam all at once, in the allotted time of 90 minutes.
  • Please do not wait until the last minute, when you will not find anyone to assist you with technical problems.  I will be unavailable to answer questions after 8 p.m. each night. 
  • Do NOT take exams on a laptop connecting to the Internet wirelessly, a cell phone, or when using an unreliable connection.  Use an actual computer that has a dedicated cable for the Internet connection.
• For the Social Responsibility Assignment:
  • You will be required to complete 4 hours of community service at your chosen agency in the community. (Information about finding agencies is provided in our class in Blackboard, on the page for this assignment, in the Instructions document.) 
  • You must provide signed documentation verifying that you completed all of the volunteer hours.  
    • If you do not provide verification of all 4 hours completed, you will receive a 0 for your Social Responsibility Assignment. 
  • After you have completed your hours, you will then answer 5 short questions about the experience. 
    • You will complete the “Social Responsibility Assignment Template” and submit it through Blackboard as a Word document or Rich Text file. 
    • Do NOT submit this assignment as a PDF.
  • Each question has a rubric that will be used for grading. The questions are worth different amounts of points.  You will be able to access the rubric within the assignment.  
  • While you can complete your volunteer hours with other classmates, you are required to complete the template on your own.  Submit your own independent work for a grade.
  • See additional information about this project in the Blackboard class, including the rubric by which you will be graded.
• The Guided Notes are simply questions I have provided you, to guide your note-taking. 
  • I do not lecture at all on Chapter 1, so I strongly advise you to complete Guided Notes 1.1, since this will be the only preparation you will have for chapter 1’s content on Exam 1.
  • Except for Guided Notes 1.1, which I expect you to complete, I will allow you to completely skip 6 of the other ones.  Or, you can submit all of them, and I’ll drop your lowest 6 grades, but your grade for the Guided Notes component will be comprised of only 10 out of the 16. 
    • If you would like to earn some bonus points, complete all 16, by their original/listed deadlines, and I will count 6 of them toward extra credit.
  • Use your textbook to fill out these notes. 
    • You must include the page numbers from the book – this is required, or points will be deducted.
  • Fully answer all aspects of each of the questions.  Some of them have subquestions or will require detailed, comprehensive answers.
  • Completing these Guided Notes will help you prepare for similar questions on the exams.  I will not always cover all of the questions on the Guided Notes in class, so you will see some questions that were not discussed at all in my lectures.  As a hybrid 8-week course, we won’t have time to cover everything in person.
  • You may either type in your answers OR submit handwritten notes to me. 
    • If you choose to handwrite your notes:
      • Make sure it’s legible.
      • Make sure to include the page numbers from the textbook (which is required).
      • Rather than simply writing down “1.” and then providing your answer to the first question, write down the question itself (at least an abbreviated form of the question).  This is so that you can actually use these notes when you take your exam, and the information you’ve recorded will make sense to you.
  • Since these are notes, I do not require any sort of formatting and will not deduct points for misspellings.  Use abbreviations, charts, or whatever will help you learn the information.
  • Even though these are simply notes, do these independently.  Do not copy your classmate's notes, which is considered cheating.
• There will be 2 Discussion Boards completed online in our course in Blackboard. 
  • Each Discussion Board will require you to submit an initial post responding to my prompts. 
  • Two days later, you will need to have replied to 2 different classmates about their initial posts. 
    • These replies must be substantive (not simply “good job” or “I agree.”)
  • You can find additional information, including the rubric by which these will be graded, in our course in Blackboard.

Attendance

It’s college; I know you will want to skip, but if you show up, you will do better in this class. It’s an 8-week hybrid class, so if you miss, you will get behind very quickly. Traditional classes were twice as long (16 weeks) and had twice as many lectures (with a hybrid class, you meet half as often and do most of the work on your own time). 

Although I will not count off points if you miss a class, I will track attendance.  You will be required to sign in (on a paper attendance sheet) each class session. This information is used by the College.  In the past, students who did not sign in were dropped from the class, so it’s important that you sign in to show that you are participating.

Calendar

Additional Information

I will hold office hours by appointment.  I will make every effort to meet with you when it’s most convenient for you, even if that needs to be after hours or on weekends.

The best way to reach me is by sending an email: mseder@actx.edu or sending me a message using the Remind app.

You can also contact me on my office phone (806)345-5582, but that will only work during typical business hours (8:00-5:00).  If you do not reach me when calling, leave me a message.  I will check voicemail messages periodically throughout typical workdays (from 8:00-5:00).  If you do not leave a complete message, I may not be able to help you.  Please tell me your full name and which class you are attending (for example, “Sue Smith in Lifespan at 2:00 on Tuesdays/Thursdays”). 

I cannot guarantee that I will respond to any messages after 5:00 p.m.  I can guarantee that I will not respond to any messages left on my office number after 5:00 p.m. or to very many messages sent via email or Remind after 8:00 p.m.