Home page of Dr. David S. Richard

BI 320. Extreme Physiology.

Course outline

Spring, 2000

To Courses_and_syllabi.

A study of physiological processes in humans related to exercise and participation in sports. This course also examines the effects and repercussions of exposure of the human body to extreme environments such as those experienced by scuba divers, climbers and high altitude pilots. Prerequisites: BI:102 and BI:201, or PE:150 and PE:151 with instructors permission. 4SH. 3 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours.

Meeting Times:

Tuesday/Thursday 10:00 - 11:35. Lecture Fisher 310

Monday 1:00 - 3:00 Laboratory Fisher 221

There will probably be times when we will use the lecture sections for laboratory studies so we will need to be flexible.

Instructor: Dr. Dave Richard, Fisher Hall 217.

Telephone # 4206

email richard@susqu.edu

Web http://www. susqu.edu/facStaff/r/richard/

Office Hours: Flexible. Or by appointment

Required Text: Fox's Physiological Basis for exercise and sport. Merle L. Foss and Steven J. Keteyian. WCBrown publishers, 6th Edition.

Additional Reading: "Into Thin Air". Jon Krakauer. 1997. An account of the ill fated 1996 Everest expedition. Required reading.

An alternate account can be found in "The Climb, Tragic ambitions on Everest" Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt (1997). Available through Amazon .com.

Topics Reading in Fox's:

• Introduction Chap 1
• Energy Sources

Assessment

A. Totals.

The lecture section will comprise 60% of your final grade in this course. The lab. section will comprise 25%, and the term paper will comprise 15% of the final grade.

B. Examinations.

• Each examination (midterms and final) will comprise 10% of your final grade. The final examination will be cumulative. Attendance at the examinations is mandatory. The examinations will comprise short answers/ fill-in-the-blanks and essay questions.
• Midterm examination 1 February 17 (in class).
• Midterm examination 2 March 31 (in class)
• Midterm exam 3/Final examination. Friday May 8, 11:30am to 1:30pm
• Review Sessions Feb 12, March 26, April 30

C. Term Paper.

• 15% will be based on an approximately 2000 word paper to be submitted by Friday April 17 at 4:05 p.m. I am leaving the topic of the paper up to you but it must be relevant to the general subject of sports physiology. I want you to clear the topic with me before you invest much effort in your research.
• Under no circumstances will extensions be given.
• The paper should be typed (single-sided, double-spaced). Remember to cite sources of information and include a reference section. The best papers will bring information in from sources other than the text and the lectures, though these are to be considered as valuable material resources. Remember to be careful about plagiarism; review your student handbook if you are not certain about the definition, and realize that I take this policy very seriously.
• A two to three-page typed summary/annotated bibliography of your proposed essay topic is due by Friday March 20 at 4:05 p.m.. If you fail to hand this in on that date a 20% penalty will be assessed against your term paper grade.
• You will present your paper to the class during the laboratory sessions of the final two weeks. Your presentation should be about 15 minutes long and use suitable visual aids, for example, slides, overheads, powerpoint, videos (though you must deliver the commentary).
• To avoid duplication of topics, I want you to clear your topic with me ahead of time, i.e. before the March 20 deadline for outlines.

D.Sports Overviews.

• Each student will produce four two-page (single-sided, double-spaced) overviews of the sports-related aspects of some of the topics discussed in class. Two are due in the first half of the semester, to be based on material covered during that time, and two are due during the second half of the semester to be based on material covered during that time.
• Each of these overviews will be worth 5% of the final grade. You will be expected to briefly introduce a specific aspect of the material and then, using the text and other outside sources (search the web!), place the material in the context of exercise or sports.
• An example might be the effect of extensive training on the monthly reproductive cycles of female atheletes. This would involve a short introduction to the rise and fall of hormone levels, and an explanation of which hormones are affected by high level training and why.

E. Attendance policy.

• If a student accumulates more than six lecture absences throughout the semester, I reserve the right to award an "F" grade which automatially withdraws the student from the course.
• Each unauthorized lab absence will be penalized by a 2.5% penalty against your final grade. Please review the University policy on attendance in your student handbook.

F. Laboratory.

• The lab schdeule is not yet finalized but will be announced as we go through the semester. Labs will be conducted mostly in groups of four. I will assist you in the groupings to ensure that the biology majors are split up. In some cases, we will actually conduct the lab sessions during the regular class times. Due to limitations of equipment, not all groups will work during every lab session.
• Experiments to be conducted include an examination of the energy producing pathways of respiration in yeast and cardiac and respiratory function analysis during rest and during exercise. We will examine the effects of electrical stimulation on the function of frog muscle, measure the electrical activity of the brain, examine the function of the frog muscle and heart.
• Lab write-ups will be in the form of (up to) two page typed (single-sided, double-spaced) summaries of the procedure just performed and will be due a week from the completion of the lab. Data and references will not count as part of the two-page limit. Materials and methods may be referenced to the handouts or lab manuals. These write-ups will be assembled in a three-ring binder along with the dossier described below to provide a semester-long record of the lab. The lab folder will need a contents page.
• The lab write-ups will comprise 15% of the course, and the dossier described below will comprise 10% of the course.
• Each student is expected to complete a dossier on their own physiological and fitness parameters throughout the semester. Some of us (myself included) will hopefully engage in a semester-long training program under a regime that is appropriate for their sport or fitness desires. This dossier will comprise an extensive summary of those physiological parameters measured together with printouts of descriptions of each. This will be collected in the last week of the semester.
• As part of this, I am proposing that those students who are interested in training for an endurance event, for example, the Pittburgh Marathon or Marathon Relay join me in a training program aimed at the successful completion of this event. If some of you wish to take part in this event which is to be held on May 3rd, 1998, then we should develop an training program that is appropriate for you, and start to monitor your fitness parameters. We will continue to monitor these parameters throughout the semester to plot any changes in factors such as respiratory function, weight, blood pressure, EKG, recovery times, and so on.
• The Marathon is a full length (26 mile, 385 yard) event that can be entered either as an individual or as part of a four-person team. I ran this event as an individual last year and have already entered this year's race. There are already a number of other SU folk who are planning to run either indivually or as part of teams. The team race consists of a relay comprising legs of between 5 and 9 miles that is run alongside the full race.
• If you have idea of other events for which you want to train and be monitored, please let me know. For example, a general fitness program involving both aerobic exercise and resistance training would be both interesting to follow, and of obvious benefit to you as an individual.
• Attendance at Lab is mandatory (See above). However, participation in an exercise based monitoring program is entirely voluntary.