NSC 170C1 Nutrition, Food and You – Sections 103 and 910 – Spring 2016
Instructor: Kayle Skorupski, MS, RDN, CNSC, CSG
Office: Shantz 601
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday from 1-2 pm or by appointment
Email: [email protected]
T.A.: Rachel Smith
[email protected]
COURSE DESCRIPTION, OBJECTIVES, and EXPECTATIONS
Please read through this entire document carefully and contact your instructor or TA if you have questions.
1. Course Identification, Course Number: NSC 170C1 section 103: Nutrition, Food and You
2. Prerequisites: None.
3. Course Description: Nutrition, Food and You covers the principles of human nutrition. Topics include
digestion, absorption and metabolism of energy nutrients; vitamin structure and function; minerals in the
body; eating disorders; nutrition and the life cycle; nutrition and disease; food safety; and the world food
situation. The emphasis of the course is the scientific approach to understanding human nutritional needs for
proper growth, development and life. The course is designed to help you learn and understand the basic
concepts that are the foundations of our understanding of:
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Current nutritional standards and guidelines, and how these are used.
Influence of nutrient availability on diversity and evolution.
Cells as the basic units of structure and function in humans.
Human physiology; the circulatory system, the neurological system and the digestive system as models
for functionality at the multi-cellular level.
Special nutritional needs (athletics, weight management, pathologies).
Development and nutrition throughout the life cycle, from embryo to elderly.
Scientific versus anecdotal evidence in health and wellness.
Nutrition and disease, for both deficiency and degenerative diseases.
Nutrition and lifestyle choices in health and wellness.
Food as a vector in disease.
Chemical and biological effects of preservation in foods.
Key concepts to be covered include:
 The cell as the fundamental unit of tissues and organs.
 Biochemical reactions for energy and growth.
 Qualitative and quantitative aspects of energy metabolism.
 Hormones and neurotransmitters; effects on appetite and hunger.
 Genetic, environmental and behavioral causes of disease.
 Mechanisms for disease prevention; the epithelium and immune systems.
 Digestion, absorption and metabolism of nutrients.
 Nutrition for maximum athletic performance.
 Nutrition and body weight.
 Nutrition and lifestyle, and degenerative diseases.
 Biotechnology in food production.
4. Purpose: Recurring themes throughout the course are biochemistry, physiology, development, health and
wellness, genetic and environmental factors in disease, microorganisms in disease, and food in the ecosystem.
The course will provide you with the basic concepts you need to understand:
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The language and practice of science in various fields.
The methods used to propose and test hypotheses.
The logic used in developing theories, and the knowledge to recognize flaws.
The scientific method of investigation as a means to understanding nutrition.
Ways to promote your personal health and wellness through nutrition principles.
The course intends to provide you with a basic understanding of the science of human nutrition.
After successfully completing this course, you will have a better understanding of how the body utilizes
nutrients, and you will have enough knowledge to make the best lifestyle choices for nutrition and health. As
well, you will be able to effectively analyze the myriad of health and wellness claims in the popular media, and
make informed decisions regarding the validity of those claims. What will be learned here can be incorporated
into your daily life, and will help you to live in a healthy way.
5. Objectives: After you complete this course you be able to:
 Name the classes of nutrients in foods, and describe how your body uses these nutrients.
 Discuss the current nutritional standards and guidelines, and how you can use these to create
adequate diets.
 Summarize how your body digests and utilizes dietary protein, fat, lipid, vitamins, and minerals, and
discuss the importance of nonnutritive food components.
 Evaluate special nutritional requirements for special needs people, including nutritional requirements
for pregnancy, infants, teenagers and the elderly; people with diseases and people who are being
treated with drugs; alcoholism and nutrition; nutrition for optimum athletic performance; and
nutrition during weight loss.
 Describe the relationship between good nutrition and good health.
 Communicate with nutrition professionals in an informed manner, using the lexicon of nutritional
professionals.
6. Instructional Materials:
Required: Nutrition Essentials: A Personal Approach by Wendy J. Schiff.
To purchase the ebook, please use the link in D2L under Content named Textbook LearnSmart Assignments,
click McGraw-Hill Campus - LearnSmart and then choose the Connect option button. This will lead through the
steps to register for the LearnSmart site and purchase access to the online book.
Everyone must have the ebook to utilize the LearnSmart Connect assignments (20% of your grade) and the
exams (25% of your grade). Once you have purchased the ebook you can buy a loose-leaf book for an
additional $15 through McGraw Hill. For McGraw Hill Connect support:
http://www.connectstudentsuccess.com/ or 1-800-331-5094
7. Special Needs and Accommodations Statement: Students who need special accommodation or services
should contact the Disability Resources Center, 1224 East Lowell Street, Tucson, AZ 85721, (520) 621-3268,
FAX (520) 621-9423, email: [email protected], http://drc.arizona.edu/. You must register and request
that the Center or DRC send me official notification of your accommodations needs as soon as possible.
Please plan to meet with me by appointment or during office hours to discuss accommodations and how my
course requirements and activities may impact your ability to fully participate. The need for accommodations
must be documented by the appropriate office.
8. Attendance Policy: This class is delivered electronically. You are expected to fully participate in this class by
completing graded work, participating in discussions and making connections with the instructors and other
students through Email. The deadline for turning in work is rigid. You must use the textbook and login to
D2L regularly.
9. Scholastic Ethics: All students at the University of Arizona are considered responsible adults and, as such,
are accountable for their own personal behavior. All students are expected to conform to local, state and
federal laws. The Code of Academic Integrity of the University of Arizona places the responsibility on each
student for the conduct and integrity of all academic work submitted as homework or examinations. The
guiding principle of academic integrity is that a student's submitted work, examinations or projects are that
student's own work. Students must in no way misrepresent or be party to another student's failure to
maintain academic integrity. Copies of the Code are available from the Office of the Dean of Students, 203 Old
Main Hall. Failure of any student to maintain the integrity of any assignment will result in an automatic grade
of 0 points on that assignment, and a written notification of this grade, and the reason for it, to the student,
the Department Head and Office of Resident Instruction, College of Agriculture. Please note that students
failing to maintain the academic integrity of their work diminish their own education and discredit the
academic community.
10. Confidentiality of Student Records: This course conforms to the University’s policy pertaining to the
confidentiality of student records as represented at http://www.registrar.arizona.edu/ferpa/default.htm
11. Instructor's Expectations: We expect every student to diligently apply themselves to learn the basic
nutrition concepts presented in this course. We promise to serve you as facilitators and mentors, but you
must do the learning. Study faithfully, ask questions either through email or by office hours, work on the
assignments, and try to understand the principles presented. We can help you over the hard parts, but you
must do the work.
12. Subject to Change Statement
Information contained in the course syllabus, other than the grade and absence policy, may be subject to
change with advance notice, as deemed appropriate by the instructor.
Detailed Information Regarding Graded Work
Graded work will not be accepted after the due date. All assignments are open for an extended period and
will be submitted through D2L according to the directions (no extensions, no exceptions). Students that need
technical help in submitting assignments can attend office hours or seek out help in OSCR computer labs.
Follow instructions carefully! Pay attention to directions on what you are to do and how to express your
answers/posts/papers. Due dates extend to 11:59 pm of the listed day ACCORDING TO THE CCIT SERVER
CLOCK!!
McGraw-Hill LearnSmart Unit Assignments (10 points each)
Every unit in your e-book has a LearnSmart assignment worth 10 points. There are 11 units but only 10 will
count towards your grade. These assignments are adaptive and are estimated to take approximately 1 hour.
There is no time limit to get them done other than the due dates. If you are struggling with the content and
cannot answer the questions properly, the software will highlight the paragraphs that you already know in
green, and highlight paragraphs where you are struggling in yellow. Completion of the assignments may take a
long time if you are having trouble answering the questions. Be sure to begin these assignments way in
advance of the final due date so you can maximize the points earned. Please contact McGraw Hill support for
help with LearnSmart Connect.
D2L Assignments
There are three assignments for each section in the course. These assignments vary, but all the information
regarding the assignments can be found in the Dropbox area of D2L. These have no time requirement other
than the final due date. Each assignment will include specific instructions. Some of the assignments will be
essays, and you will want to use a word processing program to compose your essay because spelling and
grammar will also be evaluated. Points will be assigned based on adequate length, addressing the content
issued in the instructions, and proper writing skills. The Dropbox has an anti-plagiarism tool. If the program
identifies 20% or more material has been improperly used from another source your submission will be
analyzed for plagiarism. To avoid these penalties, refrain from paraphrasing work and write your essays IN
YOUR OWN WORDS. You must pay attention to the due dates and allow yourself enough time to adequately
complete the assignments. If you wait until the last minute and have a problem with submitting, or if you do
not submit your attachment, it is as though you never did the assignment. Late work will not be accepted.
D2L will send a receipt to you via when a file has been properly attached AND submitted.
Diet Analysis (40 pts each)
The diet analysis project will be a two part project worth 40 points each (80 total points). The diet analysis
requires that you record your own diet over several days, enter your diet information into the USDA
SuperTracker website (https://supertracker.usda.gov), and compare your dietary intake to various
recommendations.
Part 1 of the diet analysis must be done in order to complete part 2. Instructions for Part 1 will be found in the
Dropbox. Part 1 is due by the end of Unit 2. You will want to get help via office hours or email IN ADVANCE if
you have any questions. If you do not turn in part 1 when it is due you will not be eligible for those 40 points. If
part 1 is not turned in at the appropriate time it must be turned in with your part 2 in order to grade the part 2
(no part 1 points will be earned). Plan on turning in part 1 so that you can pay attention to feedback on part 1
before submitting part 2 thus maximize your points earned on part 2. You will have an opportunity to correct
or revise part 1 to improve your score. In order to have your part 1 re-graded you will need to upload the
revised part 1 into the “Diet Analysis Part 2” dropbox before the deadline for part 2. You need to notify
Professor Skorupski if you are going to be resubmitting Part 1.
Note on the SuperTracker website…..it gets bogged down at times so if you wait until the last day to enter
your dietary information you are likely to miss out on the 40pts from part 1. Given that you will have weeks to
complete the assignment I do not allow problems with the SuperTracker website to be an excuse for missing
the due date.
Exams (50 pts each) These are timed: 60 minutes and are through the McGraw Hill LearnSmart site.
Three regular exams are held during the semester and an optional final. Please make a note of these dates
now. There is no such thing as a "make-up" in this class - no exceptions. Please give a week’s notice that you
will need an early exam. If you have many conflicts with the exam schedule (those with Dean's excuses), you
must arrange with Professor Skorupski to have them set for an earlier time. If you have an emergency the day
of an exam and end up missing it (illness, family emergency, injury) the final will be your “makeup”. The final
will be the same difficulty as the regular exams. If you qualify for DRC extended time you must email
Professor Skorupski in advance of the first exam to notify her IN ADDITION to properly identified through the
DRC. Exams are the only timed work that is extended for DRC students. All other work has already considered
time allotment for different learning styles and strategies.
FINAL EXAM – The final is optional and can replace one of your 3 exam scores, it will be the same length and
difficulty as your regular exams yet covering all chapters. If you have taken all the regular exams, taking the
final can only improve your exam average and not lower your exam average (the lowest of 4 exam scores is
dropped). The final will be available for four days, Friday May 6th through Monday May 9th.
NSC 170C1 Spring 2016 Course Schedule
Late work is never accepted….don’t wait until the final day
Section
1
Readings
Units 1 - 4
1/13 –
2/16
2
Units 5 - 7
2/17 –
3/29
3
3/30 – 5/4
Optional
Final
Units 8 - 11
D2L Assignments
Syllabus Quiz – due 1/19
LearnSmart Connect
Assignments
Unit 1 – due 1/19
Food Labels – due 1/26
Unit 2 – due 1/26
Food Legislation – due 2/2
Unit 3 – due 2/2
Anna’s Diet Analysis – due
2/9
Eating Out – due 2/23
Unit 4 – due 2/9
Gluten/HFCS – due 3/1
Unit 6 - due 3/1
Beverages – due 3/8
Unit 7 – due 3/8
Diet Analysis Part 1 - due
3/22
Food and Cancer – due 4/5
Unit 8 – due 4/5
Alcohol – due 4/12
Unit 9 – due 4/12
Food Safety - due 4/19
Unit 10 – due 4/19
Unit 5 – due 2/23
Diet Analysis Part 2 – due
Unit 11 – due 4/26
4/26
Online, accessible from Friday 5/6 at 12:01 am to Monday 5/9 at 11:59 pm.
Exam
2/16
3/29
5/4
Grade Determination
Each unit consists of a preview quiz, and assignment, a discussion, and an exam.
1 Syllabus Quiz
10 points
10 LearnSmart Connect Unit Assignments (10pts each)
100 points
Food Labels Assignment
20 points
Food Legislation Assignment
20 points
Anna’s Diet Analysis Assignment
20 points
Eating Out Assignment
20 points
Gluten/HFCS Assignment
20 points
Beverages Assignment
20 points
Diet Analysis Part 1
40 points
Food and Cancer Assignment
20 points
Alcohol Assignment
20 points
Food Safety Assignment
20 points
Diet Analysis Part 2
40 points
3 Exams
(50pts Each)
150 Points
Optional Final
replace one of 3 exams
__________________________________________________________________
520 Points Possible
468 and above
416-467
364-415
312-363
Below 312
= >90%
= 80% - 89%
= 70% - 79%
= 60% - 69%
= <60%
=A
=B
=C
=D
=E