BIOL/PPWS 3444: Explaining Molecular Cell Biology

Description | Grade | Lecture Topics | Texts

General Introduction

1. Semester: every Spring
2. Prerequisites:
3. Instructor: Dr. Ruth Grene

Description

This writing-intensive course will enable students to improve their own scientific writing and oral skills, and their understanding of the writing of specialists and scientists in other fields. Topics include bacterial, plant, and biomedical examples of major advances in molecular cell biology and biotechnology. Includes a review of current methodologies, in-class writing workshops and problem-solving sessions, mock press conferences, individual and team presentations, and individual conferences with the instructor.

All written work should be your own. However, you are expected to work in teams for the oral presentations.

We will review and consolidate concepts of molecular and cell biology for the majority of the semester, discussing the readings and questions indicated below in each class period. Our class work and the first two writing assignments are preparation for lectures by guest faculty who will present their research. The classes will be conducted in the give and take spirit in which biological research and discussions of results are conducted. You will be expected to participate in class discussions. Teams, consisting of four or five students each, will be responsible for presenting answers to assigned questions for the first three weeks. In class, I will ask individual teams to answer the assigned questions and any one of the team may answer. After the first three weeks, each member of the team will be responsible for the assigned problems, but you may work up the answers as a team.

Each student is responsible for writing a short press report. This should be modeled on the style of a New York Times or Washington Post science article. The topic should be one of those presented in the "Molecular Medicine" or "Key Experiment" entries in the Cooper text. You are required to find the amount of additional information on your chosen subject that you can find in 4-8 newspaper articles on Infotrac and to prepare a short piece for publication on the subject. ALL sources must be cited.

For the guest lectures , you will again work in teams on mastering the material and on preparing the panel discussions and the press conference. Team members will work together to master the material in the guest lecture, supplemented with visits to the guest faculty with additional questions. The team will then present a joint panel discussion of the work of their "guest faculty". The guest faculty member may attend the panel discussion. A written technical report on this material is required. Each team will also present a press conference on one other guest presentation or related on-line assignment, getting help and feedback from the team assigned to that guest. The members of the team assigned to the guest will provide responses to the press conferences.

1. Amount of Writing. A total of 22 pages of written work, minimum, will be required. Assignments 1 and 2: 5 pages each, including diagrams. Assigned problems. Assignment 3: at least 8 pages. Technical report on guest faculty lecture material Assignment 4: at least 3 pages. Press Report
2. Oral Skills. The central focus of the course is on the development of skills needed to become a professional biologist. This includes discussion and presentation skills, as well as writing, hence the 15% of the grade assigned to in-class participation, 15% for the panel presentation and 10% for the press conference.
3. Conferences. Students will be required to meet with the instructor for discussions of their drafts of Writing Assignments 1-3. Only the final version will be graded.

Back to Top

Grade

BIOL 3444 has no written exams.

Instead, the grade is based on class participation , written assignments and oral presentations (see below for points assigned to each category).

Back to Top

Lecture Topics

• Genome Organization
• DNA Replication and Repair
• RNA Synthesis and Processing
• Protein Synthesis
• Protein Sorting and Transport
• The Cytoskeleton
• The Cell Surface
• Cell Signaling
• The Cell Cycle

Back to Top

Texts

• Cooper, Geoffrey (2000) The Cell A Molecular Approach ASM Press

Back to Top