the natural sciences at M'boro
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- Jim on Aug 14 2007
Todd's course work & areas of Plan study - 15 Aug 2007
I write the following notes on my courses and Plan work in response to Jenny's suggestion that a description of what each of us does now would help inform the discussion of the future of Bob's position.
Courses
- General Chemistry I & II, both with lab - every year
- Organic Chemistry I & II, both with lab - every-other-year (last: F '06/S '07)
- Biochemistry, with lab - Fall semester - alternates with Organic Chemistry I
- Molecular Biology, with lab - Spring semester - alternates with Organic Chemistry II
- Genetic Engineering - writing course co-taught with Laura Stevenson - every-other-year
I also hope to develop a course on the chemistry of cooking that would be accessible to a general audience. This course might be broader and also include segments on chemistry in art.
Apropos of our discussion of students interested in geology or limnology (or even aspects of environmental studies): I don't teach a course in inorganic chemistry, but if a student needed to study that material I would ask them to take general chemistry. I would then work with them in a tutorial to cover the aspects of inorganic chemistry that they needed.
On several occasions I taugh a Human Physiology course; most recently I offered a group tutorial on the subject. But I'm going to stop doing HP now that I have responsibility for chemistry.
The above courses form the core of what I teach. For Plan work I think I'll just start by listing the focus of some recent Plans - these are also areas in which I feel comofortable continuing to offer support:
- molecular biology - structure & function of the enzyme tolomerase
- chemistry/biochemistry/neuroscience - omega 3 fatty acids & depression
- biochemistry/neuroscience - pain reception & pharmaceutical mediation
- chemistry/biochemistry - toxicology of heavy metals in humans
- molecular biology - genetics of human disease
- biochemistry/neuroscience - molecular basis of memory
- molecular biology - bioinformatics
- biochemistry - nutrition, immunology & human disease
- biochemistry/immunology - HIV, AIDS & the human immune system
Maybe I'll add more later as I review the work of past Plan students.
At our meeting, Jim and I briefly discussed bioinformatics. I'm going to work to more effectively communicate to students that this area of study is supported by existing courses, but that they need to master the basic molecular biology and computer science material before simply jumping in to bioinformatics.
I hope this is something like what Jenny had in mind.
Todd
