Educational philosophy:
The major educational philosophy underlying this course is that students learn science best by actively engaging in it. Engaging in science, we believe, means investigating unsolved, challenging problems and discussing prospective solutions within a community. To that end, students will carry out a research project, and the research project will form the basis for most of their grade (click on the red "Grades" rectangle at the left to learn more about how the course is graded).

The Research:
This semester we are offering a "wet" laboratory, allowing non-science majors, for the first time, to get a feel for how molecular genetics is actually carried out. The focus of student research will be on a "cDNA library" from the brine shrimp, Artemia franciscana. Every student will pick one or more colonies carrying a specific cDNA and investigate it. Techniques that students will learn will include restriction endonuclease digestion, preparation of DNA, gel electrophoresis, PCR, and DNA sequence analysis.

Since the research project is open-ended, students will be free to pursue other questions as well. The research project will make use of Internet-based sequence and structural databases, and computer tools that are publicly available.

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