Senior Seminar Biology

Senior Seminar Biology

Instructor:

Focus:

“Biology 195 course - Senior Seminar in Biology- is an in-depth analysis of various topics in biology. This is a capstone course in which students will demonstrate their cumulative knowledge of the biology major through student presentations, discussions, and written reports.” (MSMC catalog 2012) Students are guided to explore the current concerns and interests in various fields in Biology through an in-depth analysis of the related primary Biological literature. This course offers experiences in writing, editing, and critique. It also provides students the opportunity to practice preparing a resume, CV, personal statement, and scientific oral/poster presentation.

Goals:
1. To help students apply the knowledge and skills that they have acquired during their undergraduate Biology training.
2. To help students develop persuasive written and oral communication skills.
3. To help students prepare for responsibilities either in the work force or at graduate programs.

Overview:

Applicable for Courses:

Educational Level:

Roadmap Objectives:

    • Article: Babies recognize faces better than adults. National Geographic http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/03/0321_050321_babies.html Or “Writing about test” paper. I will make a decision about which paper to use based on the group that I will have in class.
    • Content area/major concepts:
    • Methods or technology used to obtain data:
    • How the CREATE strategy was used: Concept map, Cartooning the experimental design, next step experiment, grant panel.
    • Biggest teaching challenge:
    • Article: a full research article
    • Content area/major concepts:
    • Methods or technology used to obtain data:
    • How the CREATE strategy was used: to model CREATE with whole class, and give students practice so that they can understand their own papers better. I also hope that I can guide the class to fill some conceptual maps in Molecular Biology and Cell Biology before they get to their own research articles.
    • Biggest teaching challenge:
    • Article: a full research article
    • Content area/major concepts:
    • Methods or technology used to obtain data:
    • How the CREATE strategy was used: to model CREATE with whole class, and give students more practice so that they can understand their own papers better.
    • Biggest teaching challenge:
    • Article: Underground Supermodels from The Scientists The-scientist.com/2012/06/01 underground-supermodels/
    • Content area/major concepts: This is an easy to read and interesting secondary article with a lot of resources and primary article references. The major areas of the paper can be divided into: Neurobiology, Cancer biology, Physiology, Process of aging
    • Methods or technology used to obtain data:
    • How the CREATE strategy was used: After students have read the paper and picked one of the four general areas from the above list, I will assign that section of the paper in pieces to the groups to concept map. Neurobiology student group: Concept map the “No oxygen, No problem!” section in two separate pieces. Physiology student group: Concept map the “Feeling no Pain!” section in two separate pieces. Cancer Biology student group: Concept map the “Cancer schmancer” section in two separate pieces. Process of aging student group: Concept map the “forever young” section in two separate pieces.
    • Biggest teaching challenge:
    • Article: Students will choose 2 papers related to the section of the 2o Supermodel paper that they had concept mapped and for the rest of the term work with each other to decode and understand those two papers using CREATE method
    • Content area/major concepts:
    • Methods or technology used to obtain data:
    • How the CREATE strategy was used: Students will still do a poster/ oral and mini-paper for their selected articles.
    • Biggest teaching challenge:

Advice for Using Module/Activity:

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