A Collaborative Recombinant DNA Technology Course with Laboratory

本课程重组DNA技术的课堂和实验部分旨在促进情境性、合作性、探究性的科学学习。学生们互相教导，对自己的教育有一种主人主人感。在课堂上，重点是小组报告和批判性阅读和讨论科学文章，这些文章使用重组DNA技术来解决基础和应用研究中的问题。在实验室里，调查项目旨在帮助学生提出并回答两个问题：1)如何克隆基因？2)然后你用它做什么？两个项目分别是胆碱酯酶的随机DNA克隆、体外表达和定点诱变；后一个项目整合了首席研究员的研究和教学。学生们将他们的两个实验项目的结果以海报和科学论文的形式呈现在论文中。它改编了《万花筒计划》（1991年，《什么有效：建立自然科学社区》第一卷）和《皮尤高等教育合作》（1998年，由皮尤大学本科教育科学项目赞助的政策观点）中的原则。宾夕法尼亚大学，费城。以及Brian Coppola （1997， J. Chem Ed. 74,74 -83和84-94）和the Council on Undergraduate Research （1995, CUR Quarterly 16, 109-114）的工作。

Both the classroom and laboratory portions of this course in recombinant DNA technology are designed to promote contextual, collaborative, inquiry-based learning of science. Students teach one another and have a sense of ownership of their education. In class, emphasis is on group presentations and critical reading and discussion of scientific articles that use recombinant DNA technology to address questions in both basic and applied research. In the laboratory, investigative projects are designed to help students pose and answer two questions: 1) How do you clone a gene? and 2) And so then what do you do with it? The two projects are random DNA cloning, and in vitro expression and site-directed mutagenesis of cholinesterase; the latter project integrates the research and teaching of the principal investigator. Students present the results of their two laboratory projects in a poster and in a paper with the format of a scientific article. It adapts principals found in Project Kaleidoscope (1991, What works: building natural science communities Volume one) and the PEW Higher Education Collaborative (1998, Policy perspectives sponsored by the PEW science program in undergraduate education. University of Pennsylvania, Phila. PA), and the work of Brian Coppola (1997, J. Chem Ed. 74, 74-83 and 84-94) and the Council on Undergraduate Research (1995, CUR Quarterly 16, 109-114).