PMB 220 Fall 2006
Critical Thinking in Microbiology
Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:30-2:00 in 106 Mulford Hall
Course Description and Evaluation Criteria
website http://plantbio.berkeley.edu/~bruns/pmb220/
This 3-unit course (one 1.5 hour lecture and one 1.5 hour discussion weekly) will be structured as five segments of three weeks each. In each segment, reflective of major fields of microbial biology, an overview will be provided that emphasizes new research directions and involves students in discussions of primary literature. The lecture material in each week will provide details of conceptual issues and/or research approaches and technologies that will enable students who were unfamiliar with the area to gain a better and broader perspective on that aspect of microbiology. The discussion session that will follow the lecture material each week will involve readings and discussions of recent primary literature related to the lecture material presented earlier that week. The purpose of the reading and discussion is to better appreciate important concepts in microbiology and to gain skills in critical analysis of literature. This combination of lecture and discussion of primary literature is designed to enable students to develop the analytical skills needed throughout their graduate studies and beyond. A main goal of PMB 220 is to prepare students to participate in all areas of microbial biology rather than to focus on a few. For this reason, the following five subject areas will be covered, reflecting different experimental approaches and different scales of exploration:
- Phylogenetics/Evolution
- Microbial Genetics
- Microbial Physiology
- Pathogenesis
- Microbial Ecology
The course will have a letter grade that will be determined based on student performance in three different types of evaluations. It is essential that students read assigned material before class and join in joint discussion of the reading material. 20% of the class score will be based on participation in class discussions. Students will be required to complete a short written assignment each week that will be linked to the lecture and discussion material. While the nature of the written assignment may vary between instructors, it will usually involve either designing experiments to address a particular question based on information to be provided, or to discuss aspects of a paper that will be considered in class. The written assignment, contributing 40% of the class score, will be evaluated as a means to determine that students had appreciated the important points made in the material that they had read. An oral final examination presided over by the group of 5 instructors at the end of the semester will also comprise 40% of the score. Students will be tested for their conceptualization of the many topics addressed during the class as well as their ability to integrate materials from different segments of the class. The oral questioning will also serve as a means by which students can gain skills in answering oral questions and “thinking on their feet”; these skills will be tested severely at the time that they take their oral Qualifying Examination for the PhD degree.
There will be no text for this graduate-level class. Instead, each instructor will assign 2 or more weekly readings in appropriate scientific journals, review publications, and book chapters that are most appropriate to provide background for the lecture materials being presented. Each week a current scientific paper pertinent to the subject matter being addressed in that segment of the class will be copied and assigned for reading and subsequent discussion by the class.