Teaching Biodegradation on the World Wide Web
Lynda B.M. Ellis, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA. Phone +1 612 625 9122 Fax: +1 612 625 7166
Email: lynda@simvax.labmed.umn.edu
Eva C. Young, Department of Chemistry, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. Phone +1 612 825 2958
Email: youn0015@gold.tc.umn.edu
Lawrence P. Wackett, Department of Biochemistry, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN 55108, USA. Phone +1 612 625 3785 Fax: +1 612 615 5780
Email: wackett@biosci.cbs.umn.edu
Keywords: WorldWideWeb, Upper Division Education, Graduate Education, Environmental Education, Science Education
Introduction
Today's science graduates must be as fluent in use of Internet resources as they are in use of the more traditional scientific literature.
With the advent of the World Wide Web, the Internet is increasingly impacting science education,
both as a content area and as a method of course delivery.
The authors are developing
BioC/MicE 5-309, Biocatalysis & Biodegradation,
a course to be offered at the graduate level, starting in Fall 1996, through Independent Study, completely over the Internet.
Background
This course will be based on the award-winning University of Minnesota Biocatalysis/Biodegradation Database (UM-BBD) (Ellis & Wackett, 1995; Wackett & Ellis, 1996).
The UM-BBD contains information on microbial biocatalytic reactions and biodegradation pathways for primarily xenobiotic, chemical compounds.
The pathways covered are of interest for basic understanding of nature,
biocatalysis leading to specialty chemical manufacture, and biodegradation of environmental pollutants.
Information is presented on the starting and intermediate chemical compounds,
the organisms that transform the compounds, the enzymes, and the genes.
The UM-BBD has been used sucessfully to teach enzymology and use of biochemical Internet information resources to advanced undergraduate
and graduate students as part of more traditional courses,
and is being expanded primarily with the help of such students.
Encouraged by this, and by the explosion of Web-based resources,
we undertook the development of a completely Web-based course on biodegradation.
Course Content, Method of Delivery, and Evaluation
Students in BioC/MicE 5-309 will learn microbial catabolic metabolism, how to use the UM-BBD and related Internet resources for microbial biotechnology, and how to author World Wide Web pages.
Class study notes (lessons), assignments and "About the Authors" are being developed on Web pages,
and a reprint packet will be mailed to students.
Proposed course content includes 9 assignments, each worth 10% of the grade, to be submitted using e-mail.
Under the supervision of the instructors, students will, among other assignments,
verify and update existing Web pages in the UM-BBD,
and develop Web pages on microbial catabolic metabolism of environmental pollutants.
We are not going to just "put a book on the Web,"
but rather envision making full use of all Web resources available to us, as is done in the UM-BBD.
For example, the following is a draft of one Internet task, 10% of the third assignment:
Assignment 3e: Choose one scientific discipline related to microbial biodegradation,
such as biochemistry, molecular biology, microbiology, environmental engineering, etc.
Visit Yahoo's Science Index,
the Virtual Library,
and the Clearinghouse Science Guides.
In each of these three, find the one page that most closely covers the discipline you have chosen.
State the discipline you chose, the date you looked at each index, and compare and contrast these indices for that discipline.
Write one paragraph on each index, and one general summary paragraph.
Include your judgement of how complete each is,
and how well it is maintained, e.g., how many non-existent links it has.
Students will also have access to a class listserv,
and participation on this list will account for the remaining 10% of the grade.
The course will be available on both an S/N (Satisfactory/Not Satisfactory) and A/F grading system.
Students will evaluate the course twice, at the mid-point and at the end.
Conclusions
BioC/MicE 5-309 will be the first graduate-level course to be offered
completely over the Internet at the University of Minnesota.
Though two of the authors (LE & LW) have taught at the graduate level at this institution for many years,
we were still surprised by the number of institutional hurdles needed to be passed before this non-traditional course was approved.
Faculty and administration of the Biochemistry and
Microbial Engineering Graduate Programs,
the Department of Independent Study,
and the Graduate School, all had input.
Developing the interactive course materials we envision is also more taxing than selecting a text for a traditional course, since potentially relevant Web sites are proliferating faster than rabbits!
As we prepare to dive into the deep end of the pool,
we expect that actually teaching the course, while challenging, will be the easy part.
References
LBM Ellis and LP Wackett (1995) "A Microbial Biocatalysis Database"
Soc. Ind. Microbiol. News, 45: 167-173.
LP Wackett and LBM Ellis (1996) "The University of Minnesota Biocatalysis/Biodegradation Database: A novel microbiological method on the World Wide Web." J. Microbiol. Meth., 25: 91-93.
Copyright
Lynda Ellis, Eva Young, Lawrence Wackett © 1996. The authors assign to Southern Cross University
and other educational and non-profit institutions a non-exclusive licence to use
this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the
article
is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The authors also
grant a non-exclusive licence to Southern Cross University to publish this document
in full on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM, and for the document to be published on
mirrors on the World Wide Web.
Any other usage is prohibited without the express permission of the authors.
AusWeb96 The Second Australian WorldWideWeb Conference
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