Instructional Development

· Developing a new course - Fundamental Concepts in Biology (BSC 189.11)

This course was under my sole development in the 1996 spring semester with an entirely new approach both in the lecture portion as well as the laboratory portion of the course. In the 1996 spring semester, I focused on the development of the lecture portion of the course, aiming to establish a new pedagogical approach with the emphasis in bringing relevance and interest to the course materials. I continue to work with the teaching assistants in the development of the laboratory portion of the course, with an emphasis in the introduction of computer-based instructional tools. I was in contact with several faculty members both within and outside the university in the undertaking of the course development. During July 1996, I attended an symposium on the instructional development of introductory science course in Vermont, I had the opportunity in discussing the project with several leading educational experts on the development of this course. I received positive feedback on the direction being undertaken by this course.

· Lecture guide for Fundamental Concepts in Biology (BSC 189.11)

In my portion of the course, I took a deep departure for the traditional approach in teaching this course. I adopted an approach to introduce the complex subject matters on cell and molecular biology through a set of scenarios. These scenarios were presented in the lecture guide that I developed and wrote specifically for this course. Each lecture is based on a scenario to explain different areas of molecular and cell biology. The lecture guide provides the students an orientation to the subject matter and a conceptual framework to their textbook. During this semester, I have completed 14 lectures. The response of the students to the lecture guide is highly positive, and the students enjoyed learning cell and molecular biology through this scenario approach. I have enclosed the result of a survey that I conducted at the end of the semester in additional to the normal evaluation. During the semester, I had the opportunity to report the progress of this course and the effectiveness of this teaching approach. The response was highly positive, and I received strong support from the Undergraduate College and the Provost Office.

The latest version of the lecture guide has just been published by Stipes Publishing. A copy of the lecture is enclosed with the DFSC report.

· Developing computer-based instruction for Fundamental Concepts in Biology (BSC 189.11)

In 1996, the Dean's Office approved the proposal for adding computer-based instruction to this course by awarding an additional $50,000 for the purchase of computer equipment for the laboratory portion of this course. The proposal was based on some of the computer-based instructional materials that I developed using ToolBook. This instructional software was designed to achieve the following objectives:

· Interactive quizzes	Students will be evaluated for their progress in the laboratory and lecture through weekly interactive quizzes taken on the computers. The quiz scores will be sent to a central server and monitored by the instructors. The advantages of using the computers including instant feedback, linking to other tutorial sessions on area of weakness in the students, close monitor or student's progress, and flexibility of the administration.
· Individual tutorial session	Using interactive tutorials on the computers, students can received individualized tutorial based on their weaknesses. This is especially importance in a highly heterogeneous class populations. The interactive tutorials will be designed to cover both basic as well as more advanced subjects.
· Web page for the course	I have developed a Web page of the course, which I have placed lecture guide on the Web page. The goal of the Web page is to provide extensive links of other Web sites to the lecture guide and other course materials. For example, CDC Web page could be linked to lecture guide on the discussion of AIDS. This will guide the students to explore new information on their own.
· Simulation of experiments	Another purpose of the computer-based instruction is to stimulate genetics and ecological experiments on the computers to provide greater flexibility and sophistication for the learning process. Students can repeat experiments and review their conceptual understanding with greater effectiveness.
· Reading of current events	Current events related to biology are often important news in the popular press and media broadcast. To ensure that students are exposed to this information and to be able to draw a relationship between the news information and what they have learned in class, the computers will be used to assist their comprehension. In this approach, important news articles will be presented to students on the computers with on-line definitions of key biological terms. Upon completion of their reading, students will be tested for their comprehension and understanding. Furthermore, relevant information to their reading will be presented as hyper links to the text.

Laboratory Manuals

Project	Description	Year
Laboratory manual for a Microbial Pathogens course (BSC 361)	This laboratory manual was designed to meet the lack of a commerically available laboratory manual in this area. The laboratory was completed by desktop publishing. The manual has been revised 4 times. Revisions of the manual were noted in the next column.	1979 - 1980 1982 - 1983 1986 - 1987 1989 - 1990 1993 - 1994
Laboratory manual for an Immunology course (BSC 367)	This laboraotry manual was designed to provide laboratory exercises for the latest advances in immunological techniques. The manual incorporated a number of innovative approaches. The manual will be published by Academic Press in the near future as described in the following section. Revisions of the manual were noted in the next column.	1981 - 1983 1984 - 1985 1986 - 1987 1989 - 1990 1991 - 1992 1993 - 1994
Laboratory manual for a Biotechnology course (BSC 352)	This laboratory manual was developed in collaboration with Dr. Anthony Otsuka for the new Biotechnology Laboratory course. Our Department is one of the first departments in the nation to offer such a course at the undergraduate level. This laboratory manual was prepared by desktop publishing with extensive illustration.	1989 - 1991 1994
Laboratory manual for an Introductory Microbiology course (BSC 160)	The current laboratory manual for this course is outdated and is not suitable for this student population. A new laboratory manual is developed specifically for students at ISU. This laboratory manaul will be prepared by desktop publishing wth extensive illustration.	1992

Teaching Innovation - Biotechnology Laboratory

Background	In 1989, Drs. David Borst, Anthony Otsuka, and I discussed the need for a course design to teach state-of-the-art techniques in biological sciences. During the last 20 years, biology has undergone an incredible technical revolution. The development of genetic engineering and monoclonal antibody production has provided powerful tools for biologists. Because of the complexity of these techniques, they are not taught in undergraduate courses in most university. However, learning the principles and applications is an important part of undergraduate training in modern biology. Therefore, we designed this new biotechnology laboratory course to teach these techniques.
Development	In order to offer this course, new equipment must be purchased. These includes tissue culture hoods, tissue culture incubators, balances, electrophoresis equipment for protein and DNA analysis, pH meters, fraction collectors, shaking water baths, precision pipetters, tissue culture microscopes, computers, and specialized glassware. A special request was made to Dean Owen of the College of Arts and Sciences and an allocation of $90,000 was received over a 3 year period for acquisition of this equipment. In addition, $7,000 was allocated during the first year for the operation of the course. During the first half of 1991, a 650 sq. ft. laboratory (FSA 231) was converted for teaching this course. This laboratory is now equipped for conducting experiments in tissue culture, protein biochemistry, immunological assays, gene cloning, and DNA sequencing in a classroom setting. This laboratory is available for other advanced courses, such as virology, microbial genetics, and immunology, that required this equipment.
Seeking external support	In order to supplement the fund allocated from the University, Drs. David Borst, Anthony Otsuka, and I also submitted two grant applications to the Instrumentation and Laboratory Equipment Program of the National Science Foundation as listed below. The review of the applications was highly favorable. However, due to the difficult fiscal situation at NSF, both attempts were unsuccessful.
Agency	Date Sub	Proposal Title	Amount
National Science Foundation	1989 Nov	Principles of Biological Recognition: An undergraduate laboratory course (Co-principal investigator: David Borst, Lynne Lucher, Brian Wilkinson, Radheshyam Jayaswal, and Anthony Otsuka)	$96,401
National Science Foundation	1990 Nov	Principles of Biological Recognition: An undergraduate laboratory course (Co-principal investigator: David Borst and Anthony Otsuka)	$48,463

Course Content	This course was first offered in the Fall semester of 1991 by Dr. Anthony Otsuka and me. I taught the first half of the course on monoclonal antibody production, protein characterization, immunohistochemistry, and antibody production. Using a project approach, students learned each technique as part of an integrated project. In this part of the course student prepared monoclonal antibodies to the extracellular matrix of C. elegans, an approach that has never been taken previously. The monoclonal antibodies were then used to characterize the extracellular matrix components of C. elegans using Western blotting and immunofluorescence staining. These findings were reported in national and regional meetings to the scientific community.
Educational value	All students took the course during its first offering considered the course to be unique and offering them the opportunity to learn state-of-the-art techniques in modern molecular and cell biology. Faculty from other institutions, including University of Wisconsin, University of Illinois, and Northwestern University considered to use this course as a model for similar offerings.
Staffing	To increase the diversity of the course materials, this course will be taught in rotation by Drs. Borst, Cheung, Lucher, Jayaswal, and Otsuka. Each will incorporate their research expertise into the course.

Educational Publishing

Project

Description

Immunology Laboratory Manual

Published by Academic Press

The acquisition editor Academic Press contacted me for the publication of the immunology laboratory manual. Sample of the laboratory manual was sent out for peer review and was considered to be innovative. The laboratory manual covers modern immunological techniques, such as monoclonal antibody production, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and immunoblotting. It also covers the classical immunological assays such as precipitation and agglutination to demonstrate basic principles. The laboratory manual also contains techniques in cellular immunology, including proliferation assay, Jerne antibody plaque-forming cell assay, and assay for interleukin activity. The lab manual is projected to be published in Spring 1995.