MCB 421Course Description:
MCB 421 is an upper division course on Microbial Genetics. The course will focus on the genetic analysis of Bacteria, Archae, and Phage, with an emphasis on using genetic concepts and tools to understand biological questions.
Time and Place:
Lecture - MW 9:00 - 10:20
Room 163 Everitt Elec and Comp Engr Lab
Discussion Session (Optional) Ð Times TBA
Instructor:
Professor Jeff Gardner
B313 Chemical and Life Sciences Bldg.
Office hours: Mondays & Tuesdays 3:00 to 5:00pm or by appointment
Email = jeffgard@life.uiuc.edu
Teaching assistant:
Carolyn Keeton
B320 Chemical and Life Sciences Laboratory
Office Hours:
Email = ckeeton2@uiuc.edu
Prerequisites:
This course will assume that you have a basic knowledge of molecular biology and microbiology as taught in MCB250 and MCB 300. We will briefly review some of the important concepts at the beginning of MCB 421, but if you have not taken one of these prerequisites, you may need to read additional chapters in the textbook. Before beginning this course you should understand the following concepts:
Reading Assignments:
You will be expected to understand and be able to apply the concepts from the readings but, unless I specifically tell you in class, I do not expect you to memorize details about topics that are not discussed in lecture.
The textbook for the course is:
Maloy, Cronan, and Freifelder (1994) Microbial Genetics, Second edition, Jones and Bartlett. Microbial Genetics
Additional reading assignments will be posted on the Web as Supplemental Resources.
Homework:
There will be 10 homework assignments. On average there will be one homework assignment per week. The questions will be designed to show you how to think about genetic problems rather than memorize and reproduce facts. They will be similar to ones you will encounter on exams. Many of the questions are ones we have used in the course in the past. However, I highly recommend that you try to solve the problems before looking up the answers. Otherwise, you will not learn how to analyze and answer real exam questions. It is OK to discuss the homework with other students, but directly copying the answer from the book, the web, or from someone else does not help you learn the material.
Due to budget constraints, the amount of TA help for the course has been cut drastically. Thus, Carolyn cannot read and correct all answers for all the homework assignments. She will correct only one question in detail from five of the assignments. The answer to that question will be worth 5 points. You will receive 5 points for each homework turned in on time. Thus, the homeworks will be worth 75 points (50 if all are turned in on time and 25 for the five questions that are graded). We will provide the correct answers for all questions for you to examine.
Homework assignments will be provided one week before the assignment is due. Homework should be turned in at the beginning of class. Any homework received after this time will be depreciated by 25%. Answers will be posted on the MCB 421 website. No credit will be given for homework turned in after that assignment has been returned or the answers posted.
Exams:
There will be 3 midterm exams worth 100 points each and a final exam worth 100 points. The lowest score on any of these four exams may be dropped. No make-up exams will be given -- if you miss an exam, that exam will be dropped. The exams will concentrate on the material covered in lectures, the homework, and the assigned readings. All exams will be given during the regularly scheduled class times. Answers will be posted on the MCB 421 website after the exams are graded.
One-minute writes:
"One-minute writes" are short written responses to questions I occasionally ask during class. Each one-minute write that you turn in will receive 1 point, whether or not the answer is correct. The important point is that you think about the question and try to answer it. However, to receive credit the 1 minute writing assignment must be turned in during the class the question is asked. The answers to one-minute write questions will be discussed in class, but the answers will not be posted on the web and the answers will not be returned. One-minute writes will typically total about 20 points over the course of the semester.
Course grades:
Course grades will be based upon the totals of Homework scores (100 points), Exam scores (300 points), and one-minute write scores. The final grade will be based upon the total points obtained using the following scale: greater than 85% = A, 70-85% = B, 60 - 75% = C, 50 - 60% = D. The full grading scale will be used within the indicated ranges, including plus and minus grades. The percent cutoff for a grade may be lowered but will not be raised. The mean score for the class will be a B.
Studying:
How should you study for this course? Go over your lecture notes after each lecture, while the material is still fresh on your mind. Although some memorization is invariably necessary when learning a new "language", the goal of learning is to understand the information, not to simply memorize a bunch of "facts". A major purpose of studying is to discover what you don't understand so that you can do something about it. Don't just passively read the notes, think about them and ask yourself questions about them. Do you understand what was said? Does it make sense and why? Compare and contrast the new information with things that you have already learned.
Some people find study groups very helpful for this process. The online resources are also an excellent way to interact with fellow students, the TA, and the instructor.
The homework serves two purposes: (1) you cannot solve problems by simple memorization, so the homework gives you a concrete way of determining whether you really understand the material, and (2) many of the exam questions will be similar to the homework problems, so the homework gives you a preview of what will be expected on the exams. It is easy to convince yourself that you really understand how to solve a problem once you know the answer to the problem, but this is not a very accurate gauge of whether you could solve related problems. Therefore, for the homework to be most effective, you should try to solve the problems independently before seeking advice from other students, the TA, or the instructor. It may help to consult the online problems supplement -- solved examples of many types of problems can be found on the problems supplement. But if you cannot solve a problem after studying your notes, reading the book, and consulting the web resources, if you're unsure of how to approach such problems, or if you have any other questions, please see the me or the TA -- that's what we're here for!
Finally, keep up regularly -- you can't cram all of the information into your brain at the last minute before an exam and we may not be available to answer your questions then.
Taking notes:
For information on letters of recommendation, click here.