Chemistry and the Citizen - Fall 2002
Biochemistry 1 – Spring 2010
Lab Schedule and Course Information
52-341-01 on R 12:00-4:50 (if on BU compressed schedule, 2-4:50)
PROFESSOR: Dr. Toni Trumbo Bell, Assoc. Professor of Chemistry
Under the Women’s Center, Schuylkill Hall, 389-4321
OFFICE HOURS: M 3:30-5:30 Other hours are available by appointment.
T 11:00-12:00 If you stop by and my office door is open,
F 9:00- 11:00 do not be afraid to ask, I may be available.
REQUIRED TEXT: Concepts and Techniques in the Biochemistry Laboratory Spring 2010 edition by Michael Pugh, Emeric Schultz, and Toni Trumbo Bell.
OTHER REQUIRED MATERIALS:
Blackboard Account Scientific calculator Safety specs USB drive Permanent Marker
Lab notebook- a new composition notebook with sewn-in pages (about $1 at the discount store)
Indelible ink pen- standard black or blue inks only
LAB SCHEDULE: For each experiment, the following points are available for you to earn. This schedule is fairly solid but unforeseen events (e.g., snow days) may result in a schedule change with little or no notice. Double asterisks indicate a short report format.
LAB DATE(S) EXPERIMENT WRITE-UP EVALS TOTAL DUE DATE
(peer / instructor)
1/21 Preparation of Buffers
Report Requirements Quiz (individual) 15 15 2/4
1/28,2/4,2/11 Isolation and Quantitative
Analysis of Bovine Thymus DNA 40 5/5 50 2/18
2/18,2/25,3/4 NMR of Biomolecules** 20 5/5 30 3/4
2/18,2/25,3/4 Protein Crystals for
X-Ray Crystallography** 15 15 3/4
3/18,3/25,4/1 Purification & Characterization
of Bovine Myoglobin 40 5/5 50 4/8
4/8,4/15 Enzyme Kinetics of Wheat Germ
Acid Phosphatase 40 5/5 50 4/22
4/22,4/29 Amplification of Lambda Phage
DNA by PCR** 15 15 4/29
4/29 Check-out J
TOTAL POINTS 185 20/20 225
The points you earn will calculate into your course grade as stated in the lecture syllabus.
Reports are to be submitted through [Assignments] in Blackboard no later than 1pm on the due date. A penalty of 20% per business day beginning 1 minute after the deadline will be assessed for late reports. No credit will be given for reports that are more than 3 days late.
MISSED LAB: In the event you miss lab due to:
1) personal illness or accident, a death or critical illness of an immediate family member or a dependent child, as verified in writing by an appropriate authority within 48 hours after the missed lab.
2) participation in a university-sponsored activity as outlined in the Pilot with an excuse provided no less than 48 hours in advance of the lab.
3) automobile breakdown or accident, or any other incident will be dealt with as merited on a case-by-case basis. The excuse must be verified in writing by an appropriate authority within 48 hours after the missed lab.
4) military duty with an excuse provided no less than 48 hours in advance of the lab.
5) religious observance with missed dates provided in advance no later than the first Friday of the semester.
I will assign and verify completion of appropriate make-up work. Failure to provide an excuse will result in a zero for that portion of the lab grade. Appearances in court due to alleged illegal activity on your part will not excuse you from lab.
ALL LAB WORK IS PERFORMED AS A TEAM: The team experience fosters cooperation and teamwork and will serve as a preview as to what it will be like to work on a research team in graduate school or industry. Companies calling me for references ALWAYS ask how well you work with others. All experiments and reports (except the report requirements quiz) will be a team effort, requiring team coordination.
PEER EVALUATIONS: In preparation for performing honest evaluations of your peers in the workplace, you will be required to evaluate the members of your group in two ways: lab performance and report contribution. YOUR PEER EVALUATIONS WILL REMAIN CONFIDENTIAL. I will provide the sum of your average peer rating and my rating, along with some general comments for improvement. The evaluations are due electronically through Blackboard at the same time as the report.
Team Performance- For each experiment you will consider the in-lab performance for each your colleagues. Your evaluation will contain a succinct paragraph discussing the positive AND negative aspects of the individual with respect to team performance. Just listing a grade without comment will result in a lower grade for YOU. You will rate each of the qualities below on a 1-5 scale for the lab periods under consideration and then calculate and provide the average score:
5pts strongly agree The team member is 100% infallible.
4pts agree The team member has some minor deficiencies.
3pts neither agree nor disagree The team member has some larger deficiencies.
2pts disagree The team member exhibits major deficiencies.
1pt strongly disagree The team member is conscious and breathing, but seriously
needs to work on it.
0pt this person is a moron See me if this is the case.
A. How well is your colleague prepared for her/his daily task in lab and in lecture?
B. What kind of care does your colleague take to do the experiment properly and maintain a clean work space?
C. How is your colleague’s attendance to lab and outside-of-class meetings?
D. If your lab partner were struck down in the prime of life (or dropped the class in the middle of the experiment) you will need to be able to repeat her/his part of the experiment and write your report from ONLY her/his notebook. This has happened every semester that I have taught this course! Is your colleague’s notebook legible and complete?
No one is perfect, not even your professor! Those 5’s should be very hard to come by!
Report Contribution- You will consider the contribution of each team member to the report. For a team of 3, there are 3 total contribution points to be divided among the team members. For a team of 2, there are 2 total contribution points to be divided among the team members. Your individual report score will be the team report score, multiplied by your report contribution. Consider the following examples from the point of view of Penelope, Lab Student Extraordinaire:
· Penelope, Bob, and Francis all contributed equally to the report. They all showed up on time for out-of-lab report meetings. They all contributed to the verbal discussion of the results.- In this case, Penelope would be comfortable giving herself, Bob, and Francis each a 1.0. They would all receive the full report grade.
· Penelope was ill and was unable to contribute much to the report. Bob and Francis picked up the slack equally- Penelope would give herself lower contribution points, say a 0.6…she did participate in generating the data after all. She would give Bob and Francis both a 1.2. Penelope would receive the report grade multiplied by 0.6. Bob and Francis would both receive the report grade multiplied by 1.2.
· Francis skipped-out on the meetings with her colleagues. Penelope picked up all of Francis’ work. Bob did the normal amount. – Penelope would give herself a 1.5 and Bob would get a 1.0, Francis did participate in generating data only so she gets a 0.5.
These are only examples. Divide the points as your situation warrants.
INSTRUCTOR EVALUATION: For each experiment I will consider the qualities below for your in-lab performance. You will have plenty of opportunity during each experiment to demonstrate these qualities. You will receive up to 5 points.
E. Are you prepared for your daily task?-Usually indicated by your lag time in getting started, having a prepared spreadsheet, and having some idea of what you are doing.
F. Are you a careful worker?
G. Do you communicate well with your group?
H. Is your lab notebook legible and thorough?
I. Do you clean up after yourself (everything put where it belongs, is turned-off and covered, etc.)?
J. Did you follow the guidelines for peer evaluation?
No one is perfect, not even your professor! Perfect scores will be very hard to come by!
LAB ETIQUETTE: I shouldn’t have to write this, but here goes:
· Turn off all electronics not approved for lab activities-including personal media players (safety issue)
· Arrive on-time and prepared
· Share the experience- As some techniques are repeated, do not let only one person do a technique repeatedly. Be sure that you get hands-on experience with all of the various techniques, as you will want to be able to state your competence with “such and such” technique on your resume. If you are weak in an area, you need more practice!
· Enjoy the music- Using our in-lab sound system, we’ll take turns selecting music to pipette by. You can bring music to share if you like. Let’s please avoid gratuitous profanity or explicit sexual lyrics.
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Dr. Bell
Biochemistry 1-Spring 2010