Class Objective: The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the scientific principles that underlie the technologies collectively known as "biotechnology", to illustrate how these are being applied in agriculture, and to explore some of the controversies that surround the development and use of biotechnology.
Biotechnology is moving from the laboratory to the field and has started to have a major impact on how agriculture is practiced. While championed by some as a revolution that will make agriculture more efficient, less dependent on chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and result in a wide range of new and useful products, others see this as the dawn of a dangerous "Brave New World". By the end of this class, I hope you will be more informed about what "biotechnology" means and be able to take an educated position on the benefits and problems of these developments.
Text: For the first time, I am requiring a text book to accompany this class.Pandora's Picnic Basket - the potential and hazards of genetically modified foods by Alan McHughen, published by Oxford University Press, is a somewhat personal account of many of the issues that are relevant to this field of science and commerce. My lectures do not follow the same path as the book. I provide extensive notes on the web for most of the lectures. However, the book provides excellent background material and supplemental reading, especially in the areas dealing with regulation of biotechnology. I will assign readings from this during the semester.
I will also put another book on reserve in the Lilly library (Recombinant DNA by Watson, Gilman, Witkowski and Zoller, published by Scientific American Books). I will suggest readings from this book to complement the lecture material and provide an additional resource to aid in your understanding of specific subjects. These will focus on the more technical aspects of biotechnology - DNA structure, gene expression, gene cloning, producing transgenic organisms and some specific agricultural examples. I have also included a collection of links to other web sites that will also help your understanding of the topics covered in this course.
Evaluation:
|
Quizzes (best 5 of 6) |
50 points |
13.5% |
|
Mid-term Exam |
120 points |
32.5% |
|
Term paper |
70 points |
19% |
|
Final Exam |
130 points |
35% |
|
TOTAL |
370 points |
100% |
Grading: Students who score >333 points will be assured an A, >296 a B, >259 a C, and >222 a D. This scale could be adjusted downwards (curved) based on the overall performance of the class, but you should not count on it!
Attendance: You are encouraged to attend all of the lectures as I believe this will enhance significantly your understanding of the material. If you plan to be away, I would appreciate you letting me know ahead of time. While I do have detailed notes for most of the lectures on the web, there will be other material covered in the lectures and there may be special announcements in class that may not be posted on the web site. I will attempt to post announcements on the class web site, but I cannot guarantee they will appear in a timely fashion. Come to class - I try to make it an interesting experience and a worthwhile use of an hour of your time!
Academic honesty: The work that each student hands in to be graded must be their own and no one else's. I encourage you to discuss the topics presented and the assignments with your colleagues in the class. However, there should be no collaboration on writing answers to exam questions or term papers. Let me provide one example of inappropriate collaboration. I have occasionally distributed exam questions several days before the exam but required students to write the exam at the specified time. On one occasion, several exams had identical answers to most of the questions. When asked to explain how these answers were so similar, the students told me they had written out the answers together, memorized them and then just written out their identical answers in the exam. These answers were not the independent work of each student. Students who act in this way will receive an F grade. I expect each student to work independently when they write their answers. If you are not sure about this policy, please contact me for clarification.
If you have questions about any aspect of this class (course content, assignments, grades, related topics that are of interest to you, or any other relevant or perhaps irrelevant matter), please contact me before or after class, or in my office. E-mail is a very useful method to schedule appointments and meetings with me, as well as for raising topics for discussion. I hope you will enjoy this class and find it both interesting and challenging.