BIOCHEMISTRY SYLLABUS

FALL 1999

MISSISSIPPI SCHOOL FOR MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE

Office: Room 213; 329-7682 Tutorial: Thursday evenings, room 212 or 211

Office hours: By appointment only, please. Home: 241-6604 (before 8:00p, please)

Text: Biochemistry, 4th Edition (1995), Lubert Stryer.

There are a number of biochemistry texts that may be borrowed overnight. Please sign the check out sheet prior to taking anything off of my shelves.

There are a number of excellent sites on the web for biochemistry including tutorials and protein crystal structures. The web, however, is unstructured, unregulated and often incomplete. Therefore, I would suggest that you use this resource as a secondary source. It is suggested that you use textbooks and journals as primary resources.

Biology at its most definitive level, chemistry refined by billions of years of evolution, this is the domain of biochemistry. To ultimately understand biological phenomena, we must understand the structure, nature, interactions and transformations of its constituents molecules. In exploring these bio-molecules chemists have discovered the exquisite products of natural selection some of which have been shaped to (kinetic) perfection.

This course will be unlike any other you have taken at MSMS in content, approach, and emphasis. The major emphasis will be on protein structure and function but we will also dedicate a portion of the course to nucleic acid, lipid and carbohydrate structure and metabolism. At the end of this course, I hope you have an appreciation and even awe of the might of biological macromolecules.

Introductory biochemistry is typically taught as a lecture intensive course and so it will be here for theoretical and practical reasons (limited supplies and no equipment). There is no "easy" way to learn biochemistry, it involves study and dedication. It is highly recommended that you read the material prior to the lecture.

PAIN AND ASSESSMENT

We will have seven biweekly-ish exams. The topics covered in the exams will include material covered through the previous lecture and in our text. This frequency of testing keeps students up to date and makes the volume of material less overwhelming.

All exams will be essay in nature and worth 100 points each. The final exam will be cumulative and worth 200 points.

Scheduled, there are seven oral presentations by the students. The nature of each will vary to reflect the topics we are addressing. Your oral presentations will be worth 25-75 points each depending on their nature.

Most, if not all, of the meaningful interactions that we humans engage in revolve around trust. This applies without a doubt to education. The student trusts that the teacher will provide an environment and subject matter to study that will be relevant and meaningful. The student trusts that the teacher's evaluation of his/ her work will be grounded in the quality and effort displayed. Many students put their trust in their teachers by soliciting advice and recommendations for future studies. The teacher trusts that the student will put forth a sincere and honorable effort and commitment to learn. The teacher trusts that the student will not only take responsibility for upholding these ideals personally, but will expect this of others. This does not imply a naïve trust, rather, when dealing with intelligent beings such as we find at MSMS, often trust is and should be earned. However, when the trust between individuals is eroded, the educational process grinds to a halt.

It is the responsibility of the student to behave in a manner that is consistent with the above ideals and to hold others -in your group or in the class- to the same. To do so, I encourage individuals to be honest and up front with each other to allow problems to be addressed directly before they begin to mount. I encourage students to involve the teacher in this process particularly when a situation arises which is detrimental to learning. If the issue is one involving honesty, the teacher must be included. Failure to do so contributes to the erosion of trust and is a punishable offense.

As is normal in any scholarly activity, the sources of information must be credited. Therefore, any information that did not originate from you or your group must be properly referenced (credited); if this is a document you must reference the source(s) within the body of your work using a standard format. You may also want to include an explanation of why this source of information was use.

You'll have the opportunity and will be encouraged to consult with students, faculty members, and others within or outside the school (content experts) when researching problems. Again, these sources of information must be credited. Failure to acknowledge the work/ideas of others is plagiarism, representing someone else's ideas as your own (the scholarly equivalent of theft), and will be dealt with as specified by the MSMS Student Handbook.

On any take home assignment in which it is specified that you are to work alone, or in which it is specified that you may not discuss the content of the assignment with fellow students, you must do as directed so that your assessment ultimately represents what you have learned. For some assignments-exclusive of tests- you may talk to one another outside of class; regardless, completed work will not be shown to other students in the class before it is handed in for grading. Your work should be in your own words and you must acknowledge (in writing at the end of the assignment) any sources of information you used including the names of any individuals with whom you have consulted. Again, failure to do so is plagiarism, and will be dealt with accordingly. For group assignments, the same guidelines apply, except the group takes on the above role of the individual. If you're in doubt about the relevance and/or application of any of these policies to a particular assignment, a consultation with the teacher is highly suggested.

The sequence below is the order of topics which we will address this semester. Much like any plan, we will try stay faithful to it but ... the realities of the world dictate that we will deviate.