Ten years ago the results of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) minitest suggested that there would be little change in total basic science examination performance between the second and fourth year of medical school. Five projects are reported that sustain these results. (Author/JMD)

Early admission students performed as well as first-year medical students in the preclinical sciences. They integrated, rather than alternated, undergraduate and medical coursework. Double or inter-departmental majors were common; few general education or non-major courses were chosen. (CP)

Describes a method utilized at Iowa State University for teaching a biochemistry laboratory course for non-majors involving the use of student independent projects and experimental choices. (BT)

Presents a technique used in a biochemistry course in which students present a poster session at the end of the course. Results indicate that students exhibit enthusiasm for their topic and that this technique can be used as an alternative assessment method. (DDR)

Describes a problem-based learning approach to teaching environmental biology designed to complement the lecture program and build on practical and teamwork skills developed in earlier coursework. The program guides students through the processes of design, testing, validation, and modification of experimental protocols, and reinforces students'…

Describes a self-instructional assignment approach to the teaching of advanced enzymology. Presents an assignment that offers a means of teaching enzymology to students that exposes them to modern computer-based techniques of analyzing protein structure and relates structure to enzyme function. (JRH)

Presents a protocol that gives students hands-on experience in generating a meaningful physical map of a circular molecule of DNA. Topics include agarose gel electrophoresis, logic of restriction maps, extracting data from an agarose gel, managing data from gels, experimental protocol, loading gels, electrophoresis, photographing gels, collecting…

Experiments designed to help undergraduate students gain experience operating instruments and interpreting gas chromatography and mass spectrometry data are presented. Experimental reagents, procedures, analysis, and probable results are discussed. (CW)

Discussed are applications of biochemistry. Included are designed drugs, clever drugs, carcinogenic structures, sugary wine, caged chemicals, biomaterials, marine chemistry, biopolymers, prospecting bacteria, and plant chemistry. (CW)

Highlights several analytical techniques that are being used in state-of-the-art clinical labs. Illustrates how other advances in instrumentation may contribute to clinical chemistry in the future. Topics include: biosensors, polarization spectroscopy, chemiluminescence, fluorescence, photothermal deflection, and chromatography in clinical…

Describes an undergraduate biochemistry laboratory experiment on enzyme kinetics using the D-amino acid oxidase system and an ammonia electrode. Preparation of an ammonia standard curve, a sample preparation, and inhibition studies are discussed. (YP)

Describes a way to help students grasp intermediate steps in the movement and relationships of the various components involved in the addition of an amino acid to a nascent peptide chain. Includes drawings of the model in operation, construction details, and suggested shapes and labeling of components. (RT)

Examines five basic reactions which describe the biochemical pathways for living things obtaining energy. Shows the reactions that occur in respiration after glycolysis, the dehydrogenation reaction, decarboxylation, and two kinds of make-ready reactions which prepare molecules for further dehydrogenation and decarboxylation. Diagrams are…

Hampshire College needed to create opportunities for advanced undergraduates to have extensive laboratory or field experience in experimental sciences. A general biochemistry course, taught almost entirely in the laboratory, is described. The focus of the course is enzymes as catalysts and as proteins. (MLW)

Molecular biology is defined and its status in secondary schools and colleges is discussed. Employment prospects in molecular biology in Britain are described. (CW)