Physiology 4640: Organogenesis in Mammals
Background
I took Physiology 4640A: Organogenesis in Mammals in Sept-Dec 2011.
Review
The course was 2 hrs/week and taught by 3 professors: Dr. Tom Drysdale, Dr. Christopher Pin, and Dr. Dean Betts. The emphasis of the course is on how embryos and organs develop. Special attention is given to how key experiments in this field have shaped our understanding of development and applying this knowledge to set up future experiments.
Dr. Drysdale gave us an introduction to embryogenesis and gastrulation and gave lectures on heart and lung development. Dr. Pin lectured on pancreas and muscle development. Dr. Betts gave 4 lectures on early development with an emphasis on germ cell formation. The style of teaching may be very different from what you have been used to. We had a small class and lecture slides were often figures from research papers. All the professors had minimal text on their slides as they focused most of their time in lecture explaining key findings from different research papers. In addition, students were expected to understand the key findings from these papers and appreciate the methodology for these experiments.
Evaluations
Assignment 1 (10%) – A short article written for a general audience about a Nobel Laureate
Assignment 2 (20%) – “News and Views” article the summarizes a particular research article with text and a figure along with a hypothetical experiment that you would conduct
Quizzes (10%) – Based on research papers that are talked about in class
Midterm exam (20%) – based on all lectures and discussed papers to date
- Some short answer questions based on basic concepts and strong emphasis on application questions
Final exam (40%) – cumulative with much greater emphasis on lectures since midterm
- Almost the entire exam was comprised of application questions e.g. “Describe an experiment you would do to test for phenomenon X”
Advice
In this course, the emphasis is on understanding key findings from research papers and being able to apply these findings by setting up your own hypothetical experiments. Although there are key concepts in development that need to be attained, the primary focus of this course is on critical thinking. As you will see, the professors are not interested in whether you have memorized little details e.g. types of buffers were used in a particular experiment. They are much more interested in the big picture: why did they use a particular method to test their hypotheses? What other ways could have been used to test their hypotheses?
Lecture slides often present figures from research papers. Sometimes it is difficult to understand the context behind the experiment so it is helpful to go back to the original paper and read a little bit of background information, especially if you don’t understand the material when it is presented in class. Some lecture slides refer to key review papers on development. Although they were not required reading, I found that reading these gave me a better understanding of the regular course material.
Although memorizing little details is not the main focus of the course, if there are certain details presented in the figures that is crucial to understanding the main concept, you should be familiar with it and be ready to write about it on the exam.
In preparing for quizzes, you should read the whole paper before class and understand the main research question and methodology i.e. how they tested their hypothesis. Important points to know are the experimental models being used (e.g. mice), gene/proteins studied, and key findings. When preparing for exams, the approach is a little different: you should re-read the papers to get a general understanding of the methods and findings. You should take special note of understanding why a particular method was used. Knowing the details of how to carry out the method is not as important, but knowing when to use the method is e.g. immunofluorescence to detect locations of proteins. This course is heavily based on application and most exam questions ask you how you would set up a particular experiment. I found the exams were very fairly marked.
Further suggestions for exam preparation include making up experimental questions for yourself, discussing these ideas in a group setting, and actually writing out full answers when you practice for the exam.
I believe the intent of this course is to challenge students to think critically and prepare them to design their own experiments in the area of developmental biology. Since most of the content covered in class requires some previous knowledge to understand the context behind certain research experiments, I had to do extra reading to understand what was happening in class. Overall, I found this course quite challenging, but I enjoyed the critical thinking aspects of the course.
Disclosure
Please see the About page.
I took Physiology 4640A: Organogenesis in Mammals in Sept-Dec 2011.
Review
The course was 2 hrs/week and taught by 3 professors: Dr. Tom Drysdale, Dr. Christopher Pin, and Dr. Dean Betts. The emphasis of the course is on how embryos and organs develop. Special attention is given to how key experiments in this field have shaped our understanding of development and applying this knowledge to set up future experiments.
Dr. Drysdale gave us an introduction to embryogenesis and gastrulation and gave lectures on heart and lung development. Dr. Pin lectured on pancreas and muscle development. Dr. Betts gave 4 lectures on early development with an emphasis on germ cell formation. The style of teaching may be very different from what you have been used to. We had a small class and lecture slides were often figures from research papers. All the professors had minimal text on their slides as they focused most of their time in lecture explaining key findings from different research papers. In addition, students were expected to understand the key findings from these papers and appreciate the methodology for these experiments.
Evaluations
Assignment 1 (10%) – A short article written for a general audience about a Nobel Laureate
Assignment 2 (20%) – “News and Views” article the summarizes a particular research article with text and a figure along with a hypothetical experiment that you would conduct
Quizzes (10%) – Based on research papers that are talked about in class
Midterm exam (20%) – based on all lectures and discussed papers to date
- Some short answer questions based on basic concepts and strong emphasis on application questions
Final exam (40%) – cumulative with much greater emphasis on lectures since midterm
- Almost the entire exam was comprised of application questions e.g. “Describe an experiment you would do to test for phenomenon X”
Advice
In this course, the emphasis is on understanding key findings from research papers and being able to apply these findings by setting up your own hypothetical experiments. Although there are key concepts in development that need to be attained, the primary focus of this course is on critical thinking. As you will see, the professors are not interested in whether you have memorized little details e.g. types of buffers were used in a particular experiment. They are much more interested in the big picture: why did they use a particular method to test their hypotheses? What other ways could have been used to test their hypotheses?
Lecture slides often present figures from research papers. Sometimes it is difficult to understand the context behind the experiment so it is helpful to go back to the original paper and read a little bit of background information, especially if you don’t understand the material when it is presented in class. Some lecture slides refer to key review papers on development. Although they were not required reading, I found that reading these gave me a better understanding of the regular course material.
Although memorizing little details is not the main focus of the course, if there are certain details presented in the figures that is crucial to understanding the main concept, you should be familiar with it and be ready to write about it on the exam.
In preparing for quizzes, you should read the whole paper before class and understand the main research question and methodology i.e. how they tested their hypothesis. Important points to know are the experimental models being used (e.g. mice), gene/proteins studied, and key findings. When preparing for exams, the approach is a little different: you should re-read the papers to get a general understanding of the methods and findings. You should take special note of understanding why a particular method was used. Knowing the details of how to carry out the method is not as important, but knowing when to use the method is e.g. immunofluorescence to detect locations of proteins. This course is heavily based on application and most exam questions ask you how you would set up a particular experiment. I found the exams were very fairly marked.
Further suggestions for exam preparation include making up experimental questions for yourself, discussing these ideas in a group setting, and actually writing out full answers when you practice for the exam.
I believe the intent of this course is to challenge students to think critically and prepare them to design their own experiments in the area of developmental biology. Since most of the content covered in class requires some previous knowledge to understand the context behind certain research experiments, I had to do extra reading to understand what was happening in class. Overall, I found this course quite challenging, but I enjoyed the critical thinking aspects of the course.
Disclosure
Please see the About page.