TY - JOUR
T1 - A hybrid first-year science course for engineering students - Integrating biology with chemistry
AU - David Harding, W.
AU - Schwartz, Pauline
AU - Nocito-Gobel, Jean
AU - Koutsospyros, Agamemnon
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - Biology is playing an increasingly important role in many engineering fields. With the typical engineering program already having a high credit hour requirement, the question becomes, how to best integrate biology concepts into a packed engineering curriculum. A typical biology course is not likely to introduce the important concepts of biology to engineering students. The solution here is to develop a hybrid course that integrates chemistry and biology. In the course, Chemistry with Applications to Biosystems, the concept is to develop a course that integrally links important concepts of chemistry and biology. The course focuses on the areas of biology most relevant to engineers: the structure and function of biologically important molecules, and concepts of biosystems (cell proliferation, immune and nervous systems and metabolism). A special topics thread has been included to weave current events into the course. During the most recent offering the focus was on various aspects of bird flu. This is a required course for Chemical, Civil and General Engineering students and is an elective taken by a large fraction of Mechanical Engineering students as part of the Multidisciplinary Engineering Foundation Spiral Curriculum. The course is typically taken during the second semester in place of a second general chemistry course. The course has been structured to provide the background needed for subsequent study of organic chemistry and physical chemistry. The introduction to concepts of biology is also structured to provide the necessary foundation for incorporation of biological applications in upper level engineering courses such as mass transfer. The course includes a laboratory component incorporating experiments from biology and environmental engineering concepts with classical general chemistry. Approximately one half of the experiments are common with a typical second semester general chemistry course. The remaining experiments include protein assay, enzyme kinetics, acid base behavior of amino acids and biochemical oxygen demand. The laboratory component also places a heavy emphasis on data analysis, uncertainty analysis and applications of statistics in experimentation. This paper will detail the development and delivery of Chemistry with Applications to Biosystems. Comparative data will be presented to illustrate the performance of students in subsequent course work, particularly organic chemistry.
AB - Biology is playing an increasingly important role in many engineering fields. With the typical engineering program already having a high credit hour requirement, the question becomes, how to best integrate biology concepts into a packed engineering curriculum. A typical biology course is not likely to introduce the important concepts of biology to engineering students. The solution here is to develop a hybrid course that integrates chemistry and biology. In the course, Chemistry with Applications to Biosystems, the concept is to develop a course that integrally links important concepts of chemistry and biology. The course focuses on the areas of biology most relevant to engineers: the structure and function of biologically important molecules, and concepts of biosystems (cell proliferation, immune and nervous systems and metabolism). A special topics thread has been included to weave current events into the course. During the most recent offering the focus was on various aspects of bird flu. This is a required course for Chemical, Civil and General Engineering students and is an elective taken by a large fraction of Mechanical Engineering students as part of the Multidisciplinary Engineering Foundation Spiral Curriculum. The course is typically taken during the second semester in place of a second general chemistry course. The course has been structured to provide the background needed for subsequent study of organic chemistry and physical chemistry. The introduction to concepts of biology is also structured to provide the necessary foundation for incorporation of biological applications in upper level engineering courses such as mass transfer. The course includes a laboratory component incorporating experiments from biology and environmental engineering concepts with classical general chemistry. Approximately one half of the experiments are common with a typical second semester general chemistry course. The remaining experiments include protein assay, enzyme kinetics, acid base behavior of amino acids and biochemical oxygen demand. The laboratory component also places a heavy emphasis on data analysis, uncertainty analysis and applications of statistics in experimentation. This paper will detail the development and delivery of Chemistry with Applications to Biosystems. Comparative data will be presented to illustrate the performance of students in subsequent course work, particularly organic chemistry.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85029022880&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85029022880&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:85029022880
JO - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
JF - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
T2 - 114th Annual ASEE Conference and Exposition, 2007
Y2 - 24 June 2007 through 27 June 2007
ER -