Degrees: B.S. : Biotechnology
Department: Biology
Submission Date: March 24, 2007
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Chairperson, Departmental Curriculum Committee Date
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Departmental Chairperson Date
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Chairperson, College Curriculum Committee Date
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Dean of College Date
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Chairperson, Faculty Senate Date

Summary of Proposed Changes to the Biotechnology Curriculum
After graduating several classes of Biotechnology B.S. students, the experiences of the students and faculty in the program and the need to reduce the number of credit hours have pointed out the need for some fine tuning of the curriculum. By adjusting the curriculum requirements of the
Biotechnology major we will better serve our students by: 1) reducing the number of required credit hours to be competitive with other programs; 2) broadening the pool of students eligible for the program; and 3) making the program more appealing to SEED transfers from Del Tech by better aligning our curriculum with the Biotechnology Associate of Arts degree offered by Del
Tech.
The Biotechnology BS degree is perhaps uniquely suited among DSU degrees to link easily with the Del Tech program because students don’t officially become Biotechnology majors until they apply at the end of their sophomore year. Therefore Del Tech transfers start on the same footing as the students who started at DSU in their freshman year.
Proposed changes
1. Rename Biotechnology Labs I & II to be more descriptive of their content and renumber them as 400-level classes to better reflect their place in the curriculum.
The Biotechnology Lab I & II are unique, hands-on lab courses with little to no lecture component. They are designed to teach students laboratory techniques common in the biotechnology field. Biotechnology Lab I focuses on DNA and RNA techniques, and
Biotechnology Lab II focuses on protein techniques. Since they focus on completely different sets of techniques and applications, they can be taken in either order and Biotechnology Lab I should not be a prerequisite for Biotechnology lab II. To make this more clear to students, we propose to change the name of Biotechnology Lab I to Nucleic Acid Biotechnology and the name of Biotechnology Lab II to Protein Biotechnology. This will provide students more flexibility in their curriculum as it will be clear to them that they can take the courses in whatever order works best with their educational plan, and will be particularly beneficial to students transferring to DSU from other programs. Also, since these two classes are taken in the senior year and have a 300-level class (Molecular Biology) as a prerequisite, we propose to change the numbers of the courses from 21-301, 21-302 to 21-401, 21-402.
2. Change the course description for 21-302 (to become 21-402).
The old course description for the Biotechnology Lab II course describes it as a continuation of Biotechnology Lab I. In practice, the course has never been taught this way, but rather as a separate, stand-alone course with a different textbook. Along with the name and number change, we propose to change the catalog description of 21-302 (21-402) to better reflect its content and provide students more flexibility for fitting the course into their college program.
2. Replace the required class 21-403, Advanced Biotechnology Instrumentation with an elective
This class, originally scheduled in the spring semester of the senior year, has been problematic for a number of reasons. Because it is required for graduation, the Department has been compelled to offer it every year , yet in some years there are only 2 – 3 graduating seniors in
Biotechnology who need the course. In addition, since both Biotechnology Lab classes are prerequisites for this class, transfer students would not be able to take this class within two years after matriculating at DSU and might be required to remain an extra year just for this class.
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Making the Advanced Biotech Instrumentation class an elective will allow us to offer it every other year rather than every year, and will allow transfer students to complete their program in two years. In its place in the curriculum we propose to require an advanced genetics, genomics or cell biology course. The Biology Department currently offers two electives 23-410 Advanced
Molecular Genetics and 23-415 Advanced Cell Biology which could fill that requirement. In addition the Biology Department and AGNR are also developing a 500-level graduate course in genomics to be cross-listed in both departments and team–taught by faculty in both departments.
This class could also fulfill this requirement. It is nearly a certainty that at least one of those courses will be offered every year, thus making it easier for students to meet the degree requirements without materially affecting the content of the major.
3. Deleting junior and senior research seminar classes and a free elective course
In order to reduce the credit hour requirements for the degree, we propose to delete the two 1-credit research seminars, (one in the junior year and one in the senior year) as well as deleting a free elective course from the junior year. Instead of requiring students to enroll in the seminar classes for credit, we will instead encourage them to attend the weekly Biology Journal
Club offered in the department as well as scientific seminars presented on campus.
The following pages contain the new curriculum, and the detailed course/curriculum revision forms for the proposed changes.
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First Semester
23-101 General Biology
24-101 General Chemistry I
01-101 English Composition I
25-122/ Trigonom./Precalc.
131
Curriculum in Biotechnology
First Year
Hours Second semester
4 23-102 General Biology
4 24-102 General Chemistry II
3 01-102 English Composition II
3 25-251 Calculus I
23-191 University Seminar I
Total hours
1 23-192 University Seminar II
15 Total hours hours
4
4
3
4
1
16
First Semester
23-215 Cell Biology
24-301 Organic Chemistry I
Second Year
Hours Second semester
4 23-210 Genetics
4 24-302 Organic Chemistry II
07-xxx Foreign Language 3 07-xxx Foreign Language
21-100 Introduction to Biotech 1 16-100 Fitness and Wellness
01-20x Af Am/World Lit
Total hours
3
15
01-20x Af Am/World Lit
Total hours
Students with GPA of 3.0 or higher can apply to Biotechnology major
First Semester
24-403 Biochemistry
34-395 Global Societies
26-201 Physics I
35-355 Topics in Bioinformatics xx-xxx History/Social Science
21-402
Total hours
First Semester
Nucleic Acid
Biotechnology
21/23-xxx Biotechnology
25-241
21-461 xx-xxx elective
Statistics
Research (Senior
Capstone I)
Free elective
Total hours
Third Year
Hours Second semester
4 23-310 Molecular Biology
3 xx-xxx Arts and Humanities
4 26-202 Physics II
3 01-200 Speech
3 34-2xx History
17 Total hours hours
4
3
4
3
3
17
Fourth Year
Hours Second semester
4 23-4xx Advanced Cell/ hours
4
Genetics/Genomics course
4 21-402 Protein Biotechnology 4
3 23/21-
1 23-499 Senior Capstone II
3
15 xxx
Biotechnology elective
Total hours hours
4
4
3
2
3
16
4
1
14
Total credits 125
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Approved Biotechnology Electives
21-200 Principles of Virology
23-321 Microbiology I
23-307 Principles Of Physiology
23-421 Microbiology II
23-305 Developmental Biology
23-311 Neuroscience I
23-411 Pharmacology23-415 Advanced Cell Biology
23-420 Immunology
29-308 Plant Pathology
24-303/304 Physical Chemistry
41-105 Management Processes
In addition, any other approved Biology electives can fulfill Biotechnology elective requirements
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CURRICULUM COURSE REVIEW FORMAT
This form is for use when altering the University curriculum by adding or combining courses.
1.
Course Title/Number: Biotechnology Research Lab I & Biotechnology Lab II (21-
301/302)
2.
Number of Credits: 4 per course
3.
Curriculum Program Title: Biotechnology
4.
Curriculum/Course is:
New _ __ Required __X__ Revised _X__ (name change)
5.
List Prerequisites: 23-101, 23-102, 23-210, 23-215, 23-310
6.
List Courses Being Replaced: N/A
Elective ____
7.
List Courses Being Deleted: N/A
8.
Needs Statement:
Renaming these courses will clarify their content and remove confusion among students who mistakenly think that Biotechnology Lab I is a prerequisite for Biotechnology Lab II
9.
Current catalogue Description of the Courses:
21-301 -
This lab course surveys applications in recombinant DNA methodology. Some topics covered will include enzymology of DNA manipulation; construction and isolation of recombinants; plasmid and bacteriophage vectors; structural analysis of cloned DNA. Credit, four hours.
21-302 - This lab course will be a continuation of Biotechnology Lab I. The lab course will focus on gene expression and protein isolation and function. Credit, four hours.
10.
Description of change
The name of Biotechnology Lab I will be changed to Nucleic Acid Biotechnology. The name of Biotechnology Lab II will be changed to Protein Biotechnology, and the course description will be changed to better reflect the content and the fact that it is not actually a continuation of 21-301, but a stand-alone course. The new names will be more informative for students because they will better reflect the course content.
New catalog description for 21-302 (21-402) - This advanced lab course is a survey of techniques and applications in protein expression and isolation including methods of determining protein structure and function.
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Submitted by: The Curriculum Committee of the Department of Biology
Date:
Approved by the Faculty of the Department of Biology:
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