Meets: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30 to 10:45 AM in 102 Gore Hall

(A weekly problem-solving session will be scheduled.)

Instructor: Hal White
    Office: 123 Brown Lab
    Phone: 831-2908
    e-mail: halwhite@udel.edu
 

Prerequisites and Restrictions: Organic Chemistry CHEM-322 or CHEM-332 (or equivalent) required. This course is for undergraduate majors in biology, chemistry, and agriculture and for graduate students outside the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry who will not use biochemistry professionally. Introductory Biology BISC-207 (or equivalent) strongly recommended. Students planning to do research in biochemistry should take CHEM-641, 642 Biochemistry.
 

Text: Principles of Biochemistry Second Edition by H. Robert Horton and four other authors. Published by Prentice Hall 1996. Modern biochemistry textbooks are encyclopedic. They are written to accommodate almost any topic that might be included in a biochemistry course. Your text this semester is up-to-date and a wonderful resource as are several others now on the market. You should read it to prepare for class, clarify topics discussed in class, and as a resource for other courses. The authors are aware of the dangers information overload and focus on the essential principles.  A supplemental textbook, Molecular Aspects of Cell Biology by Garrett and Grisham, will be used during the last third of the course.
 

Teaching Philosophy: CHEM-527 is an upper-level undergraduate/graduate-level course intended for students who need a substantive, one-semester survey of biochemistry. Biochemistry is an enormous and still rapidly growing field that intersects with virtually all aspects of biology, agriculture, and medicine. The Journal of Biological Chemistry publishes more than 35,000 pages each year! There is no way biochemistry can be "covered" in one semester, (although some people try). In this course, many interesting and important topics will go unmentioned. Ideally you will acquire the knowledge that will enable you to learn that material on your own later as needed.
 

Courses in biochemistry share with organic chemistry the reputation for presenting enormous amounts of tedious information that has to be regurgitated on impossible examinations. This course is not about memorization of structures and obscure pathways, although you will have to learn the structures of many biochemical compounds. This course is about understanding, thinking, and applying your knowledge in new situations. It is about making biochemistry understandable, hopefully interesting, and possibly exciting enough that you will want to continue learning about it for the rest of your life.
 

People learn best and almost effortlessly when they want to know something. Why else is it that many students (and some faculty) can recite for hours the details of soap operas, the personal lives of celebrities, or baseball statistics without expecting to be examined on the information? Biochemistry will never have a comparable appeal; however, learning about it will come easier when there is a need to know, a focus for your learning. I hope to challenge your intellect and cultivate your curiosity with homework problems and an informal style of lecturing that encourages your involvement.
 

Examinations and Grading: There will be three hourly examinations, all on Thursdays (October 7, November 4, and December 2) and each worth 20% of the final grade. The final comprehensive examination (40% of the final grade) will be administered during Finals Week. There will be no make-up examinations for missed hourly examinations. The grade on the final examination will be substituted for any missed examination. When deciding final grades, attendance, attitude, and improvement will be considered in borderline cases. Grades will not be curved in the sense that there will be a certain percentage of A's, B's, and C's etc. Consequently, it is possible for everyone to get an "A," if everyone does very well, (or conversely...). In courses I have taught in the past, the cut off between A's and B's typically has been in the 80 - 85% range.
 

In keeping with the philosophy that knowing about biochemistry is not the same as understanding biochemistry, examinations will emphasize critical thinking skills such as application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. While there will be questions that specifically test your knowledge, more often you will be asked to use that knowledge in a new situation. In order to provide practice with these skills, I will distribute problems sets most weeks and conduct a weekly problem-solving session (attendance advised, but not required). For the purpose of working on problem sets and general support, I strongly urge you form study groups of 3 or 4 students to meet outside of class to work on problems and come as a group to the problem-solving sessions.