Didem VARDAR ULU
LABORATORY COURSES
Since my arrival at Boston University, I have taught four laboratory courses: CH421 (Biochemistry I), CH422 (Biochemistry II), CH171 (Principles of Chemistry), CH172 (Principles of Organic and Biochemistry). As the laboratory coordinator of these courses, I have completely redesigned CH421 & CH171, and created CH172 curriculum.
CH421
Course Objective
Students enrolled in Biochemistry I course have wide-ranging interests and aspire to pursue a diverse set of careers in life sciences, chemistry, bioengineering, medicine, and pharmaceutical sciences both in industrial and academic settings. The laboratory component of this course is designed as an advanced laboratory covering a broad spectrum of contemporary biochemical research techniques for the preparation and analysis of proteins and DNA and give you hands-on experience “at the bench.”
Course Description
The CH421 laboratory emphasizes a bioanalytical approach to the curriculum, with a strong focus on experimental design, optimization, and data handling. The course features instructor-facilitated discussions on topics such as the capabilities and limitations of the instrumentation and on comparative analysis of student data. To deepen the students’ ability to think critically and strengthen their scientific communication skills, students complete two major projects. The first project is an instructor designed multi-week protein purification project that is summarized in a field-specific and professionally presented written communication. The second project is a student-designed and inquiry-driven CURE (course based undergraduate research experience), completed in small teams during the final two-weeks of the course. It provides a unique opportunity for students to engage in authentic research through the use of in-house advanced instrumentation, such as the ones in the Chemical Instrumentation Center and/or field specific professional online tools such as specialized databanks and computational resources. Students present their CURE design and findings as a group, during a CH421 mini symposium at the end of the semester.
CH171
Course Description:
The laboratory component of CH171 is an introduction to hands-on experiential chemistry and will familiarize the students with general chemistry laboratory concepts, techniques, and equipment. It is designed to allow the student to see chemical processes in action and learn methods utilized by chemists in research. It will also provide you with a reinforcement of the concepts you learn in the lecture portion of this course and the foundational laboratory skills you may need for other laboratory courses. This is your “practical experience” and as such has the greatest potential for securing jobs that require basic laboratory skills. The more you can say in an interview about the types of experiments that you performed in this lab and your understanding of the theoretical underpinnings of the techniques, the more impressed your potential employer will be.n that you want to share with your visitors.
CH172
Course Description
The laboratory component of CH172 provides the students with the hands-on experience that supplements the learning outcomes of the course where students are expected to perform and interpret key organic and biochemical procedures and analyses. It is divided into two modules. The first is the organic chemistry module that introduces students to commonly used techniques in organic chemistry with a focus in applications in the food, life and medical sciences. The major topics in this module include physical separations, determination of physical constants, extraction, purification and characterization of organic molecules, as well as their synthesis using basic organic reactions. The second is the biochemistry module that introduces students to commonly used techniques in biochemistry. The topics included in his module are the purification of the enzyme, lysozyme from hen egg white and characterization of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA).