Home Program Summary & Results HC70A HC70AL HC199 Long-Distance Learning Goldberg Lab



BOB GOLDBERG'S NOVEL UNDERGRADUATE
SCIENCE EDUCATION PROGRAM

Sponsored By
HHMI

Enter Bob Goldberg's Classroom (top)

HC70A & HC70AL 2003
Teaching Non-Science Students About the Excitement of Discovery


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HC70A Winter 2004
Teaching Without Borders



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HC70AL Spring 2004
Gene Discovery Laboratory, A Cultural and Scientific Collaboration

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HC70A Winter 2005
Radical Class 101

HOT OFF THE PRESS!


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Articles About Teaching (top)
Goldberg's Variation

An article by Dan Gordon in the UCLA Magazine on Bob Goldberg's novel approach to teaching.
To Teach or Not

An editorial by Bob Goldberg in the journal The Plant Cell on undergraduate education.
Long Distance Learning

An article from the UCLA Daily Bruin describing a multi-cultural long distance course taught by Professor Goldberg simultaneously to UCLA and Kyoto students in Japan using state-of-the-art fiber optic cables, electronic blackboards, and live audio and video hookups.
Rising to the Challenge: Merging Research and Innovation for Undergraduate Science Education

An article by Dan Gordon highlighting Bob Goldberg's undergraduate science education program funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Assessment (top)

Assessment of Bob Goldberg's HHMI program was carried out in several ways:

1. Students evaluated HC70A and HC70AL at the end of each quarter as part of the UCLA course evaluation system.
2. Students evaluated the undergraduate teaching fellows in HC70A.
3. An HC70A survey conducted on the first and last days of the quarter in order to compare student attitudes towards a range of genetic engineering issues.
4. Students who took both HC70A and HC70AL were given a questionnaire that addressed the impact of these classes had on their academic career, their understanding of how science is carried out, and their view of the excitement of discovery.
5. Each HC70AL student was given an exit interview to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the lecture and laboratory and how to improve the program.
6. Undergraduate teaching fellows and peer laboratory mentors were inteviewed by Bob Goldberg to assess the impact that teaching HC70A and/or HC70AL had on their future goals and objectives.

Evaluations of HC70A and HC70AL

Click here to download and read students' evaluation comments. Listed below are sample evaluation questions and comments.

On a scale from 1-9 (1 low - 9 high), the following ratings have been obtained for three sample questions:

Question
Rating
Your overall rating of the instructor
8.6
Your overall rating of the course
8.6
You have learned something you consider invaluable
8.7

Question
%
High interest in subject matter BEFORE taking the course
30%
High interest in subject matter AFTER taking the course
80%
You have learned something you consider invaluable
8.7

"Such a great class. I've never experienced anything like it."

"This was the most unique and exciting all-around experience that I have had academically."

Evaluations of Undergraduate Teaching Fellows

Evaluations of the undergraduate teaching fellows in HC70A were equally excellent compared to the course evaluations.

"The best TA at UCLA. Malik was awesome and the discussions were always fun, interesting, and unique" -- student comment for Malik Francis, an African American teaching fellow now in a Ph.D Program at UC Berkeley.

"Tiffany Sum is a great TA. I cannot believe that she is an undergrad." -- student comment for Tiffany Sum, a third-year linguistics major.

"Mike is the best TA I have had at UCLA - a fantastic communicator." -- student comment for Mike Gavino, a third-year psychology major.

Out of the 10 undergraduate students participating as teaching fellows and/or peer laboratory mentors, four are in Ph.D. programs (including two NSF Pre-Doctoral Fellows), three are in medical school, and three are still undergraduates at UCLA.


HC70A Class Survey About a Range of Genetic Engineering Issues

Click here to download survey questions and results.

An example of a question asked and the corresponding results is shown in the table.

If you could choose traits for your baby, would you choose to:
 
First Day
Last Day
Rule out a fatal disease
74.5%
94.0%
Ensure greater intelligence
21.3%
2.0%
No Answer
4.2%
4.0%

HC70A & HC70AL Questionnaire

Click here to read the results of this questionnaire from the HC70AL Spring 2005 students.

"As a social science major, I feel very lucky to have been able to participate in a lab experience conducting original research. This is a rare, if not a unique opportunity."

"Before, I thought of a career in science as a standard 9 to 5 job...Now, I know that to seriously dedicated scientists, science is more than a job -- it's a way of life."

"I have learned to better appreciate the work of scientists, because I got a small taste of what it's like to do scientific research."


Participant Data (top)
 
No. of Students
Genetic Engineering in Medicine, Agriculture, and Law (HC70A)
123
Gene Discovery Laboratory (HC70AL)
34
Undergraduate Teaching Fellows and Peer Mentors
10
Kyoto University Students
30

Participant Data Summary
HC70A (See Figures 1 and 2 for pie chart distribution)
  • More than 70% of the students are non-life science, undeclared, or physical science majors
  • 25 different majors represented (including linguistics, communications, business/economics, philosophy, math, physics, molecular biology, microbiology, and biochemistry)
  • Approximately 50% freshmen & sophomore and 50% junior & senior students
  • 43% males and 57% females
  • 15% minority students (African American & Hispanics)
HC70AL (See Figures 1 and 2 for pie chart distribution)
  • More than 60% of the students are non-life science, undeclared, or physical science majors
  • More than 75% of the students are freshmen or sophomore
  • 56% males and 44% females
  • 13% minority students (African American & Hispanics)

Figure 1. Distribution of Major and Year in School (click on image to enlarge)
 
Figure 2. Distribution of Ethnicity and Gender (click on image to enlarge)

Undergraduate Teaching Fellows and Peer Mentors Participating in the HHMI Program
Name Major At Time Course Taught Course Taught Year Taught Current Status
Malik Francis Physiological Science
HC70A
HC70A
Winter 2003 Winter 2004
Second Year Ph.D. Student
Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley
Mike Ferry MCDB
HC70A
HC70AL
Winter 2003
Spring 2003
Third Year NSF Pre-Doctoral Fellow
Bioengineering, UC San Diego
Aycha Erbilgin MCDB
HC70AL
Spring 2003
Research Associate II, Affymetrix, Inc.
Currently applying to Ph.D. Programs
Jinsun Choi MCDB
HC70A
HC70AL
Winter 2004
Spring 2004
Second Year Medical Student
School of Medicine, UC Irvine
Mai Pham MCDB
HC70A
HC70AL
Winter 2004
Spring 2004
Second Year Medical Student
School of Medicine, Boston University
Josh Wolf MCDB
HC70AL
Spring 2004
Second Year NSF Pre-Doctoral Fellow
Biology, MIT
Erin Marsh MCDB
HC70AL
Spring 2004
Second Year Medical Student
School of Medicine, UCLA
Mike Gavino Psychology
HC70A
HC70AL
Winter 2005
Spring 2005
Fourth Year Undergraduate Student
MCDB, UCLA
Tiffany Sum Linguistics
HC70A
Winter 2005
Fourth Year Undergraduate Student
Linguistics Major, UCLA
Brittan Scales MIMG
HC70AL
Spring 2005
Fourth Year Undergraduate Student
MIMG Major, UCLA
MCDB - Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
MIMG - Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics

Educational Resources Developed for Undergraduate Research (top)

HC70AL - Gene Discovery Laboratory Lab Manual

A comprehensive week-by-week protocol book for students using genomics to study the function and activity of plant genes.  Click here to download the lab manual. (PDF size: 9 Mb)

For a week-by-week protocol, click on the following link.

Gene Discovery Laboratory Web Notebook

An interactive "web laboratory book" created to allow students real-time viewing of all experiments and results.

Click here to browse the "webbook" and view how students use this interactive web laboratory book to organize, summarize, and post their research results.

The "webbook" program can be downloaded by clicking here, and is freely available to anyone in the scientific community who would find it useful for their research and/or teaching.

Undergraduate Gene Discovery Research Summary (top)

HC70AL - Gene Discovery Laboratory

Starting with unknown transcription factor genes, students carried out bioinformatic analysis to obtain gene information (sequence, structure, etc.) and carried out a series of complex molecular biology techniques to study and find a knock out in their transcription factor genes (Figure 3). Knock outs were obtained in 50 Arabidopsis transcription factor genes active in seed development which had not been investigated before. A list of knock outs and the students that uncovered them are summarized in Figure 4.

Figure 3. Flow Chart of HC70AL (click on image to enlarge)
 
Figure 4. Table of Students Knockouts (click on image to enlarge)