Newsletter
    March 06
    June 06

Course Offering: Fall and Spring Annually

Course Co-Coordinators: Associate Professor Dawn Quelle and Professor Kevin Rice

Credits: 1 credit

Grading: S/U

This is a required course for all students supported on the Pharmacological Sciences Training Grant. The primary goal of this course is to expose students to a broad range of scientific expertise and experimental designs, to develop interpersonal problem solving skills, and to propose plans of study for solving contemporary scientific problems in the Pharmacological Sciences.

The course will meet once a month on the first Thursday of the month in 2-322 BSB from 4:30 - 6:00pm. The faculty host will provide a one hour presentation to the students and provide an appropriate handout. The subject of each presentation will involve some methodology, strategy, or approach commonly used to solve problems in the pharmacological sciences. The format will include examples of how the method, strategy or approach has been successfully used to derive scientific information and to advance knowledge in the pharmacological sciences. The faculty host will provide students with one significant unsolved problem to serve as the format for a group thought experiment to be completed independently.

The students will be required to meet at least three times per month outside of class to discuss possible solutions to the problem posed to them. The students must work collaboratively to bring together their combined expertise and background to shape a "Plan of Study" (described below) that will be submitted to the faculty host in response to the problem posed. The students should not feel limited to using methodology or strategies that were presented in that session, but should look at this as a cumulative exercise that may include any and all methods, strategies and approaches to propose solutions to the problem. A selected student correspondent will be responsible for organizing the outside class discussions and to prepare and submit the Plan of Study. The faculty host will critique the Plan of Study and provide written feedback to the group.

One of the primary goals of this class is to bring together interdisciplinary scientists to work together to design a collaborative plan of study, to communicate and share ideas, and to propose workable solutions to contemporary problems in the Pharmacological Sciences. Students supported on the training grant must select this course for 4 semesters, resulting in exposure to 14 faculty and numerous peers in the Pharmacological Sciences.