Date: 2/10/2003
To: Faculty Senate Executive Committee
Cc: Mark Barteau, Chair, Chemical Engineering
From: Anne Skaja Robinson & Norman J. Wagner
RE: Biochemical Engineering Minor, Clarification
Questions
have arisen as to the requirements for 600 level courses in the proposed minor
in Biochemical Engineering. In brief,
it is common practice for our undergraduates in many of the engineering and
science disciplines to take 600 level courses in order to gain knowledge and
skills in a technical specialty or sub-discipline. It is, as shown below, common for undergraduates in our
department as well as others at the University to routinely take 600 level
courses as “capstone” courses in areas of technical specialization, as
technical specialization often necessarily contains graduate research related
content. These courses are also
valuable to graduate students who have not had the opportunity to avail
themselves of this technical specialization in their prior education.
Current
technical requirements for a “biochemical engineering minor” in industrial and
academic practice requires research-related material that is currently taught
to target classes composed of seniors and graduate students. It is anticipated
that, as this rapidly evolving discipline becomes more mature, some of these
courses may evolve into the regular undergraduate course offerings and be
suitably renumbered. However, as the
faculty of Chemical Engineering in association with our colleagues in
Biochemistry and other, allied engineering disciplines have defined the
technical content required to award a minor in this technical specialty, we
find that this content is contained in the courses as given in the minor
proposal (recounted below). There is
significant precedent in the current practice at the University, as listed in
this document. In the following we also
demonstrate that the 600 level courses required and listed as electives are
popularly subscribed by seniors at the University of Delaware, and that the
requirements of this minor and their prerequisites are readily achievable by a
wide range of majors at the University.
To
clarify the course requirements and prerequisites for our proposed minor in biochemical engineering, the following
information is provided as evidence:
1)
List
of prerequisites for the minor
2)
List
of majors who could readily take the minor
3)
Undergraduate
enrollment in the 600-level courses that are part of the minor.
4)
Listing
of majors that require 600-level capstone courses
SUMMARY OF PROPOSED MINOR (6 courses, 4 required, 2 electives):
For a Minor in Biochemical Engineering the student
must take the following four courses:
· BISC207 Introductory Biology I (coreq CHEM101, CHEM103, CHEM105 or CHEM111)
· BISC401 Molecular Biology of the Cell (BISC207 and one semester of organic chemistry)
· CHEM527 Introduction to Biochemistry (CHEM331 or CHEM321 Organic Chem)
· CHEG620 Biochemical Engineering (MATH242 and CHEM527)
AND the students must take any TWO of the following courses:
· CHEG650 Biomedical Engineering (prereq CHEG332 and CHEG342)
· CHEG621 Metabolic Engineering
· CHEM645 Protein Structure and Function (prereq CHEM527 or CHEM641)
· CHEM649 Molecular Biophysics (prereq CHEM527 or CHEM641)
· CHEM646 DNA-Protein Interactions (prereq CHEM527 or CHEM641)
· CHEM644 Mechanisms of Enzyme Catalysis (prereq CHEM527 or CHEM641)
· CHEM648 Membrane Biochemistry (prereq CHEM527 or CHEM 641)
· MEEG684 Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering (no prereq)
1. The prerequisites required for the required courses for this minor are:
· 1 year of chemistry
· 1 semester of organic chemistry
· Calculus (MATH242)
2. The following majors
would be able to pursue the minor with at most one additional course (that would
count toward their technical electives), and are thus, likely candidates for
the minor:
· Animal Science, with an additional semester of calculus
· Biology BS degrees, with an additional semester of calculus.
· Chemistry
· Biochemistry
· Chemical Engineering
· Environmental Engineering, with one semester of organic chemistry
· Physics, with one semester of organic chemistry
We note that, in addition, these prerequisites are all standard requirements for admission to medical schools (for example see http://www.udel.edu/Biology/premed/coursework.html). Consequently, students pursuing a preparatory degree for advanced study in medical school would have the necessary prerequisites for the proposed biochemical engineering minor.
3. Undergraduate
Enrollment in the 600-level courses:
In the Department of Chemical Engineering, 600 level courses are considered “capstone” courses in specialized sub-fields of the discipline and are designed for both seniors and graduate students. They are designed to introduce students to advanced areas of the discipline and allied disciplines and as such, have varying prerequisites.
The practice in our department is to aggressively offer these “capstone” 600-level courses in sub-fields of our discipline to our undergraduates. For example, enrollments for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering 600-levels were:
600-level undergraduate enrollments:
CHEM 641 – 63 students in Fall 2002
CHEM 642 – 40 students in Spring 2002
CHEM 627 – 7 students in Fall 02
CHEM 633 – 28 students in Fall 02
CHEM 625 – 3 students in Spring 02
CHEM 667 – 19 students in Spring 02
CHEG 602 Polymer Proc Analysis & Des 12 students in Spring 02
CHEG 615 Special Topics in Mixing 32 students in Spring 02
CHEG 667 Metabolic Eng 11 students in Spring 02
CHEG 600 Intro Polymer Sci & Eng 42 students in
Fall 02
CHEG 617 Colloid Sci & Eng 12 students in Fall 02
CHEG 620 Biochemical Eng 13 students in Fall 02
4). Several undergraduate
majors & concentrations have requirements for 600-level courses[1] because they are viewed as
capstone courses for a concentration or subset of the major. This is the basis
for including them in our proposed biochemical engineering minor:
a)
For a bachelor’s degree (BS) in Biochemistry, the following 600-level courses
are required:
CHEM 641/642 Biochemistry
CHEM 643
One 600-level elective in Chemistry
b)
Among many other requirements, those for a B.S. Degree in Biological Sciences
with a Concentration: Biotechnology (BBT) includes the following:
Choose two courses from the following list:
(At least one must be a BISC course)
1. BISC 602 Molecular Biology of Animal Cells
2. BISC 648 Bioremediation
3. BISC 654 Biochemical Genetics
4. BISC 679 Virology
5. BISC 656 Evolutionary Genetics
6. BISC 615 Vertebrate Developmental Biology
7. BISC 665 Eukaryotic Molecular Biology and Genetics
8. BISC 673 Advances in Immunology
9. BISC 693 Human Genetics
10. CHEM 648 Membrane Biochemistry
11. ANSC 670 Principles of Molecular Genetics
Choose three: Two from category 1, one from category 2
1. Macromolecules
(Prerequisite BISC 401)
BISC 604 Nucleic Acids Laboratory 4
BISC 619 Gene Expression Laboratory 4
BISC 601 Immunochemistry Laboratory 4
2. Cell
Systems
BISC 617 Lab Techniques in Electron Microscopy 3
BISC 618 Computer Imaging in Biology 3
ANSC 644 Bioinformatics
c) Among other requirements, a B.S. Degree in Biological Sciences with
a Concentration: Cell & Molecular Biology and Genetics (CMG) requires
Electives from the following lists
to total 43 credit hour in the major. Note that many courses have
prerequisites. Courses must be taken from a minimum of two of the groups and
have approval of the faculty research advisor. One of the elective courses must
be from the list of approved 600 level courses based on the primary literature.
1. BISC
491 Human Molecular Cytogenetics 3
2. BISC
654 Biochemical Genetics 3
3. BISC
656 Evolutionary Genetics 3
4. BISC
658 Developmental Genetics 3
5. BISC
693 Human Genetics 3
1. BISC
602 Molecular Biology of Animal Cells 3
2. BISC
679 Virology 3
3. CHEM
642 Biochemistry 3
1. BISC
471 Immunology 3
2. BISC
408 Histology 4
OR
BISC 617 Electron Microscopy 3
3. BISC
612 Advanced Cell Biology 3
1. BISC
605-606 Advanced Mammalian Physiology 8
2. BISC
626-627 Neuroscience I and II 7
3. BISC
660 Environmental Physiology 3
4. BISC
675 Cardiopulmonary Physiology 3
1. ANSC
644 Bioinformatics 3
2. BISC
618 Computer Imaging in Biology 3
3. A
Computer Science course beyond the introductory level 3
d) Among other requirements, a B.S. Degree in Biological Sciences with
a Concentration: Ecology and Organismic Biology (EOB) requires
Electives from the following lists
to total 43 credit hour in the major. Note that many courses have
prerequisites. Courses must be taken from a minimum of two of the groups and
have approval of the faculty research advisor. One of the elective courses must
be from the list of approved 600 level courses based on the primary literature.
1. BISC
480 Vertebrate Natural History 3
2. BISC
495 Evolution 3
3. BISC
637 Population Ecology 3
4. BISC
641 Microbial Ecology 3
5. BISC
656 Evolutionary Genetics 3
1. BISC
300 Introduction to Microbiology 4
2. BISC
442 Vertebrate Morphology 4
3. BISC
605-606 Advanced Mammalian Physiology 8
4. BISC
626-627 Neuroscience I and II 8
5. BISC
630 Ichthyology 4
6. BISC
642 Advanced Vertebrate Anatomy 4
7. BISC
660 Environmental Physiology 3
8. BISC
661 Biology of Striated Muscle 3
9. BISC
675 Cardiopulmonary Physiology 3
[1] The registrar indicates that: (http://www.udel.edu/registrar/courseinv/instructions.html)
Note 2: Courses numbered 600 to 699 are
graduate-level courses also open to qualified advanced undergraduates with the
consent of the instructor. There should be a single standard of expectation and
grading for all students registered at this level.
Note 3: In those few cases where the
number of either undergraduate students or graduate students does not permit
adequate offerings of both a 400-level and a 600-level course, a graduate
600-level course may be combined with a separately numbered 400-level
undergraduate course in the same section. The graduate component must then be
offered with a graduate standard of expectation and grading.
Note 4: The appropriateness of
600-numbered courses for undergraduate credit is subject to review by the
Committee on Undergraduate Studies.