Thursday, October 14, 2010

COURSE IN CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY


 Autumn Term 2010/11
Course code:C7004
This course is of 24 credits spread over autumn and spring terms.
Faculty:
Course Organizers:
Dr. Mark Paget (Chemistry and Biochemistry)
Room 5.17 CRPC
Phone extension: 7764

Dr. Robert Ray (Biology and Environmental Science)
Room 4C10 John Maynard Smith Building
Phone extension: 7634

 The Lecturers are:
                                    Prof. Trevor Beebee (T.J.C.Beebee@sussex.ac.uk)
                                    Dr. Mark Paget (m.paget @sussex.ac.uk)
                        Dr. Louise Serpell L.C.Serpell@sussex.ac.uk)
Practical Leaders are:
                                    Prof. Trevor Beebee (T.J.C.Beebee@sussex.ac.uk)
                        Dr Alexander Van Aken (A.van-Aken@sussex.ac.uk)
                        Dr Neil Crickmore (n.crickmore@sussex.ac.uk)
Course Meetings are:
Lectures (weekly):
Monday (weeks 3, 5, & 7 only)          17:00 - 18:00               CHICH-1LT
Tuesday                                               15:00 - 16:00               CHICH-1LT
Wednesday                                         09:00 - 10:00               CHICH-1LT

Tutorials (weeks 3, 6, & 9):
Tutor assignments are available on Sussex Direct. Students and tutors should organize tutorials during the first week of the  term.
Practicals:       
Practicals will be held in Weeks 3-8 on Thursdays. Practicals are half-day sessions running .Thursday mornings 9:00-12:00 or Thursday afternoons 14:00-17:00.
 All this information in more details was sent to me by the course coordinator, Dr. Mark Paget. Absolutely no confusion of finding out the place Chichester I building (CHICH I) and Lecture Theatre (LT).
Yesterday (Tuesday) I attended the lecture on the topic “Nucleic Acids – the basics” and today on the topic “Primary and secondary structures of Nucleic acids.” These two lectures were delivered by one of the most senior faculty members, Prof. Trevor Beebee.  Both the days he reached the lecture theatre 15 minutes before the scheduled lecture time . The students including me were also waiting before the scheduled time of the lecture. Since LT was occupied by the other faculty we could enter just five minutes before 15:00. The LT has multimedia facility including POD casting. Prof. Trevor entered the class with his pen drive. Within few seconds he was ready with the power point presentation on the topic. Exactly at 15:00 he started his lecture by introducing himself . He also told us where he will be  available .This was his first slide. He delivered  lecture for 45minutes. In between once or twice he asked the students if they had  any doubts or any questions. The students did ask him some questions and he answered. After the lecture,  he was available for  discussion  with  the students  for 15 minutes . The students  lined up and got their doubts cleared. The class had nearly 150 well behaved and good students. Some students had come to class with the printouts of Prof. Trevor's  power point presentation slides and some used to take down. Two students had laptop with them.
Today (Wednesday) I reached  the LT at 8.40. And Prof. Trevor reached at 8.45. The lecture was at 9.00. Again as usual he was ready for his lecture 10 minutes before the scheduled time. He started exactly at 9.00. He said that he felt sorry because his  yesterday’s  lecture could not get recorded.
 Today also his lecture was very systematic and informative. The manner in which he delivered was same like yesterday.
Yesterday,  I have sent a mail to the course coordinator as per the guidance and discussion which I had with Prof. Trevor regarding my tutorial and practical batch.
I also would like to attend some more courses and  will  write to the course coordinators.         

6 comments:

  1. Does this mean that you have 3 hours of lectures a week. How many hours of tutorials do you have. How many hours of practicals per week?

    How does this compare to what is happening in Goa.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Two hours lecture per week, i.e., on every Tuesday and Wednesday. On 3rd and 5th Monday Pre-practical session.
    Tutorials on Tuesday, as per the groups and 3 tutorials for autumn term.
    Practicals are on Thursday,as per the groups and 3 practical sessions for autumn term.
    I will comment on the last point later.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You mentioned that some students come with a printed copy of the lecture notes to class. Is it possible for you to print out a copy of these notes, scan them and put it in your blog. It will make useful reading

    ReplyDelete
  4. Does this also mean that you are participating in the practicals?

    What does Pre-practical session mean?

    ReplyDelete
  5. So far I do not have access to the course material/power point presentation. Only the students registered for the course can get this information. Today I have taken an appointment with Dr. Mark Paget.
    Yes, I would like to attend the practicals as well as in the tutorials. It seems to me in the pre-session of the practicals, Prof. Trevor will explain the principle, method... I am not sure. I will be able to tell on Monday, 17th October.

    ReplyDelete
  6. sir,
    at what depth the topic was handled? what was the age group of students? were ppt.presentation standardized? Did Prof. Trevor gave you references, activity or homework after the lecture. You mean to say he had one to one to solve the doubts? What was the general environment I mean friendly, indifferent or respect?

    ReplyDelete