Biochemistry for Nurses

CHEM 2070

Prerequisite: CHEM 1100(with 1102 and 1104) or CHEM 1000 or other college level Chemistry course.

Brief description: This course has been designed in collaboration with the Department of Nursing to fulfill curricular needs of the pre-licensure program.  This course will not fulfill any GE requirements, however it may be of interest to students who are contemplating careers in areas of health sciences.  The course will build on the student's prior understanding of chemical principles and it will begin with a review of acid base chemistry and its medical relevance.  A general description of organic chemistry will then be presented.  After gaining an appreciation for carbon based molecules (structures, nomenclature, functional groups and basic reactions), students will be introduced to the structure and functions of biological molecules (i.e. nucleic acids, amino acids, sugars etc.).   Enzyme catalysis and an overview of metabolism will be introduced and then students will study the reactions involved in carbohydrate, lipid and protein metabolism.  At the end of the course, students will explore the chemical basis of the nervous system and membrane transport systems.  The course will conclude with learning how biological processes are controlled by hormones.

As a Winter term course, every day is the equivalent of a week of a regular semester course.  There will be a quiz every day and most days will have some sort of activity that contributes to your grade.  This course also involves quantitative analysis.  You will need a calculator that has exponential notation and log functions. 

Text: General, Organic and Biochemistry, Connecting Chemistry to Your Life.  Ira Blei and George Odian, 2000, WH Freeman and Company, NY. ISBN: 0-7167-2872-9

Course assessment devices

Grading:  

Plus/minus grades may be assigned.  Any change of grading option (CR/NC or letter grade) must be made by submitting an Add/Drop form to A&R by January 12th.  You must receive 70% of the total points in order to receive a CR if you have selected the CR/NC grading option.  You are strongly advised to check with the Department of Nursing before selecting the CR/NC grading option.  Grading options can not be changed after January 12th.  This is a chemistry department policy.  

Quizzes will be based upon the homework (heavily weighted on the end of chapter exercises). There will be no make-up quizzes.   No quizzes will be dropped.  There may be some essay questions, but most questions will require short answers and many will involve calculations.  You will need a calculator that has scientific notation and log functions.  Examples of past quizzes on are on the web.

The Comprehensive Final Exam will be based on the quiz questions and the material from your classmates poster presentations.

Poster presentation of a drug: Choose a drug from the list provided on the www.   No more than two people can sign up for the same drug.  Sign-up quick to be sure to get your first choice.  Note: All papers must typed  using  a 12 point font and double spaced.  No handwritten papers will be accepted.  NO EXCEPTIONS!

Research your drug using www and library resources. Excellent sources of information are: the library (Chemical and Engineering News, Science, Nature, American Scientist, Science News, Lancet, Scientific American), the Internet, and newspapers.  Encyclopedias and our text book do not count as references.  After finding at least three sources of information about the drug of your choice, condense the information from those sources into a short paper and a poster presentation:

1. Introductory paper: Description of the drug, include the disease(s) that it is used for, and how the drug works. Due: January 17th.  Page limit: 2 pages. (Does not include references.)
2. Poster presentation: January 31st from 9am -12.  Present a summary of the drug, including its structure, how it works, what it is used for and what common side effects occur.  
   

Sources must be cited in the text, and listed in the bibliography (you may be requested to provide copies of your sources, so do not throw them away until your paper has been returned, failure to provide copies of your references upon request will result in an automatic "F" for the assignment.)  For materials that were published on the world wide web(www), please report the complete URL address of the site for the information, the date of publication and the author or organization that produced the page.

The audience for this paper and poster consists of the other students in the CHEM 2070 class. Therefore, terms need to be defined and concepts must be simplified. Explain the concepts in your own words, do not lift phrases from the research paper and put quotes around them. Do not copy sentences from your sources and change one or two words (paraphrasing can be dangerously close to plagiarism).  Be sure to site all of your sources of information in the text.  There should be NO QUOTATIONS in any of these papers. Again, use your own words to convey your understanding of the material. 

The paper should be written in a style that is similar to scientific writing. There should be no first person (and no second person) and most sentences should use the passive voice. Science writing puts the emphasis on the data, (not on the writer) to be as objective as possible about the facts.
Examples

Active voice: I broke the test tube.
Passive voice: The test tube was broken.

In the first example, credit is given to the author for increasing the entropy in the universe. The second example just states the facts.

Again, students are encouraged to consult the instructor for additional guidance. This assignment is designed to encourage exploration of the media and library resources for information about biochemistry. Also students will gain an appreciation for writing a paper in "scientific style". 

The following categories will be used to assess the final submission of your paper: 

Late papers will be penalized 10% per 24 hour period.  (This includes weekends and holidays.)   Papers may be submitted electronically.  Note: All papers must typed  using  a 12 point font and double spaced.  No handwritten papers will be accepted.  NO EXCEPTIONS! 

WWW and Email:  All course announcements and homework assignments will be posted on the www. If you do not know how to get to the www, please see your instructor  immediately. Grades will not be posted, however you can receive information about your grades via Email.  For a fast response, please put CHEM2070 in the subject line of your email message.

Reading Schedule for Winter 2007

Bibliography

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