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Responsibilities
Our schedule calls for implementing the course in the fall of 2008 at 12 participating institutions (ideally 6 research universities and 6 primarily undergraduate institutions), with approximately 20 students in each course. Another 12 institutions will be added in the fall of 2009, and another 12 in the fall of 2010, so 36 institutions and approximately 720 students will be participating when the program is running at capacity. After three years of initial support by SEA, institutions wishing to continue offering the course on their campuses must provide their own financial resources to cover reagent, sequencing, and computing costs.
SEA will provide:
- Initial course planning and development. From the pilot course a resource guide will be written to include student-tested protocols, a troubleshooting guide, suggested lecture topics and homework assignments, and a DVD of laboratory techniques. Additional curriculum development assistance will also be provided as needed.
- Training of faculty and TAs. Faculty will come to the SEA headquarters for three training sessions on phage biology, phage isolation and DNA preparation, and bioinformatics. SEA will cover travel and lodging expenses.
- Reagents and missing essential equipment. SEA will provide kits to each institution that contain the proper biologicals and solutions for the wet lab portion.
- Computing support for bioinformatics portion. SEA will provide access to computer software, databases, and web-based tools needed for genomics research. SEA will also provide computer support staff for troubleshooting and a dedicated server for data storage and retrieval.
- Sequencing services. SEA will pay for the cost of sequencing by the Joint Genome Institute during the winter break.
- Networking infrastructure. SEA will provide a communications system for all Alliance participants to exchange data and discuss discoveries and challenges. This may take the form of an electronic bulletin board with secured posting and/or a wiki site with secured methods for depositing data and editing.
- An annual research symposium. Each institution will send the participating faculty team and one student to present research findings and/or teaching methodologies. SEA will cover travel and lodging expenses.
SEA will provide these forms of support to institutions for up to three academic cycles of the course.
Faculty will:
- Attend three training sessions and annual symposium. Faculty must attend the training workshops with another campus colleague and should select a teaching assistant to attend one workshop. Faculty will also choose one student from the course to attend the annual symposium late in the spring semester.
- Decide how to implement course for their students. This will be the biggest and perhaps most challenging component required of faculty. Faculty should implement the course during the fall semester following training and agree to run the course for at least two iterations.
- Assist SEA in assessment of course effectiveness. This may include participating in surveys or other assessment tools, identifying appropriate 'control' students who do not take part in the course, and helping track students long-term.
- Publish or present findings. Faculty will be expected to publish or present their research findings and educational results, and/or assist the lead scientist with preparing scientific manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals. In addition, faculty will be expected to provide final phage sequence information for depositing into GenBank. Open sharing of scientific results, protocols, and educational resources will be expected of all SEA participants.
- Assist other SEA members and accept assistance from others. For this research-in-teaching experiment to run as smoothly as possible, a willingness to work together to address challenges as they arise will be critical to everyone's success
Institutions will provide:
- Salary and benefits of participating faculty.
- Teaching laboratory space, basic lab supplies and equipment, computer access, and campus computing support.
- Assistance in long-term tracking of student outcomes.
- Open access to all resources generated by the course via SEA Web site.
- Support beyond the three-year mark to institutionalize the course, if successful.
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