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2009; Wiley; Volume: 37; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/bmb.20317

1539-3429

Graham R. Parslow,

Chapter 1 of this compact book is titled Biochemistry: What You Need to Know and Why. In the reassuring style of the series of books For Dummies the text begins “See all the living or once living things around you? The processes that allow them to grow, multiply, age, and die are all biochemical in nature. Sometimes we sit back and marvel at the complexity of life, the myriad of chemical reactions that are taking place right now within our own bodies, how all these biochemical reactions are working together so that we can sit and contemplate them.” The full book details are Biochemistry For Dummies, J. Moore, R. Langley, ISBN: 978-0-470-19428-7, 360 p., April 2008, Wiley, New York. The web site promises that you can master biochemistry basics, work through biochemistry problems, prepare for standardized tests, grasp amino acid and protein structures, nail down enzyme terminology, get a grip on the Michaelis–Menton (yes it should be spelt Menten) equation, load up on carbo knowledge, crack the nucleic acid code and learn to love lipids, but not too much. This light style can be appreciated from the sample text under Read an Excerpt. The first excerpt gives the full contents and they cover the complete range of normal undergraduate courses. The diagrams are elegantly simple. The price from Wiley is dependent on location, but expect around US$30, however, Amazon online offer the book for $13.59. At this price, it is a relative bargain. One user wrote on Amazon “I used Biochemistry for Dummies to study for the ACS Biochemistry final at the University of Mississippi. Before the exam, I border-lined a high “B” and a low “A.” Using this book, I was able to study more efficiently in a shorter amount of time. Moore does an excellent job of explaining some of the most complex concepts of biochemistry in layman's terms. I ended up scoring well enough on the exam to score an “A” in my class. This book sums up a biochemistry text book in roughly 300 easy-to-read/skim pages. I didn't even open my text book. It was extremely helpful.” A more discriminating reviewer said “This book is a huge let down in terms of writing style and in terms of how error-prone it seems to be.” Another reviewer said that the errors paradoxically helped him because he had to check when he thought the material was wrong. If you acquire this book, then the companion title Molecular and Cell Biology for Dummies may also be of interest. Flight simulators used by airlines are as realistic as flying an aircraft. This type of simulation is coming to be called by the term immersive learning environment and can include virtual worlds such as created by Second Life. The Microsoft Flight Simulator is a sophisticated piece of simulation software, but not up to the task of teaching novices how to fly. In life and death occupations, it is essential to make simulations as close to reality as possible. The US armed forces have used the services of Nortel Corporation (nortel.com) based in Toronto, Canada to create realistic military simulations and that corporation has now written a medical simulation in anesthesiology for Duke University, North Carolina. I give little credence to their claim to be “Among the first in the country to use a virtual game to train for real patients,” however, Duke has raised the standard for clinical simulations. One student is quoted as saying “It's fun to interact using new cutting edge material. You can hear. You can see the vital signs change just like you would in a regular operating room.” Dr. Jeffry Taekman is the director of the Human Simulation and Patient Safety Center at Duke which is developing the simulation with grant money (simcenter.duhs.duke.edu). He said “I've always found if you make a mistake, especially on the computer where it's not affecting a human life, you learn better.” Biochemistry teaching is not generally a life and death matter so it has not yet justified the enormous expense of state-of-the-art simulation, but biochemistry is so widely taught that some cooperative effort in the future may provide the funding to produce best-practice simulations. Teaching the teachers is seldom given due attention in tertiary education. The idea for the National Academies Summer Institute developed from the 2003 National Research Council report, Bio2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists. The report concluded that faculty development is a crucial component for improving undergraduate biology education. It maintained that universities need to train lecturers to better integrate concepts in math and physical sciences with biology. Many introductory large classes are taken by junior staff, possibly damaging the flow of students through to advanced classes in life sciences. The answer for the United States has been a week-long gathering in Madison, Wisconsin at the end of June for lecturers to build teaching skills and transform the undergraduate biology classroom. The Summer Institute uses participants and presenters to cover current research, active learning, and assessment. The photographs of the participants at the 2008 conference (looks like around 120) show a dynamic interactive learning environment, just the sort that is hoped for when the lecturers return from the meeting. Rather than taking individuals, the organizers require institutional teams to apply. Participation is conditional on commitment throughout the following academic year to maintain contact with each other and with the Institute's instructors. They are expected to provide formal updates on the implementation of the plans developed at the Institute. The Institute website has a section titled Resources that has reading references for previous meetings, although the link to outcomes of previous meetings was not working when reviewed. This well-crafted 52-page report in the United Kingdom was instigated to establish the educational value of digital technology in general and Social Web or Web 2.0 applications in particular. The target was the generation born in the 1990s characterized as the i or Google generation. On page 13 of the report current, UK school children 11–15 years old are cited as having the following statistics. Those having at least one social networking site 75%, using email and instant messaging 90%, playing online multiplayer games 60%, owning an MP3 player 80%, and owning a mobile phone with camera 85%. The report has wide ranging facts and recommendations and needs to be looked at in the original to find areas of interest to individual educators. The key messages have been summarized in the following points: 1) The digital divide has not been entirely overcome and persists in access to, and engagement with, technology; 2) Use of Web 2.0 technologies is nevertheless high and pervasive across all age groups; 3) Using Web 2.0 technologies leads to development of a strong sense of communities of interest and networks and also of a clear notion of boundaries in web space; 4) There is an area within the boundaries of the so-called “group space” on the web that could be developed to support learning and teaching; 5) The types of skills developed through the processes of engagement with Web 2.0 technologies match both to views on 21st-century learning skills and to those on 21st-century employability skills; and 6) Information literacies—including searching, retrieving and critically evaluating information from a range of appropriate sources and also attributing it—represent a significant and growing deficit area. Wireless networking using the 802.11 standard is also known as Wi-Fi. You can search Computer World for an explanatory article by David Haskin or add extra detail to the aforementioned URL (/s/article/9019472/FAQ_802. 11n_wireless_networking). Similar information can be located through Wikipedia. The reason to include this information technology snippet here is twofold, because it relates to the following website of note on the University of Queensland and because I have recently purchased a laptop computer that proclaimed 802.11n wireless networking capability, although I was unaware of the advantage this conferred. The standard 802.11g was ratified in 2003 and is increasingly seen as inadequate as applications require more bandwidth. Streaming video is poor using 802.11 g with a maximum (rarely achieved) speed of 54Mbit/sec. The 802.11n standard uses new technology to give Wi-Fi more speed and range. The multiple input, multiple output, approach of the new standard uses several antennae to move multiple data streams instead of sending and receiving a single stream of data. Additionally using packet aggregation means more data can be transmitted per packet. Real-world speeds of 100 to 140 Mbit/sec are possible for 802.11n equipment and there is typically more than twice the range. Thankfully older laptops can still accept data transmitted as 802.11n. The University of Queensland in Australia is deploying the world's largest 802.11n wireless network to support teaching and research. When completed, up to 70,000 users will be serviced from 4000 wireless transmission points across four major campuses and 45 related sites. The transmission sites include public transport routes to the university so that students can login while commuting. The focus of the support for students at the University of Queensland is the Blackboard virtual learning environment that encapsulates support for each course. The ability to support streaming video will enable telepresence packages to reduce travel between campuses by specialist lecturers. Research and university administration are similarly expected to benefit. Access to the network is subject to the University's internet code of practice prohibiting illicit material and requiring observance of copyright. My own university is poorly served by wireless connectivity because of some unfortunate policy decisions that did not foresee the capabilities of the 802.11n protocol and the reality of widespread acquisition of laptop computers by students. However wireless is clearly the way of the future allowing information to be downloaded during a lecture and shared with peers using Twitter. The research done to produce the report Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World (see earlier) shows that we have a wireless-enabled generation about to enter our courses. I have seen that future with my medical students who have wireless access during their problem-based learning tutorials. Those medical students no longer reach for a printed medical dictionary or atlas of anatomy when they need information. For 40 years, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States has championed the quest for knowledge and cultural development through transmissions over 356 television stations. They claim to have shared history, exalted the experience of the arts, explored our relationships to each other and the world around us, and opened the frontiers of science, technology, and medicine. I found this a difficult site to navigate for specific information, but I did locate a few interesting videos including a commentary on the swine-flu pandemic. They offer good support for school science and teachers. The BBC web site is comparable (www.bbc.co.uk), but to my interpretation a more useful resource for tertiary science. VEA have a large inventory of teaching videos that they have created under contract for customers (e.g., Safety in the Senior Science Lab), as well as selected videos from the BBC and other commercial producers. VEA have specialized in this niche since 1978 and they offer over 2000 titles, constantly updated, across a range of subjects. For Biology, the offerings are catalogued as—Ecosystems—Cell Structure and Function—Animal and Plant Biology—Adaptations—Coordination and Regulation (Physiology)—Biochemistry—Evolution and the Fossil Record—Genetics and Inheritance—Microbes, Disease and Immune Responses—Human Biology—Forensic Science. For Chemistry, the offerings are catalogued as—Periodic Table and Atomic Structure—Chemical Bonding and Compounds—Chemical Reactions, Acids and pH-Environmental Chemistry—Industrial Chemistry. Most videos can be previewed at the web site with an overprinted message that the previews are not to be shown to an audience. The advantages of ordering from VEA are the extensive choices and the copyright permission for use in teaching. Most videos are 30–60 minutes and around US$200. The company markets worldwide and is based in Melbourne, Australia, my current home town. There are alternate search strategies for content and I found that looking at the catalogues (pdf files) provided the best overview.