72
BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION
October 1973 Vol. 1 No. 4 i
i
TEACHING AT THE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF DENMARK: THE MODULE PLAN, 1972
ROBERT DJURTOFT Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Lyngby, Denmark.
The course of study is planned to require 5-51A years. The degree is comparable with a M.Sc. degree as the closest equivalent. The Technical University is administrated in such a way that the teachers on average, when necessary administrative work is done, may devote half of their time to teaching and half of their time to scientific research.
A great effort is made to secure that the courses are optional, not only as a principle but as a reality. This has made necessary a very careful division of the time available for teaching. This planning is of paramount importance both with respect of the "teaching-year" and the "individual days".
The structure of the curriculum has been radically changed as from 1972. The earlier structure reflected the fact that the technical subjects of the University had their origin in the different study-lines (in Denmark these being Building and Construction, Chemical, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering). The subjects were well coordinated with other subjects given within a line, mathematics and pliysics being common to all lines. A coordination of subjects originating from 2 or more lines was, on the other hand, difficult. For some time it has been increasingly desirable to combine subjects in nontreditional ways. New subjects and specialities were claiming their part of the students interest and so subjects with no tradition as independent subjects within The Technical University were considered. The new structure of the study has been created in an attempt to give all the subjects the same status. To obtain a degree under the new structure the student must collect 330 credit-points. The subjects are divided into courses. It is an aim that most courses should put a load on a student equivalent to 9 - 1 0 hours work per week during a semester (14 weeks) or a load of 4 5 - 5 0 hours per week during a "3-week period". A course meeting this aim gives a credit of 6 points. Courses considered to give a load equivalent to 4 points (and even to 12 points) are accepted too. Four specific courses in mathematics and 3 specific courses in physics (a total of 42 credit-points) are compulsory for all students. They are required also to take a minimum of 36 creditpoints from a list of some 4 0 - 5 0 further courses in mathematics (including applied mathematics), physics and chemistry. And they are further required to do thesig work giving a minimum of 30 credit points. As a matter of principle, all other courses are optional but the combination is subject to approval by the University before a diploma is issued. The distribution of the credit-points for a student could be as follows:Distribution of credit-points 1. Common compulsory courses (3 maths, 2 physics) 2. Partly compulsory courses (including 36 credit-points partly specified) 3. Final year (5th year) (including 30 credit-points for thesis work) 4. Optional courses (38 credit-points partly free, for laboratory courses maximum 39 credit-points, Minimum sum for a Diploma:
42 credit-points
101 credit points
66 credit-points
121 credit-points 330 credit-points
The year is divided in 2 semesters. The semester is divided into 1. the lecture period (14 weeks). 2. the examination period (2½ weeks) 3. the "3-week-period" (3 weeks). During the first period, all lecturing (lectures, seminars, grnupwork) is given between 0800 and 1230. Exercises in laboratories are performed from 1300 to about 1630. Before the radical change in !972 lectures were mostly given between 0915 and 1200, Saturdays included. In the revised schedule both teachers and students agreed to start at 08 sharp, provided Saturdays became free from lecturing. The period 0 8 0 0 - 1 3 0 0 Monday to Friday is divided into 14 modules, each covering 80 minutes sub-divided into two 35 minute parts with a pause of 10 minutes in the middle. Between the modules there is a 15 minute pause allowing time for moving to another lecture room. Two such modules form a time-table-group. There are thus 7 time-table-groups as follows:Distribution of 7 time-table-groups Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday 0800-0920
1
4
7
0935-1055 1110-1230
2
5
1
3
6
2
5
3
6
4
7
Every course is placed in one of these time-table-groups. It is possible to follow one course only in each group during a semester but it is possible to combine any course in a given time-table-group with any course in another group. Many courses (e.g. nearly all compulsory courses) are given in every semester, other courses are given every second semester. The students are expected to take 5 courses each semester. This means that for 5/14 of the morning-time Monday to Friday he is supposed to join lectures but attention is not compulsory. 9/14 of the time will be spent according to his own choice (preparation work, student ogganizations, sports etc.). Laboratory work starts at 1300 and the student following the suggested rhythm of study (5 years in total) will have 2 - 4 afternoons occupied per week. From the above it appears that careful planning by the student may give him one or twodays a week for nearly undisturbed home work, and this we find is important for effective study. During the second period, examinations are scheduled in a time-table reserving two days for each of the time-table-groups. In case a student fails he is supposed to try again in the next examination period. Because two days are reserved for examination of courses in each of the time-table-groups good planning by the student will cause this reexamination not to collide with the normal examination in that time-table-group. But he will have examinations On two consecutive days. The examination days are fixed before the semester starts.
BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION
October 1973 Voi. 1 No. 4
During the third period, the students axe expected to follow a course requiring their whole time during one, two or three weeks, giving 2, 4 or 6 credit-points. (E.g.: Drawingboard exercises, pilot-plant exercises, printed circuit "manufacturing" and testing, field work in ecology).
(5 years) to collect 330 credit-points, including thesis work. A weaker student may take fewer courses (especially in the beginning) and is able to repeat courses in which he may fail without losing much time. A stronger student may save time by taking more than .5 courses (7 are possible because there are 7 time-table groups). As yet we have only V2-1 years experience with this new " m o d u l e ' - p l a n but we are anxious to see how it works in the long run.
An "average" student (I wish l were able to describe him!) taking 5 module courses per semester and taking in average 3 credit-points in all 3 periods (6 are possible), needs 10 semesters
73
Courses given by "Biochemistry & Nutrition"- and "Microbiology"-depar tments
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Exp. Biochem. I1 / (advanced) 2561 12p(91ab, ,,
Exp. Biochem. 1 ]
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Final (Slh) year in Dept. Bio. & NaIL 66p *)
~ Biochemistry 11 •) [ (advanced) 2521 4p
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I Biological chemistry 3201
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4p Microbiology l 2401
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2402 6p(41ab)
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Fish Industry 2901
Biol.Medico-industry 3003
-4p
~ j / ~ Exp.FoodIndustry and Appl.Biochemistry and, 9 tech
FoodChemistry, nutritionalvalue and toxicology 2821 4 tech
i Microbiology I
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~[ Waterand Waste 1 WaterTreatment 9504 6p (3 lab) .....
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BIOCHEMICAL EDUCATION
74
Very much consideration has been given to the placement of the courses into the 7 time-table-groups to make possible the combination of courses that make up the traditional lines without ruining the chances of doing something new. (The choice of 7 time-table-groups instead of 5 or 6 is one result of these thoughts). It is possible to supplement a traditional hous~ building line with chemical and/or biochemical courses for students interested in waste water or ecological problems- It is possible to supplement a biochemical line with many electronic courses if the student wants to graduate within the biomedical field. And it is possible to have a full degree paying no attention to tl~e traditional lines. The laboratories in the "Bio-sector" consist of five departments covering Biochemistry and Nutrition Microbiology Applied Biochemistry Food Technology Fishery Research and an additonal department covering Ecology which is being formed.
Teaching and laboratory courses are planned by the joint efforts of these laboratories. The aim is to integrate in the new "module"-system by offering some courses for everybody but the main efforts are to give students - within the framework of teaching and research in these 5 - 6 laboratories - the freedom to choose what they feel will be the best combination in the biochemicalfoiotechnical field for them. We definitely find that the personal choice of courses by the students which is now possible has made them more enthusiastic about the courses. A total of 16 courses are offered by the "Bio-sector". To assist the students in making a practical combination of courses we have plotted some surveys or "flow diagrams" suggesting the sequence of different courses. These "flow diagrams" are summarized in two surveys giving the preferred background for the final (5th) year where he is supposed to partly integrate with one of these departments when doing his thesis work. Reading from left to tight the full connecting lines indicate necessary background, the lines with circles indicate alternative background and the pointed lines indicate desirable (but not really necessary) background. These "flow dia~ams" are only to be guide lines for the students. In the teaching by my department we have been greatly helped by the good mathematical and physical background given to all students. Nearly all have also passed a course in the application of computer technique, and computer service is, within reasonable limits, free for all students.
October 1973 Vol. 1 No. 4
All courses are listed in a book giving short descriptions and necessary dates from where the students can make the choice. The list covers 684 different courses. As stated earlier the student is supposed to pass about 5 courses per semester in I 0 semesters. In other words the student will have to pass about 50 courses to have a diploma. "Biological chemistry", the t'~st course from the laboratories in the "Bio"-sector, is offered to the student at the end of his second year. This course is compulsory for all who finally want a diploma stating "Chemical Engineer". This course is of importance as a general background. Then he may select from the courses listed in the two surveys #oven here. In this connection, where I refer to "biochemists", I am considering students that want to be Biochemists, taken in a rather wide sense of the word. During his last 2 - 3 years he gradually will be able to specialize in one out of five directions depending on his choice of laboratory for his Final (5th) year. You can see that from the sequence of arrows in the two diagrams, they all lead to one of the five Departments stated earlier. For all these students a good course in Biochemistry (2511) and Microbiology (2401) is the natural choice. If they want to stay within biochemistry or microbiology they can, as seen in Flow diagram I, go on with courses given there and finish up with a final year in one of these departments. If they want to end up in any of the departments for applied biochemistry or microbiology they also have, as seen in Flow diagram II, the same fundamental courses in Biochemistry (251 I) and Microbiology (2401). They may take one or two advanced courses in the same area before they turn to more applied courses and end up for the final year in one of the departments. Space will not allow me to go into more details here. I just want to point out that if a student follows a series of arrows, he will obtain about 30 points per semester. This means that the student will be able to (and forced to) take courses in, for example, organic chemistry, statistics etc. or whatever he chooses in the big framework of courses offered by the new "module"-plan. We are now back at the starting point and that is where l want to stop. I hope I have been able to demonstrate that the " m o d u l e " - p l a n makes it possible to give an education to ~pecialists following traditional lines in their choice of subjects, specialists following nontraditional lines, specialists making their own lines, and a group that do not specialize - and that is what we feel is needed in our modern, fast changing world to cope with the problems.
II
The discovery of Cytochrome E.F. Hartree. (Continued from page 71.) the need for such a degree of sophistication. Any spectrophotometer can either record a range of spectrum in which no absorbance changes are occurring or it can measure changes in absorption at a fixed wavelength. This is far removed in scope from continuous visual observation of changes in absorption over the entire visible spectrum. For the latter there is no alternative to Keilin's methods. Visual spectroscopy also has aesthetic advantages: a trace made by a servo-operated pen is bleak indeed compared with the sight of changing absorption bands against the blaze of the visible spectrum.
2. MacMunn, C.A. (1885) J. Physiol 5, xxiv; (1886) Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc.,177, 267; (1887) J. Physiol. 8, 51.
REFERENCES
6. Keilin, D., and Hartree, E.F. (1938) Proc. Roy. Soc. B., 125, 171.
1. Keflin, D. (1966) The History of Cell Respiration and Cytochrome, Cambridge University Press. Published posthumously.
3. Keilin, D. (1925) Proc. Roy. Soc. B.,98, 312. 4. Keilin, D. (1926) Proc. Roy. Soc. B.,100, 129; (1927) C.R. Soc. biol., Paris, 96, SP39; (1927) Nature, 119, 670; (1929) Proc. Roy. Soc. B.,104, 206; (1930) Proc. Roy. Soc. B.,106, 418. 5. Keflin, D., and Hartree, E.F. (1939) Proc. Roy. Soc. B., 127, 167.
7. Keilin, D., and Hartree, E.F. (1955) Nature, 176,200.