Classes

There are NO formal lectures to attend and NO final exam.

Tutorials/Seminars

Tutorials/Seminars will be during the Thursday class (between 9am to 5pm) and located in the ‘write-up’ room - E7B 354. However, the time and location for tutorial sessions may vary and updates will be posted on the CBMS330 ilearn.mq site.  It is essential that you check the ilearn.mq website on a regular basis for updates of the laboratory and seminar schedule. This course is NOT taught from standard texts and attendance at tutorials is compulsory.

Laboratory Session

The ‘Timetables @ MQ’ for CBMS330 has the practical component scheduled on Thursdays from 9am-1pm AND 2pm to 6pm in the laboratories located in E7B 354.  You should plan to put aside Thursday (9am to 5pm) as your ‘capstone day’. Additionally, due to deadlines associated with our involvement in the iGEM competition and the nature of the experimental task, you are expected to contribute to the research project during the mid-semester break (minimum of 1 day) and also to remove/incubate samples during other times in the week. The laboratory sessions do not continue beyond the conclusion of the iGEM Jamboree event. It is not unreasonable to expect that you would dedicate ~7 – 10 h/week to your research project during weeks 1 to 10. Further information regarding the laboratory session and the nature of the laboratory component will be given in week 1.

Other

Due to the nature of the research activities of the project, it is expected that you will spend some time analyzing data, preparing posters, seminars etc. This will often occur outside of the laboratory at your own discretion. Additionally, there is a ‘write-up’ room available in E7B 354 and notebook computers will be available to use during the Thursday lab session. 

Each student is expected to attend all tutorials and laboratory sessions which commence at 9am.  Excessive absence from tutorials and laboratory sessions will be treated as grounds for incomplete work in CBMS330.

The university timetable can be found at http://www.timetables.mq.edu.au/

Required and Recommended Texts and/or Materials

This course is NOT taught from standard texts but will depend on the nature of the weekly activities and thus reading material may be advised by your CBMS academic supervisor. Lists of other suggested reading material will be issued separately. Additional printed notes and other material will be issued as required or made available via the CBMS330 website: learn.mq.edu.au.

Technology Used and Required

You will be using and receive training in modern, state of the art research equipment for conducting your research project. This will be located in the newly refurbished laboratories located in E7B 354 and other research laboratories of the Dept CBMS. You will use database search tools including PubMed to acquire relevant literature. You will present assessment tasks and deliver presentations including a poster and oral talk that will require access to software such as word processing software, graphics software and Powerpoint. You will contribute to development of a wiki page for your participation in iGEM. General use computers will be provided during the laboratory session with internet access.

Unit Web Page

• The URL of the CBMS330 Blackboard site is: ilearn.mq.edu.au
• You will be asked for your username (student MQID) and password.
• For log-in or contact difficulties, contact the University Library Information Technology Help Desk. http://www.lib.mq.edu.au/help/ithelp/

The ilearn site will be continually updated with the details of weekly schedule which will depend on the weekly progress of your research project.

Weekly tutorials/seminars are compulsory and will be structured around the five following topics and themes as specified below. The tutorial schedule will be available on the CBMS330 ilearn.mq website.

• Review of the Scaffold of the Biomolecular Science Major: reflecting on the development of your graduate capabilities and how these have been achieved within the degree.
• The Student Portfolio / Graduate Capabilities: Seminars from the career service and other professional bodies will allow you to take on an active role to reflect and then document on your abilities to demonstrate your capabilities in the area of Biomolecular Sciences.   You will be provided with advice to prepare a portfolio.
• Research Project Skills: a practical introduction to research methods, effective writing, effective oral communication and presentations, group work, planning and organization will be given. This will be closely linked to your involvement in iGEM and your assessment tasks associated with the research project.
• Introduction to Academic and Industry Cultures: Professional preparation of knowledge, skills and values of the profession, occupational health and safety requirements, computer literacy, library competency, software package analysis, analysis of Internet tools/software.
• Ethical and Substantive Issues and Themes: that affect the world community and broad cross-sections of humanity.

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Below are brief guidelines regarding the iGEM research-project. Further details and updates of project results will be continuously made available on the CBMS330 ilearn.mq website during the semester.

“Which techniques/skills that I have encountered during my undergraduate experience do I wish to further develop in a given practical situation?”

Designing and Building Biological Systems (IGEM) Project: Your research-project for the capstone unit will be mentored by A/Prof R Willows, Prof N Packer, Prof I Paulsen, Dr L Brown and other academics in the department.  As a researcher, you will be the drivers of this project and will work as part of a team.   Your research project will be used to participate in the international competition ‘International Genetically Engineered Machine - IGEM’. iGEM (www.igem.org/) is a worldwide synthetic biology competition aimed at undergraduate university students.

• You will be provided with a kit of ‘biological parts’ (from the iGEM Registry of Standard Biological Parts), and during the semester, you will work to use these parts and new parts of your own design to build novel biological systems and operate them in living cells. Such novel biologically engineered systems have the potential to improve our world and push the frontiers of synthetic biology.
• The research project (and thus the IGEM competition) is a group effort. You will be given specific tasks as part of the team effort and be required to report your findings to the group. However, you will be assessed individually as per assessment guidelines.
• Suggestions and training on how best to perform your research-project will be part of the tutorial content. Skills to help you prepare for your presentation and written report will be included. Additionally, tutorial sessions will be designed around your project requirements and experts sought to help in the design and delivery of your project e.g. training in developing web pages, special lectures on specialized instrumentation etc.
• You should plan to commit at least 80 hours of actual time to work on your project within the laboratory during weeks 1 to 10 (~6-10 hours/week). Thursdays during semester are the official timetabled laboratory days. The majority of your work will also need to be completed early in the semester or over the semester break to be presented at the iGEM Jamboree event. In general, your laboratory component will be completed by week 10.
• You, in learning the techniques, instrument operation, literature status of the project, etc., must do a considerable amount of the startup work. This will comprise your written project proposal report due in Week 3. Your final report will comprise both an oral and major written report to be given in Weeks 12 and week 13, respectively.
• The Jamboree event for 2014 will be held over week 11 (30th October to 3 November).  There will be no classes during week 11.