<p> 0128acded9adc1b004e29b2b51bf00c9.docxPage 1 of 2 Learning prokaryotic genetics and molecular biology</p><p>•To learn effectively students must connect new information to a body of knowledge.</p><p>• G&MB is very very large and can it can be hard to learn. Why?</p><p>•Students often have a limited background about the topic •Students often know just a little bit about many parts of it</p><p>•There are a couple of ways to teach the material.</p><p>•One is to use a standard text and learn the topics as they are presented. For example, we could learn about transcriptional attenuation using the trp operon as an example, and repression using the gal operon as an example. SLIDES</p><p>You would need first to learn about trptophan metabolism and galactose metabolism in order to understand how and why these worked. What happens is that most people try to understand by memorizing the 0128acded9adc1b004e29b2b51bf00c9.docxPage 2 of 2 diagrams (tyranny of the diagram). This happens because the material doesn't really connect with a large body of knowledge. </p><p>Another way is to build a large body of knowledge about a single thing and use that to learn new material as it is being built. In this way new material takes its place next to old material, or replaces it. This is what we are going to do. And we are going to do it using one of the oldest and most-studied models for genetics and molecular biology--The E. coli Lac system.</p><p>Our job is to: SLIDES</p><p>1. Build a body of knowledge. 2. To learn new things as we build it. 3. To use that body as a launching point to investigate new things</p><p>Initially, we will build this as it was built by the people who worked on it. We will know only what they knew, and try to integrate new information into the growing body of knowledge as we acquire it.</p><p>When we are done I hope that you:</p><p>1. Understand the lac system of E. coli. 2. Understand how to use the lac system to look at new problems 3. Understand how lac was used to build modern-era molecular biology. 4. Understand that obscure research can lead to real-world applications**.</p><p>**This is really one of the most important things a student can take away from any advanced level science or math course. One can’t predict which avenues of research will be most productive and give rise to economically useful knowledge. For example, PCR and new high- throughput sequencing are a direct result of Tom Brock’s studies of bacteria that live in Yellowstone hot springs. </p>