9455324 Karplus This proposal is to introduce interactive tutorials using 3- dimensional computer graphics to visualize macromolecular structure and function into introductory biochemistry. Specific goals of this proposal include the development of 14 computer graphics tutorials to be used in the introductory auto tutorial biochemistry course, the publishing of these tutorials, and the holding of workshops for training teaching faculty at other universities to use these tutorials. One difficulty associated with developing such an interactive curriculum for introductory biochemistry is the large class size. For this reason, this auto tutorial biochemistry course provides an excellent forum for curriculum development, because it has already successfully adopted a highly personal and interactive format. This computer graphics based curriculum should have a large impact on undergraduate education, because tremendous numbers of undergraduates take introductory Biochemistry courses each year, and very few (if any) such courses currently have interactive, three-dimensional, graphics content. This curriculum should be effective both for attracting more students to continue in biological sciences and for preparing the scientific and biomedical community of tomorrow so that they may assimilate and effectively apply structural information about proteins and other biological molecules.
