This Undergraduate Faculty Enhancement (UFE) project provides for each of the next two years: an intense fourteen-day laboratory short course, Molecular Genetics & Evolutionary Biology, in the summer; a 4-day follow-up session the following summer; and on-going technical and material support. The format evolved from prior national Chautauqua and UFE courses. Twenty-two faculty are selected each year from a national applicant pool comprised of faculty from community colleges, 4-year liberal arts colleges and universities, comprehensive universities, and research universities. Four pre-service teachers are selected from SFSU. Participants learn the fundamentals of molecular biology through lectures and demonstrations, and conduct a series of experiments to develop skill in PCR amplification, restriction enzyme analysis, and various gel separation techniques. Participants investigate "thematic" research projects in research groups of six composed of a mix of a pre-service teacher, a mentor teacher and faculty from community colleges and four-year institutions. Seminar topics include the use of molecular techniques to investigate procaryote, vertebrate, invertebrate, and plant systems, the incorporation of these techniques into the undergraduate laboratory, and examples of effective teaching practices. As a final exercise, each of the preservice teachers and faculty create teaching modules incorporating the new laboratory and teaching techniques developed during the workshop. Following the course the SFSU faculty is available via telephone and email to help participants incorporate molecular techniques and analysis into their research projects and their undergraduate courses. The instructional materials developed in prior courses as well as materials developed by new UFE participants are being placed on an SFSU/UFE web site.
