In recent weeks there has been an exciting change affecting the teaching of molecular biology. As you probably know, this University was very successful in gaining new science lectureships in several areas from the DETYA scheme to improve science teaching in Universities. One of these areas was a new molecular biotechnology degree, which gained us a group of lectureships, including one in Bioinformatics, which will be located in the School of Biological Sciences.

The initiation of the new Molecular Biotechnology degree has also brought about a solution to the long-standing problem of overlap in the teaching of molecular biology. Until now molecular biology has been taught, separately, in intermediate courses within Biological Sciences, Biochemistry and Microbiology, and many students have covered the same material twice. Now these three departments have agreed to combine to teach a single set of intermediate units in molecular biology and genetics for all students taking biological subjects in the Faculty of Science. Following the initial decision to teach a combined course Ron Skurray, Peter Reeves, Merlin Crossley and Gareth Denyer (in his role as Chair of the Faculty Undergraduate Studies Committee) spent many very fruitful hours designing the new units of study, which have now been approved by the Faculty.

The first of the new units will be a compulsory core component for all students in life sciences in the Faculty of Science (except those in B.Med.Sci., who already take an integrated second year unit in this area). There will be two units of study in each semester - a four credit point, theory-only option and an eight credit point version with laboratory classes.

All students taking Biology in second year will have to take at least the first four credit point, "dry" unit of the new Molecular Biology and Genetics stream. The only exception will be those students taking our "dry" courses in Plants and Animals, as these units do not lead to third year study. The first semester theory-only unit will contain almost all the material we had put into our existing second semester core in molecular genetics. However, the population genetics section will not be included, and we will need to put that material elsewhere in our courses. The first semester Molecular Biology and Genetics unit will replace the existing Biochemistry unit in molecular biology (BCHM 2001) and the second semester unit will replace our Molecular Biology and Genetics (BIOL 2005). Biochemistry, with some help from Biological Sciences and Microbiology, will teach the first semester unit and Biological Sciences, with some help from the other departments, will teach the second semester unit. We expect that there will be very large numbers of students taking these units - possibly as many as 500 in the second semester unit for which we are responsible. Thus implementing our unit will be an enormous task for those involved.

The Teaching Committee has decided to retain the first semester Core on Evolution and Phylogeny as it is and to continue to teach it in first semester. Unfortunately, a consequence of the Faculty-wide core is that our new second semester core on molecular biology and genetics will be taught only once, as the new units will start next year. I hope that the experience of putting together our core course for second semester this year will help in the writing of the core course for the even larger number of students next year. The corequisites and prerequisites for our intermediate units have been rewritten to include Molecular Biology and Genetics.

I believe this is a great step forward in the teaching of biology within the Faculty and also in bringing the biological departments together. On the same theme, I was recently involved in a discussion of potential closer links with Agriculture in teaching; the only decision reached was to explore this further, particularly in the areas of entomology and of plant physiology and biochemistry.

Finally (but not least), we had a very constructive meeting of staff to discuss the proposed amalgamations of workshops with Associate Professor Don Taylor (Associate Dean, Resources). The importance of the way Basil, Sam and Andrew are integrated into team work throughout the School and the huge role they have in supporting research and teaching infrastructure were made very clear, and new solutions were suggested. I will, of course, continue to put forward the strong consensus that emerged from the meeting. Unfortunately, it will probably be some time until a final decision is made at the College level.

Roz Hinde

Report on Semester 1 Intermediate Core Course

The Semester 1 Intermediate Biology Core ran for the first time this year, with an enrollment of 257 students (41 students were enrolled in more than one Intermediate Unit of Study [overlap students]). The Core lectures covered evolutionary theory (Rick Shine); phylogenetics and systematics (Murray Henwood); and the evolution of eukaryotes and multicellularity (Alastair Simpson). (Alastair should be congratulated and sincerely thanked by the School for his contribution, as a graduate student, of four of the lectures.) Practicals and tutorials expanded on lecture material and also included issues of biodiversity and conservation; progress and complexity; and species concepts. Skills training included statistical analysis (using Excel), library information skills (using library catalogues and literature databases), microscopy and scientific writing. The Core was assessed by an examination in Week 5. Overlap students completed a journal review assignment to replace the core exam for one of their Units of Study.

Students were provided with information about the Core in a separate Core manual, which incorporated the Intermediate Skills Manual, as well as by email, Web and a Core noticeboard. Rob Mackay-Wood has created a student registration Website, where students were required to register their enrollment and email details. This database allowed associate lecturers to extract email address lists for their students.

The response to the Core from a survey of students was generally positive: the majority of students believed the topics were relevant to their own Unit of Study; comprised necessary knowledge for a practicing biologist; and they would recommend the Core to other students. Practicals were considered relevant to the course and skills training was considered valuable. The most serious problem encountered was the number of timetable clashes, which required lectures to be taped and made available on Closed Reserve. Audio files of lectures were ultimately made available on the Ashby iMacs.

It is too early to judge the impact of the Core on the remainder of the semester or Senior units: survey questions relating to the Core will be repeated in the surveys for each Unit of Study at the end of Semester 1. At a meeting of all Core teaching staff it was unanimously agreed that we should continue with the Core on the basis of this year's experience. There was general agreement within the academic staff delivering the Core and the students taking the Core that the content was worthwhile, interesting and relevant to their study of Biology. There was no overall saving of staff time, as the administrative load on associate lecturers was immense, but we would expect this to decrease after the first year.

Elizabeth May.

Here is a brief update on the projected handover dates for various rooms in A08 and A12

BUILDING WORKS REPORT May 2000

Rooms Approximate date available

Building A08

Aquarium areas Handed over
205 cold room Near completion
219, 219A, 219B 19 May
319, 319A Glenda 19 May
Herbarium level 3 26 May
329, 330, 331 19 May
Level 4 offices 440-447 19 May

Building A12

103 Herbarium - new lab Start end of May then 4-6 weeks
127 A, B toilets Handed over
128 Wet prep Handed over
204-207 AV and computers Handed over
131 Haswell Partially handed over, awaiting exhaust
241, 244 research labs 26 May

Michael Joseph
PCG

Most of you will have heard of the Institute of Wildlife Research, but unless you are member (about 10 of you from this school), you may know little about who we are and what we do.

The IWR is a consortium of wildlife biologists based primarily in Sydney, including 20 members from our school, New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife, The Australian Museum, The Royal Botanic Gardens, and recently, the University of New South Wales. Our Director is Chris Dickman, Associate Director Peter Myerscough and Chairman Ian Hume.

Our membership is growing continually, and the size of our projects grows with it. Our activities include public awareness campaigns, research projects and consultancy. Over 40 postgraduate students have graduated through the institute, and we currently have an equal number in progress. Students of IWR members are automatically student members. We have collectively produced over 300 scholarly articles and raised well over one million dollars in research funds since our inception. Our consultancy and research projects have included a national review of problems associated with cats in Australia, species recovery plans for threatened waterbirds, the effects of urbanisation on arthropods, population modeling in the conservation of plants, and the role of mycorrhiza in revegetation of disused waste dumps.

As our capacity to take on larger projects grows, it is incumbent on us to increase our profile within the scientific, public and public service sectors of our community. On the 10th of May, we held an event at the Holme Building for about 80 people. Invitees included those who have donated funds, supported our research or collaborated with us in the past, as well as those who might wish to do so in the future. The day included talks by Institute members, with a morning tea where we got to know each other. It was a great success, and has spawned considerable discussion, leading to future meetings, contracts and considerable good will. The champagne wasn't bad either...

I would like to extend my personal thanks to those who helped prepare and run the event: Max, Bobby, Tanya, Sylvia, Matthew, Michelle, Adele, Errol, Hamlet and others, but especially Lisa Chambers who put up with enormous strain to get everything ready and going smoothly on time. It was well worth the effort, and everyone involved can be happy with the result.

Eric Dorfman
Secretary, IWR

Congratulations are due to two of last years honours students. Yvonne Devilla and Deborah Barton both recently graduated with First class honours and the University Medal. Yvonne investigated the Reproductive Ecology of Trachymene incisa (Apiaceae). Trachymene incisa is a native herb in the carrot family, which is commonly found at Agnes Banks Nature Reserve and Myall Lakes National Park. Specifically, Yvonne looked at the pollination biology and the breeding system of this species. Deborah investigated the movement of nuclei within pith parenchyma cells of Coleus blumei stems.

Patsy Armati returned from a neurology conference in San Diego where the highlight of the meeting was a Keynote address by Seymour Benzer entitled "The Neurology of Drosophila". This was truly a tour de force and the pathology of numerous drosophila mutants was indistinguishable from a number of well known human diseases including Creutzfeld Jacob disease. Apart from his fame as a geneticist, his sense of humour shone through when he pointed out to 2,000 neurologists and scientists (yes, that right 2,000) that whereas neurologists name diseases after themselves, geneticists had more fun and used more imagination naming the mutants..... It's worth rereading Science, March, 24, Vol. 287. Patsy was also one of seven scientists invited to present their research at a small GlaxoWellcome Symposium of 17 people, held in Melbourne last week. Apart from the exciting science, the couple of days at the Park Hyatt more than made up for the early morning starts.

First Year Biology has been active over the last couple of months, hosting a group of Science teachers from the Science Alliance. Talks were presented by Peter McGee and Murray Thomson, and Sue Franklin chaired a discussion on assessment. First Year also hosted a University Careers Advisers and Teachers Day (Life Sciences Option) when 35 careers advisors attended a 2.5 hr session, organised by Sue Franklin, on the transition to university ( Mary Peat), careers in human nutrition, psychology and biology and web resources for teachers (Uniserve Science).