Program Purpose

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To produce graduates that understand fundamental genetic principles and apply that understanding to analyze and manipulate traits in living organisms.  Graduates' ability to analyze and manipulate the genetics of these organisms derives from competency in fundamental molecular genetic laboratory techniques and appreciation of the sanctity of all life.  Through Gospel-centered values, they recognize the worth of human life along with our role as stewards over the earth.

Curricular Structure

The genetics and biotechnology curriculum is flexible and has been designed to meet the needs of individual students with varying scientific interest. Basic requirements include a minimum of 61 credit hours of course work within four general tracks: animal and human genetics; plant genetics; microbial genetics; and biotechnology business (see program MAP). Evidence that this program is achieving its goals comes from the placement of graduates in the life sciences industry, in health professions schools, in law or graduate business programs, or in scientific graduate programs at leading universities in the United States and abroad.

Undergraduate Catalog

Learning Outcomes

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Graduates of the Genetics and Biotechnology BS program will be able to:

1) Display a broad understanding of core molecular genetics concepts including molecular biology, genetics, cell biology, physiology, and evolution. (GENERAL BIOLOGY CONCEPTS or breadth of knowledge)

2) Demonstrate working knowledge in a defined skill set of molecular biology and biotechnology protocols, including PCR, genetic mapping, gene isolation and cloning, DNA sequencing, and sequence analysis (basic bioinformatics).  Students in the biotechnology business track will have additional skills acquired from case studies-oriented management courses.  (RESEARCH/MANAGEMENT PROFICIENCY or application skills)

3) Explain key concepts of genome organization and manipulation in depth, such as assembly of physical maps of genomes, sequencing methods and strategies, genome annotation and bioinformatics, comparative genomics, global gene expression profiling, and transgenic plant and animal technologies. (MAJOR-SPECIFIC CONCEPTS or knowledge depth)

4) Demonstrate proficiency in quantitative reasoning and analytical skills. (CRITICAL THINKING or analytical skills)

5) Analyze, interpret, and present methodology and results from primary literature in the discipline. (LITERATURE AND WRITING or communication skills)

Broad scientific mastery

Students will have shown a broad understanding of core molecular genetics concepts in molecular biology, genetics, cell biology, physiology, evolution, chemistry, and computational sciences.

Biotechnology Skills and Practices

Independently perform key biotechnology and molecular biology benchwork protocols and can use popular computational software packages for DNA sequence analysis as they apply to plant and animal improvement programs or microbial genomics. Graduates of the biotechnology business track will have additional skills acquired from case studies-oriented management courses.

Genome Organization and Manipulation

Explain key concepts of genome organization and manipulation in depth, for example sequencing methods and strategies, genome annotation, comparative genomics, global gene expression profiling, metagenomics, and transgenic plant and animal technologies. Also, students can independently assemble bacterial genomes and parse metagenomic sequencing data. 

Quantitative Reasoning and Analysis

Demonstrate proficiency in applying the quantitative and analytical skills necessary for successful research science and/or clinical health careers. Examples include designing properly controlled experiments (PWS288), critically analyzing experimental data in the literature (PDBIO 360, PWS488), and writing scripts to parse genomic datasets (BIO165, PWS470), 

Literature Summation and Discussion

Graduates can summarize the background, methodology, results and conclusions of a set of experiments, as published in a single or in multiple related scientific papers, and lead classroom discussions on them.

Evidence of Learning

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Evidence of learning comes from various indirect and direct sources.  These include scores on the MCAT and DAT; standardized ETS Biology Exam scores (administered in Bio 420 during the senior year) and national standardized Chemistry exams administered in Chem 352 (students in Animal, Plant, and Microbial tracks) or Chem 285 (students in Biotechnology Business track); responses from seniors on pertinent portions of the National Survey of Student Engagement; and scores on capstone-course papers and final exams (PWS 488, Readings in Biotechnology).

Program-related assessment information will be collected each year at the end of the winter semester and reported to the department chair and the graduate coordinating committee. Quantitative measures will be collected from the University and College databases.

Assessments for Learning Outcomes

1. We will assess outcome #1 by student performance on the cell biology and molecular biology & genetics subsections of the standardized ETS Biology Exam administered toward the end of the semester in Bio 420 (senior year); by performance on the standardized national chemistry exams; and by student performance on MCAT and DAT.
2. We will assess the second learning outcome by monitoring student participation on faculty research projects, as reported annually on the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE).
3. We will assess learning outcome #3 by senior student performance on the molecular biology & genetics subsection of the standardized ETS Biology Exam.
4. Outcome #4 will be assessed by performance on standardized graduate exams (GRE, MCAT, DAT, LSAT, GMAT, etc.) and by monitoring student evaluations of their analytical skills competency as reported in the NSSE (questions 4b, 4c, 4d, and 4e).
5. Outcome #5 will be assessed by student performance on literature-review papers in the PWS 488 readings capstone course. In addition, we will track self-reporting of student involvement in writing and discussion assignments as reported in the NSSE (questions 7a, 7b, and 7c).

Learning and Teaching Assessment and Improvement

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Learning and teaching assessment (summative) will be based on numerical student evaluations, subjective student comments, and periodic peer in-class evaluations.

Learning and teaching assessment (formative) will include the above criteria as well as mid-semester evaluations.

Improvement measures will be implemented as deemed necessary by the instructor, group of Genetics & Biotechnology professors, or as recommended by the Department Chair.