Explore LLC Students Go Outside the Curriculum in New Sciences Course

Evolutionary Biology in Health and Disease is not a regular course offering at Georgia Tech. However, first-year students in the College of Sciences’ Explore Living Learning Community (Explore LLC) got to dive deep into the subject anyway — which meant reading lots of scientific papers and medical case studies while engaging in research. 

Offered as a one-credit College of Sciences special topics course, Explore LLC undergraduates who are interested in research and pre-health studies get to learn about special science and mathematics topics that are not regularly offered in a typical curriculum. 

The instructors for the new course are postdoctoral scholars and research scientists in the College, including Peter Conlin, the first instructor to participate in the course. 

In addition to research and pre-health course opportunities, Explore LLC gives first-year students majoring in College of Sciences-related disciplines (biology, chemistry and biochemistry, earth and atmospheric sciences, mathematics, neuroscience, physics, and psychology) a unique opportunity to live among the highest concentration of science and math majors on campus in the same residence halls.

“Georgia Tech undergraduates often take general education/core classes in year one and two of their studies. However, undergraduates are also curious about research and advances in science and mathematics, especially in health-related areas and in improving the human condition,” said Cam Tyson, College of Sciences Assistant Dean. “A special topics course offered for Explore LLC participants was the perfect setting to bring together students with these interests, along with postdoctoral scholars and research scientists interested in sharing their knowledge and experience.”

Conlin’s inaugural course, COS 3801 HP: Special Topics: Evolutionary Biology in Health and Disease, hosted 16 Explore LLC students in the spring of 2023. Below are some of his comments:

Tell me how you approached developing this course in a way that would make the subject matter relevant to the Explore students? 

Peter Conlin:

The original call for proposals requested “courses that will be of interest to first-year and sophomore students with a specific interest in a healthcare career and/or performing undergraduate research.” So, my course, Evolutionary Biology in Health and Disease, was designed from the ground up with this purpose in mind.

I wanted to connect the basic biological research with its medical applications, and encourage students to pursue undergraduate research opportunities. To this end, our in-class discussions, the homework assignments, and the final presentations for the class were all centered on reading and interpreting results from scientific literature and medical case studies. I also featured ongoing research at Georgia Tech’s Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection whenever possible. 

I made a point to advertise upcoming out-of-class seminars each week (especially those featuring speakers from Georgia Tech labs). Students could attend and summarize the talk they heard for extra credit points. 

Any lasting lessons? 

Initially, I think some of the students were a little shocked that their first assignment was to read a scientific paper for class. (Admittedly, the paper was not an easy one!) But by the end of the semester, after reading seven more papers for class and likely several others for their final presentation, I think they all felt much more confident about their ability to pick up an article, even on an unfamiliar topic, and work their way through it. 

 How did teaching the course help you as an instructor?  

At the beginning of the semester, I was consistently overestimating how much material I could get through in a single 50-minute class period. By the end of the semester, I felt that I had a better understanding of how long different activities would take, and we ended up finishing on time much more frequently. 

I was so thankful for the Tech to Teaching for Postdocs class taught by Tammy McCoy (Teaching Assistant Development and Future Faculty Specialist at the Center for Teaching and Learning) while I was developing my syllabus. McCoy and College of Sciences Assistant Dean Cam Tyson really helped me to make this course a reality, so I’m very grateful to both of them for giving me this opportunity. 

The feedback from the students?

The feedback from my students was critical to my success as an instructor. I explained to the students at the start of the course that I wanted to improve my teaching, that I would be actively seeking their feedback, and that I would do my best to make changes based on the feedback I received. Some of the changes included modifying the course content, as I did when I saw the level of enthusiasm and participation when we discussed cancer evolution. I revised my syllabus to continue discussions on this topic.

 I also changed up homework assignments and in-class activities based on student feedback. This gave students more experiences with reading and discussing research papers.

I tried to experiment with different in-class activities and teaching styles, ranging from primarily lecture-based classes with occasional discussion questions, to a “flipped” classroom where students spent the majority of the time discussing the papers they had read in small groups. It was such a great experience to watch the students take such an active role in their learning.

Sebastian Horbulewicz, a second-year biochemistry major, was a student in Conlin’s Special Topics course:

I enjoyed the fact that we delved into a wide variety of topics, giving us small pieces with which we could use to build a broader understanding of evolution. Dr. Conlin’s succinct lessons gave me a lot to think about, and introduced me to new aspects of cancer, antibiotic resistance, virulence, and more. I think the course really shined in its ability to draw from current literature and the subsequent discussions we had in class.

For more information on Explore LLC and College Sciences Special Topics Courses:

The Explore Living Learning Community (LLC) of the College of Sciences strives to connect undergraduate students with faculty, and staff across the institute in order to encourage learning of career options, develop technical and team-building skills, and promote early access to undergraduate research and/or health-care affiliated co-curricular activities.  The LLC fosters a culture of curiosity, collaboration, and self-discovery through a range of courses and activities offered to its participants. 

A request for 2024-2025 academic year CoS special topics course proposals is expected to be distributed to CoS postdoctoral fellows and research sciences in February 2024.