Introduction to Graduate Research

Biology 8003
Instructor:

Dr. Rob J. Kulathinal

Department of Biology
Office: BioLife Building, Rm 214
Phone: (267) 270-5254
Email: robkulathinal@temple.edu

Course Summary:
This course will provide incoming graduate students in Biology with a broad
philosophical foundation on scientific logic and reasoning, introduce overarching
principles in both bioethics and biostatistics, and promote professional development
through exercises emphasizing written and oral communication skills necessary for a
successful career in the Sciences. This course is also known as the First year graduate
seminar and Graduate school bootcamp.
Course Objectives:
Graduate School serves to promote a fertile environment for students to develop novel
ideas and to pursue intellectual interests. In a dynamic department such as Biology with
diverse research interests, a major challenge is to teach common yet basic principles to
an incoming class of students from assorted backgrounds. By providing a common core
of knowledge, tools, and resources, this course provides a starting point for a creative,
productive, and interactive cohort of graduate students to excel. This course covers four
fundamental foci of study, critical for biological research: philosophy and critical
reasoning, bioethics, biostatistics, and scientific communication.
The principle objective of this core graduate course is to provide students with a basic
foundation in scientific reasoning, analysis, and communication. First, we will explore
various philosophies that underlie modern science and biology, thus, providing a
common set of guiding principles to help start successful graduate careers. We will then
conduct case studies that cover a breadth of modern ethical dilemmas in the biological
sciences. This course will also introduce common statistical frameworks used in biology
to effectively test hypotheses. Finally, this class will enable students to develop and finetune their communication skills through written, web-based, and oral assignments.
Practical Course Goals:
On the practical side, this course will provide students with the opportunity to complete
several career-building projects that will immediately place them in a competitive
position, academically, in addition to facilitating cohort-building. Specifically, students will
generate a Research Statement, create a personal CV and professional website, cohost a website workshop, write and submit a pre-doctoral grant proposal, conduct a
manuscript review, and provide oral and poster presentations. Students will be expected
to lead weekly topic/paper discussions.
Biology 8003 Syllabus, September 2, 2016

Meetings:
Two meetings per week: A two-hour seminar/discussion session on Wednesday (9am to
11am) and a more applied one-hour weekly workshop/tutorial on Thursday (4pm to
5pm). Attendance and active participation is mandatory. All meetings are held in
BioLife Rm 237 (tentative). Students shall arrive prepared and on time for class.
Grading:
Grades will be based on student participation and weekly discussions (40%) in addition
to assignments and presentations (6 x 10%). Assignments and presentations will be
teacher-evaluated and/or peer-evaluated.
Participation and Weekly Discussion:
Weekly attendance (seminars & tutorials) and participation is mandatory
Each student will co-lead/lead weekly discussions on a predetermined topic
Participation amounts to 40% of the final grade
Assignments and Presentations:
i) Curriculum vitae (CV) & Research Statement
A curriculum vitae and Research Statement will be developed
Discussions/demonstrations on how to develop a CV and Research Statement
will take place during the first two tutorial sessions
10% of final grade
ii) Personal Website
A publically viewable website, linked to the Department of Biologys website will
be created by each student
Discussions/demonstrations on how to develop a website will occur during the
first two tutorial sessions
Website will be linked to the Biology and BGSS site, as well as to their lab sites
Students will also lead a departmental website training session
10% of final grade
iii) Research Proposal
Students will search for proposals, together, and update a grants database for
themselves and other graduate students in the department
Each student will generate a fundable pre-doctoral proposal
A panel of faculty mentors will assist in evaluating student proposals
Students will submit these proposals before the deadline (typically early
November)
10% of final grade
iv) Manuscript Review
Using a selected paper from their field of study, each student will write a formal
Biology 8003 Syllabus, September 2, 2016

manuscript review
10% of final grade

v) Oral Presentation (based on 1st Laboratory Rotation)

Students will give a 12-15 minute talk (with 3-5 minutes for questions) based on
their work from their first lab rotation
Practice talks a week prior to final talk
Final talks will take place during the first week of December
The students rotation advisor and other members of the department will help in
evaluating each proposal
10% of final grade
vi) Poster Presentation (based off 1st Lab Rotation)
After completing their oral presentations, students will assemble a poster (3 x 3)
based off their work from their first lab rotation and present it to their lab
Present final posters (posted in hallway adjacent to students lab)
The students rotation advisor will help to evaluate each poster
10% of final grade

Biology 8003 Syllabus, September 2, 2016

Introduction to Graduate Research:

Topics Schedule
Week 1.
9/1/16. Introductory Session
Week 2.
9/7/16. Practical advice for graduate school
9/8/16. Personal branding, graduate student resources, expectations
Topics: Graduate program expectations and work ethics; introduction to available
resources in the department/Temple/online; journals, blogs, RSS feeds, etc.
Week 3.
9/14/16. CVs, Research Statements, and website development
9/15/16. Introduction to the philosophy of science
Topics: Logic, rationalism, scientific method, critical thinking; scientific epistemology;
nature of discovery; explorative science vs. hypothesis testing; Kuhn vs. Popper
Week 4.
9/21/16. Website development (contd) and search for predoctoral grants
9/22/16. Philosophy of biology
Topics: Reductionism and determinism; teleological thinking; nature vs. nurture
Week 5.
9/28/16. Website training exercise, safety training (Guest instructor)
9/29/16. Morality and ethics in biology
Topics: Moral relativism, historical accounts: Kant/Mill/Saetre
Week 6. (Guest Instructor)
10/5/16. Predoctoral grants and safety training
10/6/16. Bioethics in contemporary biology
Topics: GMOs, human experimentation, reproductive rights
Week 7.
10/12/16. Predoctoral grant exercise
10/13/16. Ethical conduct in research
Topics: Case studies in clinical, research, and academic settings
Week 8.
10/19/16. Predoctoral grants
10/20/16. Introduction to statistics
Topics: The meaning of a population, means/variances/skews, fitting distributions,
software packages (e.g., R, SAS), frequentist vs Bayesian, power analyses
Week 9.
10/26/16. Using R
10/27/16. Statistical methods and teaching quantitative analysis
Topics: Power and significance, statistical tests, ANOVAs, PCAs, GLMs

Biology 8003 Syllabus, September 2, 2016

Week 10.
11/2/16. Working with R (Guest instructor)
11/3/16. Working with R (stats contd)
Topics: Extracting information from papers, critically evaluating data, approaches,
communication
Week 11.
11/9/16. Manuscript review and abstract design
11/10/16. Scientific communication: The art of the manuscript
Topics: Good papers, bad papers
Week 12.
11/16/16. Generating a scientific abstract and poster
11/17/16. Science communication: From teaching to research
Topics: Pedagogical teaching practices, effective presentation skills, using visual aids,
principles in design, writing papers, decoding graphs from different biological disciplines
Week 13.
Fall Break
Week 14.
11/30/16. Rotation oral presentations practice
12/1/16. Rotation oral presentations practice
Week 15.
12/8/16. Rotation presentations
12//9/16. Rotation poster presentations and course wrap-up

Biology 8003 Syllabus, September 2, 2016