EAST COURSES

HONORS 278A
Women in Sciences: Shattering the Glass Ceiling
Instructor: Dr. Marla S. McIntosh

A new honors seminar was developed to address issues and perspectives related to contemporary women scientists. The original intention was to incorporate a unit on Asian women scientists. However, it became evident that despite a substantial collection of writings regarding Western women scientists, there are few writings dedicated to Asian women scientists. Thus, sources were sought that described and studied the science workplace, culture, and enterprise in Asia or women in contemporary Asia. A bibliography containing keywords and or abstracts on these two topics is being compiled and will be posted on the EAST website. The goal is to develop course materials by using the bibliography to integrate these topics into one.

Traditional Chinese Medicine as a Complementary Approach to Modern Western Medicine
Instructor: Dr. Robert Yuan

This is an honors seminar that has been designed as an interdisciplinary and crosscultural course. It has now been taught for two semesters and has been shown to be successful on the basis of an assessment of learning outcomes and student surveys. The seminar covers the philosophy and theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), its therapeutic approaches, scientific validation and clinical proofs, and the obstacles to its adoption by the U.S. health care system. In addition to the two instructors, there are presentations by a number of TCM practitioners (e.g., tai chi masters, acupuncturists). The pedagogical approach focuses on active learning through research projects, oral presentations, demonstrations, and role playing supported by the use of WebCT.

Using HIV/AIDS to Integrate Asian Cultural Awareness into a General Education Science Course.
Instructor: Dr. Spencer Benson

BSCI122 Microbes and Society is a non-majors general education course that introduces students to science by looking at the roles that microorganisms play in modern human existence. To introduce students to the societal, cultural and human dimensions of AIDS student teams are required to explore the biology, epidemiology, medical, legal and sociological aspects of HIV/AIDS in China, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, Philippines or Thailand. The teams then present their finding using a standardized web-based poster tool developed by the Carnegie Knowledge Media Laboratory. In this multi-week learning module in addition to the constructing an informational poster that is disseminated to the class. In addition student teams do an in-class presentation on HIV/AIDS in their assigned country and individually students write an essay comparing an epidemiology, medical, legal and sociological aspects of HIV/AIDS in their assigned country to an appropriate demographic group in the US. An examples of the student work can be viewed the following URL http://partners.carnegiefoundation.org/html/snapshot.php?id=1189.

This learning module for Asian cultural integration into science has been presented at two national conferences; the 2004 Lilly East Conference on Teaching and Learning. Apr. 2004, the American Society of Microbiology General Conference, May 2004. It will be the topic of short newsletter article for SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagement and Responsibility) and presented in poster or workshop form at the SENCER summer institute in Aug. 2004.

ANSC 212/214
Applied Animal Physiology
Instructor: Dr. Mark Varner

This course covers the physiological systems of animal bodies. It will be taught during Winterterm 2005 in Problem-Based Learning format. The East Asian approach of veterinary acupuncture will be highlighted in one of the 'problem scenarios' and will be used to highlight neurophysiology.

ANSC 420
Animal Production Systems
Instructor: Dr. Mark Varner

This is a capstone course taught in Spring semesters. It was proposed to link with similar courses at China Agricultural University in Beijing and Xinjang Agricultural University in Urumqui and give a group of students at each university the same project, to evaluate the economic opportunities to establish a dairy farm that produces and markets organic milk. The groups would interact using ICONS (http://www.icons.umd.edu/) to establish a set of standards for production and export of organic milk to the respective country