MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

Audience: Beginners in genetics/cell biology labs.
Context: One of the most common types of projects in genetics labs that undergraduates are assigned are cloning projects. Knowing how to carry out a cloning project is a skill that anyone who works in a lab involving DNA must learn.
Purpose: To teach students/researchers specifically how to carry out the steps of molecular cloning.
Document type: Laboratory manual
Design format: This laboratory manual aims to provide step-by-step instructions for multiple different sets of procedure aimed to carry out the broad experiment of cloning. There will be background information explaining the purpose of the sub-experiments and additional information explaining what the goal of each step is. Following the background, there will be multiple sets of procedure in chronological order that describe the steps that need to be taken to clone a DNA specimen: Isolation, ligation, transformation, PCR, and screening. Then there will be some closing information to explain appropriate next steps depending on the context of the overall experiment.

N,
Is your ethos/standing here that of a TA? Can you include that in a context summary to me or tell me in class?

Aim for two-three pages, single-spaced of overview material. Answer WHY Drosophila is such a classic study animal. Help them understand how highly conserved genes work, so give them confidence in how knowing about the genes of D. help us understand "higher" taxon species, including human primates.

I really like documents that help students teach others. :)

Mb