Undergraduate Update

---

Science Journal, Fall 1995 Vol 13, No. 1

Biotechnology and Statistics are two majors being offered for the first time this semester.

Biotechnology is a major designed to provide students with a thorough background in the various sciences on which biotechnology is based, a comprehensive understanding of the principles of molecular biology, and especially hands-on experience in the techniques of biotechnology. The major features several newly created laboratory courses, including animal tissue culture methods, plant biotechnology, and biofermentation. Complementing the new laboratory courses are a new freshman seminar in biotechnology and a revised course in microbial biotechnology.

"Because biotechnology is used to produce important commercial products, a strong association naturally exists with industry," says Philip Mohr, director of undergraduate programs in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, through which the major is administered. "We strongly encourage our students to take advantage of the collegeÕs Cooperative Education Program to acquire pre-graduation experience through internships at the facilities of our industrial partners in the pharmaceutical and other biotechnology-based companies."

An optional component of the Biotechnology major is the Clinical Laboratory Science option. "The option prepares students for clinical laboratory positions in public health, medical research, and industry," Mohr says, "in addition to positions in hospital laboratories, where we expect most students selecting this option will find entry-level employment."

After three years of academic study in this option, competitively selected students can complete their degree requirements at an affiliated hospital with a twelve-month practicum that prepares them for certification as clinical laboratory scientists.

Statistics is a major designed to prepare students for careers in business, industry, and government, and for further graduate study in statistics.

"Research divisions in the pharmaceutical industry, quality control, and quality-engineering divisions in manufacturing companies, corporate planning and analysis units, and other data-intensive divisions recruit students with an undergraduate major in statistics," says James L. Rosenberger, head of the Department of Statistics. "We aim to prepare our students to be part of interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary research teams that are becoming increasingly important in science and industry," he adds.

Emphasized throughout the major are the skills of summarizing and analyzing scientific data, working as a member of a scientific team, describing and communicating scientific findings, and presenting conclusions in the language of scientific hypotheses or business decision making.

"We have built into the major an Applied Statistics option that, along with a minor in a selected area, can provide a student with a disciplinary focus in addition to primary training in statistics," Rosenberger explains. The major also includes a Statistics in Computing option and a Graduate Study option.

For many years now, universities across Europe have offered their students an array of exciting exchange programs, which allow participants the opportunity to spend a semester or two at another university in another country and at the same time receive full academic credit toward their degree at home. These programs have been designed so that students do not incur any additional costs other than routine transportation expenses. Although exchange programs have always been broadening experiences, enabling participants to experience first-hand another university, another country, another language, and another culture, the past several years have seen skyrocketing enrollments as European students have come to recognizeÑperhaps in concert with the formation of the European UnionÑthat international experiences have become not so much "desirable" as "essential" for anyone who wishes to make her or his way in the multinational and multicultural world of the 21st century. These students realize, for example, that as the industrial sector repositions itself along global lines, opportunities will go preferentially to those who have experienced other cultures and who have lived and worked or studied in nations other than their own.

With all of this in mind, the Eberly College of Science several years ago launched its British Science Exchange Program. Now at the beginning of its third year, the program allows students in this college to spend a year at any one of seven British universities, carefully chosen for the quality of their science offerings and for their ability to assure good scheduling matches with our academic programs. Our seven partners are the Universities of Bath, Essex, Kent, Leeds, and Sussex in England; Glasgow in Scotland; and Aberystwyth in Wales. Our students tend to enroll in this program as either sophomores or juniors (freshmen are not eligible).

Those going abroad as sophomores usually do so in order to have the option of spending their junior and/or senior years either in co-op jobs and/or in undergraduate research while those who go over as juniors or seniors often wish to do undergraduate research in the U.K. Whenever our students participate, they will reap the same benefits: an enriching academic and cultural experience; an opportunity not only to meet British students but to rub elbows with students from all over Europe; the opportunity to take courses under the more personal British tutorial system; and the opportunity to have done something "special" and, in so doing, to have made themselves more attractive for graduate or professional school or for a permanent position.

All of the exchanges (British students come to Penn State as well) are designed so that the students maintain normal degree progress while in Britain, with costs essentially the same as those for a year at Penn State. As a way of encouraging the widest possible participation, the college is offering for the first time this fall, on a competitive basis, travel fellowships that will defray all or part of the transportation expenses between State College and the host institution in the U.K.

We believe that study abroad is an idea whose time has come and are pleased to be able to offer this option to our students.

Associate Dean Norman Freed

For the first time in the history of the college, students are now able to complete all requirements for a science major at a Penn State campus other than University Park. Beginning with fall semester 1995, the General Science and Life Sciences options of the Science major will be available at the Abington-Ogontz Campus, which is located north of Philadelphia. Students enrolled in this major may choose to complete all the degree requirements at the Abington-Ogontz Campus rather than transferring to the University Park campus for their junior and senior years.

"The college is strongly supportive of this program because there is a very fine Eberly College of Science faculty at the campus and because the science major is expected to appeal to those who, for one reason or another, might have found it difficult to transfer to University Park for the completion of the degree requirements," explains Norman Freed, associate dean.

Penn State students no longer have to wait anxiously for their grades to arrive in the mail. They now can check their grades more quickly from the comfort of their residence halls or homes, thanks to a new phone service.

During specified periods at the end of the semester, students may call a toll-free number 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to receive their end-of-semester grades.

Fall-semester grades will be available this year beginning Wednesday, December 20. For additional information about this service, contact the Office of the University Registrar at 814-865-6357.

For the first time this semester, students in some classes also can find out their test results by computer rather than by trekking to a bulletin board in one of the science buildings.

The University is offering professors an alternative to the traditional posting system for exam grades, in which grades for the entire class are printed in order of the student identification number. Instead, grade summaries can be sent confidentially to each studentÕs computer "access account," within hours of scoring.

The grade summary gives students their scores, the items they got wrong, the correct answers, and comparative statistics on how the entire class performed on the exam. The system compiles exam scores during the semester to give students a cumulative picture of their performance in the class.

"This year the Eberly College of Science Student Council intends to implement ideas that would benefit not only students at the University Park Campus but also those at the Commonwealth campuses," says Brian Turner, the 1995-1996 Eberly College of Science Student Council president. Turner is a junior intending to major in chemistry.

One idea Turner says the council wants to develop is a letter that would be sent to all Eberly College of Science students enrolled at the Commonwealth campuses. "The letter would give these students information that would help them make better use of the collegeÕs many helpful resources for undergraduates. We want to see what we can do to help the science students at the Commonwealth campuses become more fully aware of the resources available to them not only at their respective campuses but also at University Park," he says.

Other ideas being considered by this yearÕs student council include inviting selected department heads, faculty, and staff to give brief presentations about what is going on in their respective areas of the college. "We also want to help in whatever ways we can to enhance Career Days at Penn State so they will be beneficial for all the science undergraduate students," Turner says. "We intend to provide every opportunity we can for students to receive job placements."

Turner summarizes the councilÕs plans for the year by saying, "As a council, we are excited about the high goals we have set. We are looking forward to our opportunities to make the college a better place during this coming year."

Back to Science Journal, Fall 1995 index

Back to Eberly College of Science Home Page