Colleagues,
I can't resist jumping in here.
>dlrobi02 at HOMER.LOUISVILLE.EDU ("David L. Robinson") wrote:
>>> Half to two-thirds of them are pre-med or are interested in
>>some other medical field...many of which are not at all embarrassed to
>>say that they have no real interest in biology, other than the fact that
>>it represents their ticket to getting into medical school.
I'm not really sure what the "in biology" part means. Biology is such a
broad subject. Having taught pre-meds for fifteen years, I would be truly
surprised if they weren't interested in certain areas with direct
biomedical applications like mammalian anatomy and physiology,
parasitology, and immunology. Their reluctance is more understandable if
you are focusing on topics that have little obvious relevance to medicine
(e.g., plant anatomy and ecosystem ecology). Even for those topics, a
skillful teacher should be willing and able to explain to his / her
students why a future physician or allied health professional should be
knowledgeable in those fields.
If I can get more cynical here, I might also have to wonder whether outside
influences might be playing a part in jading your students. Specifically,
I have known chemistry faculty who have told pre-meds that learning biology
is a waste of time. Even worse, I know of some cell/molecular types who
tell students that all of the interesting work is being done in that area
of biology. They further assert that topics in organismal biology such as
biological diversity and ecology are really passe, and not worth more than
a passing mention.
>>.................................
>>But I do wonder if starting out with the more
>>challenging concepts of molecules, cells, metabolism, and genetics
>>is a better way to let students know if they "have what it takes to get
>>into medical school" right from the start, rather than encouraging their
>>delusions for a couple semesters more. Isn't this codependence?
Again, we want to cultivate, not weed out. Many students are late
bloomers. I know MANY bright students who had trouble in the first few
months of their freshman year (and even into their sophomore year), but
then matured to become excellent students and gain entry into first-rate
medical and graduate schools. I personally get an enormous amount of
satisfaction watching such a student struggle and then succeed, precisely
because I know that there are SOB's at other institutions who would just as
soon flunk those students out at the first sign of trouble.
Magdalena M. Plewinska, MD wrote:
>Honestly, I don't see how they can expect to function as physicians
>without understanding biology. Those bodies they's be dealing with are
>living (at least at the moment).
I completely agree.
>. I say flunk the bums out! The sooner the better.
Terrible strategy. Instead, devote a few minutes to effectively explain
why every person, particularly pre-meds, should learn about biology. Any
teacher who has neither the ability nor inclination to do that has no
business teaching undergraduates.
Ken K.
Kenneth M Klemow, Ph.D.
Department of Biology
Wilkes University
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766
(717) 831-4758
kklemow at wilkes1.wilkes.eduhttp://wilkes1.wilkes.edu:80/~kklemow
