Kinemage Authorship Instructor Resource Page
Most of the following comments are based on my own course experiences. My intent is not to insist that kinemages are the only graphics tools suitable for a biochemistry course. Rather, my intent is to provide a tool that will complement other media such as Chime, Java tutorials, kinetics software, and hand models. Kinemage authorship makes an excellent substitution for the traditional term paper and, in the end, most students will admit that it was more fun. Hopefully they will also have gained a greater 3-D intuition and structural insight. I have also put together a summary of instructor helps that I encourage you to read over.
Kinemage Authorship Topics - I have placed this first because it is the most time sensitive consideration. This links to a listing of possible kinemage topics I gave to my class. These topics are deliberately rather general and are essentially random. The instructor can, of course, tailor the possible topics to whatever they desire for their particular course. The instructor might consider thematic topics such as metabolic or signal transduction pathways, comparison of protease families, etc. Whatever you decide to do about topics, you should inform the students as soon as possible so that they can begin researching their topic.
Timetable - Linked here is the timetable
I used in my Fall 2000 semester, first semester biochemistry class (text: Voet, Voet &
Pratt). In such a first semester course hands-on kinemage authorship has to be delayed
until after protein structure has been substantially covered in the lecture. If you are
using kinemage authorship as part of a later course, then you can begin much sooner and
hopefully your students will already be familiar with literature searching.
Using Kinemages in the Lecture - It is important to use kinemages in the lecture to aquaint the students both with the material and with the use of Mage. My lecture philosophy was to cover the material from the text with lecture and transparencies, then review the material with kinemages from the text supplemental CD as well as selected ones from Branden and Tooze. This ended up being about once every other week, which is important if you are reserving a data projector. When using kinemages in lecture, it is important to keep the kinemage moving in some manner, such as rotating or slowly rocking, so that the students can get the full 3-D effect. Also, be sure and use the Mage features that you want your students to later use in kinemage-based homework.
If you have your course materials set up for Powerpoint presentations, it is a simple matter to embed links to particular kinemages within your slides so that they will launch Mage when you clickon them.
Kinemage-based Homework - Linked here are samples of two kinemage-based homework assignments I gave in my course. These simply require manipulation of premade kinemages, but no authorship at all. The first assignment was concerned with nucleic acid kinemages (Chapter 3; Voet, Voet and Pratt) and was intended to simply get students used to examining premade structures and reading their annotations. The second assignment required serious secondary structure analysis and interpretation (Chapter 6; VV&P). If you have kinemage-related homework please send it to me so that I can make it available on this site.
Kinemages & Exams - I made a portion of my last regular exam (enzyme mechanisms and kinetics) a take-home kinemage problem set. In addition, half of my final exam was a series of kinemages with related questions. This half was taken in a computer lab, while the standard written half was taken in a nearby classroom. Both of these kinemage-based exams are available for interested instructors. Just email me at robert.bateman@usm.edu. We are also testing some of Jane Richardson's 3D "exams" based on kinemages, such as connect-the-dots and find-the-hydrogen-bonds. Instructors interested in these should contact either Jane or me.
Grading of Student Kinemages - A reasonably detailed outline of a suggested grading rubric can be found in the authorship manual. For the grading criteria I thank Jane and Dave Richardson. For the point breakdown I thank Scott Hartsel for his input. During the semester I had students turn in pertinent reference lists, a key paper summary, and a kinemage draft (appx 1 week prior to the final draft). These received a grade in addition to the final kinemage.