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Updated: 04/09/08 12:06 PM |
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"Today's facts are tomorrow's fallacies."
“Don’t sweat the small stuff”
“Don’t sweat the small stuff”
Objective
- Understand the organization of HuBio 551, and the students’ responsibilities. Note the reading assignments, the dates of the quizzes and final exam, as well as the criteria for satisfactory performance.
The purpose of this syllabus is to help you achieve the objectives of this course. This is not a textbook, nor does it have the purpose of a textbook. We will not attempt to tell you everything. Instead we will try to tell you what we think is important. We have simplified complex concepts and may be guilty of some oversimplifications. We have tried to avoid confusing compilations of conflicting data. Facts change and by the time you are out on your own some of these "facts" will be wrong. The t½ of surgical dogma is estimated to be 45 years. Our main teaching objective is to help you to think about gastrointestinal problems in an organized, logical way, how to solve problems in patients, and to question the current dogma.
Seminars
We abandoned comprehensive lectures to the whole class because we believe that the facts can be learned from the syllabus in less time. We will stress seminars because we hope that this approach will enable you to teach yourselves to think logically about gastrointestinal problems so that you will be prepared to solve them on the wards and to assume responsibility for patient care. "Performance" in the seminars does not influence the final grade.
If you are to learn, you must prepare before each seminar: Study the relevant sections of the syllabus. The faculty meets for three hours each morning prior to the afternoon’s seminar to review the material and to insure that each seminar section covers the same basic information. In 2003, a second year student wrote, "If you hadn't fully prepared, the seminar session could be quite embarrassing, and unproductive."
Quizzes
Some words about the quizzes in this course. Our quizzes have three purposes: to re-inforce learning, to assess competence (of student and of teacher), and to emphasize that physicians must communicate with one another by writing logically and concisely. Our quizzes will consist of questions whose answers can be constructed from the facts in the syllabus. The questions will relate to pathophysiological problems in gastroenterology; we expect concise reasoning, rather than a regurgitation of the syllabus. We will allow you to use the Gut Syllabus and your notes during the quizzes and the Final Exam. You will have about thirty minutes in which to answer each question so that you can evaluate the data and discover the point of the question before writing a short, legible response. We will make opportunities after each quiz to discuss the problems, and to dispel confusion.
Three quizzes, each consisting of two questions, will be given during the Course in April. Each individual quiz question will be graded by the following scale: Excellent, Satisfactory, Poor, or Fail. Students who pass (Excellent, Satisfactory, or Poor) at least five of the six questions do not need to take the final exam to achieve a passing grade for the course. Students who have two or more failing answers among the six quiz questions will be required to take the final exam in May. An Honors grade will be earned if a student achieves an Excellent grade on four or more quiz questions, without any failing responses. Contact Dr. Tung (btung@u.washington.edu) immediately if an emergency prevents you from attending any of the April quizzes.
Teaching Style
In this course we do not attempt to cover all important diseases. We strive to provide an understanding of normal structure and function of the gastrointestinal tract so that you can learn to apply this knowledge to abnormal structure and function by the study of selected disease models. You will have ample opportunity to learn more about gastrointestinal disease during your basic clerkship and during the courses you select during your last two years. We hope that you will be motivated to read in depth about certain areas of normal structure and function or of disease. We advise you to concentrate on mastering the material in the course; once this is accomplished, learn as much more as you can. If you are having difficulty, please talk with your seminar leader or with Dr. Tung about obtaining help.
Acknowledgements
Nancy Silverstein drew some of the diagrams. Molly Boettcher expertly typed, and organized the Gut. Carrie Silverman and Jodi Bianchi helped with the organization of the syllabus and administration of the course. Rocky Yeh helped with Gut slide set. We also gratefully acknowledge constructive suggestions from Drs. R. Barreras, W. Friend, S. Rosen, and C. Rohrmann. Dr. Shoba Krishnamurthy contributed to the sections on Motility. Dr. Bill Grady contributed his insights into the genetics of colon cancer. Dr. Don Ostrow made invaluable contributions to the slide set, teaching manual and syllabus.
Disabled Student Services
If you would like to request academic accomodations due to a disability, please contact Disabled Student Services, 448 Schmitz, Box 355839,
(206) 543-8924, (TTY) (206) 543-8925, uwdss@u.washington.edu. You will need a letter from Dr. Carol MacLaren indicating that you have a disability that requires academic accomodations. Please present the letter to Dr. Tung so that the accomodations you might need for this class can be arranged.