Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN

Gustavus Adolphus College is a private liberal arts college with 2500 students in St. Peter, Minn. Fully accredited and known for its strong science, writing, music, athletics, study-abroad, and service-learning programs, Gustavus annually presents the science centered Nobel Conference, the only on-going educational forum in the US authorized by the Nobel Foundation.

In the fall of 2002, Gustavus Adolphus College was awarded the first LI-COR Undergraduate DNA Sequencer Award. The timing of the award did not allow for Gustavus to incorporate the instrument directly into their 2002 fall curriculum, however they quickly put students to work on research projects using the sequencer while preparing for the spring and fall semesters of 2003-04.

“ In January of 2003, we put the system to the test with a first-year student who had just one semester of science under her belt,” says Dr. Colleen Jacks, associate professor of biology. “We learned together and had no trouble getting useful data on the first runs.”
“ So much of the bookwork just explains how things are done; using the instrument let me jump right into actually doing research,” says Gustavus freshman Jessica Proctor. “It’s not as complicated as I thought it would be. We tested four different protocols to isolate DNA.”

A strong laboratory-based curriculum is key to the college’s approach to undergraduate education. “Our approach is to first teach the technology basics. Then we get the students to understand analysis capabilities by teaching the question-solution-application approach to problem solving,” says Dr. Jeffrey Dahlseid, assistant professor of biology and chemistry. “With that foundation, students can then use the LI-COR system as research tool for which it is intended.”

“ In applying for the award, we saw the LI-COR system as a way to provide curricular improvements to increase student literacy in molecular genetics and to expand the research capabilities for our students who partner with faculty in research,” says Dahlseid. “Due to high enrollment it would be impossible to incorporate DNA sequencing without the availability of a non-radioactive, automated system.”

Students initially used the instrument to assist with faculty research projects. Dr. Pam Kittleson, assistant professor of biology notes that involving students in actual research “is key to putting concepts into practice. We generated a tremendous amount of data in just a couple of days, a complete manuscripts’ worth in two-to-three days of running gels.”

“ Students must develop an understanding and appreciation for the generation of data, its analysis and the broad range of medical, evolutionary and other applications for the sequence data,” says Kittleson. She adds that the goal is for students to advance both their ability to critically evaluate published scientific research and their understanding to design, carry out and communicate results of an experiment.

In the fall of 2003, Gustavus is using the LI-COR system as the focal point of a new genetics course that combines cell biology and molecular biology courses.