Submitted by Betsy Jamieson / Smith College on Mon, 06/22/2026 - 11:57
My Notes
Description

This literature discussion was created for my 300-level elective course in bioinorganic chemistry.  Over the course of the semester, we read a series of 3 papers from Sarah L.J. Michel's lab at the University of Maryland's School of Pharmacy. This paper, "Role of Gold in Inflammation and Tristetraprolin Activity" (https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.201904837) was the third one we examined. I used it as part of our section on metals in medicine and to discuss additional biochemical/bioinorganic techniques. 

Attachment Size
Assignment Document for Students 20.76 KB
Learning Goals

The learning goals for this assignment were to:

  • Introduce students to biochemical and bioinorganic techniques
  • Examine the impact of a metal used in medicine
  • Introduce students to the chemical literature
Implementation Notes

I gave students this assignment and had them turn in the questions as homework.  On the day it was due, we had a class discussion where we went over the answers to the questions. I provided supplemental information about the various techniques used in the paper as needed. In this particular year, I had 36 students in the class (an all time high), and it still worked well for generating discussion. The class was a mix of junior and senior undergraduate students, most of whom were either chemistry majors, chemistry minors, or biochemistry majors.

Time Required
1 class period
Evaluation
Evaluation Methods

I graded the homework, giving students 80% of the points on each question for effort and the remaining 20% for how correct their answer was. This seemed to work well.

Evaluation Results

Students commented that the paper was easy to understand, and most students were able to answer the questions correctly. 

Creative Commons License
Attribution, Non-Commercial, Share Alike CC BY-NC-SA