Upside-Down Biology

Brandeis Biophysicist Herman Epstein readily concedes that he really doesn't "give a damn" about euglena, the single-celled aquatic organisms whose elusive qualities he has been tracking most of his professional life. What keeps him at the job is the thrill of the chase and the fascinating fundamental questions about life that the pursuit raises. In 13 years of teaching science at Brandeis, Epstein was dismayed by the fact that the traditional textbook-and-lecture approach continually failed to convey his own excitement about science. The introductory biology course had become, he says, "the most disliked course on campus."

Epstein decided that the real aim of introductory biology, at least for non-science majors, must be simply to let the student "know what a biologist does when he's doing biology." The student who understands that, he reasoned, will appreciate the nature of the creative activity involved. So Epstein, 48, fashioned a new "upsidedown" course in which he plunged his students into a detailed examination of one of his own research papers. He spent a week answering questions about the terms used, three weeks helping students to figure out how he had gone about the research and reached his conclusions. He found that most of them were neither bored nor baffled but were "genuinely enthralled" by their own ability to fathom the techniques of the biologist.

No Chore. Epstein then led his students through other technical papers until they could handle about three a week. By selecting the papers carefully, he ensured that basic concepts covered by conventional courses would be conveyed, but without resorting to tedious memorization. His approach was so successful that three of his colleagues adopted it.

This summer Epstein used federal and foundation grants to hold month-long seminars at Tufts University for 13 Negro teachers of molecular biology and physiology. He also brought in ten black freshmen from Tennessee A. & I. to take the experimental course. They came to understand the papers as well as his students at Brandeis, Epstein discovered, and they did so faster. This is partly because the method places more emphasis on understanding the scientists' techniques than on reading comprehension. One girl even suggested an experimental technique similar to one that had led to a breakthrough in molecular genetics.

Epstein feels that if this "head start" approach to the teaching of science spreads, more research-oriented professors will willingly teach undergraduates. For most of them, the chance to explain their life's work is no chore at all.

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