M.A. in Cell Biology, 1985, Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, U.T. Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.
B.S. in Zoology, 1969, University of Oklahoma.
Office: J138 at Spring Creek Campus
Phone: 972-881-5885
Electronic mail address: jhelgeson@ccccd.edu
Class Handouts:
I have really enjoyed teaching at Collin County Community College since I first started here in 1987. My teaching method involves making students aware that they must be active participants in their own learning process, and trying to facilitate that learning. My current teaching topics are Anatomy and Physiology, at the non-majors level (Biol 2404) and the majors level (Biol 2401 and 2402), as well as General Biology I (Biol 1406), the first majors level freshman biology. Other courses I have taught include non-majors freshman biology, genetics, human genetics, microbiology, medical terminology, human diseases, nutrition, and several specialized continuing education courses on the nervous system. Before becoming a college professor, I worked in medical research and computer science for more than 15 years, first in cytogenetics at UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and then at UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. At Southwestern, I first worked for two Nobel Prize winners (Drs. Joseph Goldstein and Michael Brown, for research on cholesterol genetics in 1985), then in immunodermatology, then in medical database computer programming. While working there I completed a master’s degree in an area of cancer immunology related to the skin, and had three sons as well. Teaching has been much more satisfying for me than medical research, as I help students prepare for their own future careers in medical, dental, nursing, veterinary, or related fields, or simply learn about biology to meet a science requirement. It was very gratifying to find, for example, that the new physician’s assistant in my doctor’s office (with whom I had an appointment that day), or the therapist answering the phone (making my first appointment for physical therapy), or a nurse at the emergency room (where my son was being treated for asthma) was one of my former students, now a medical professional who knows much more than I do about the body and how it works. It’s even been fun to hear from one of my current biology students that his mother was also my student as she prepared for nursing school years ago. I have written dozens of published articles on science and health topics, as well as study guides, instructor’s manuals, and test banks to accompany text books in different areas of biology and health science. Many different publishers in these areas have hired me to do technical reviews of chapters, illustrations, or even entire textbooks. I serve on the Advisory Board of the program in Medical Technology/Laboratory Sciences at the UT Southwestern School of Allied Health Sciences. I am one of Collin College’s advisors for students in pre-medical and pre-dental fields, helping them find the proper pathway to where they want to go, which in some cases has included a BS degree in the Med Tech program. I like to think that I have had a greater effect on the community as a faculty member at CCCC than I ever did in medical research.
