Search for: All records

In the Biochemistry Authentic Scientific Inquiry Lab (BASIL) course-based undergraduate research experience, students use a series of computational (sequence and structure comparison, docking) and wet lab (protein expression, purification, and concentration; sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis [SDS-PAGE]; enzyme activity and kinetics) modules to predict and test the function of protein structures of unknown function found in the Protein Data Bank and UniProt. BASIL was established in 2015 with a core of 10 faculty members on six campuses, with the support of an educational researcher and doctoral student on a seventh campus. Since that time, the number of participating faculty members and campuses has grown, and we have adapted our curriculum to improve access for all who are interested. We have also expanded our curriculum to include new developments that are appearing in computational approaches to life science research. In this article, we provide a history of BASIL, explain our current approach, describe how we have addressed challenges that have appeared, and describe our curriculum development pipeline and our plans for moving forward in a sustainable and equitable fashion. 

A comprehensive understanding of biochemistry and molecular biology should empower students to address today's most pressing global challenges (GCs). However, the common types of assessment questions in biochemistry texts do not provide the context or training to encourage students to apply concepts broadly to world issues. The typical end-of-chapter problems presented are not often summative across chapters and are less likely to focus on research findings. Moreover, most do not help students read and analyze the scientific literature, an arguably difficult task that is critical to understanding and approaching solutions to GCs. To address these shortcomings, we have developed a new approach for assessment questions and incorporated them in the online, multivolume Open Educational Resource (OER), Fundamentals of Biochemistry LibreText. These Literature-based Guided Assessments (LGAs) are linked to the primary literature and designed to guide students in reading and understanding research papers. Most of the LGAs are also linked to the leading GCs that face the world today. We highlight an LGA on the Voltage-gated Sodium Channel that was developed through a summer workshop sponsored by BioMolViz and used in a classroom setting in the following fall semester. We describe the development and implementation of the activity, along with preliminary data from an introduction to protein modeling course. We also have written LGAs that focus on Trauma and Health as well as Carbon Capture Using Carbonic Anhydrase (centered on the GCs of Trauma and Climate Change, respectively), and two on Visual Images and Data (focused on Information Integrity). Importantly, these topics encourage students to think past the typical biomedical questions that can become the focus of courses targeted to premedical students. We invite members of the community to use these LGAs in their classrooms and propose GCs of interest for future modules. NSF 1920270: RCN-UBE: Development of an Inclusive Community for the Instruction of Visualizing Biomolecules. Department of Education Open Textbook Pilot Project. 

Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) are an increasingly utilized model for exposing students to research. The lack of robust assessments is a major hurdle to wider adoption of CUREs. The Coronavirus Infectious Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic necessitated a drastic shift of in-person courses to the online format. Using the Participant Perception Indicator (PPI) survey, we measured students’ self-reported changes in learning from such a biochemistry course at a large university in south Florida based on the Biochemistry Authentic Scientific Inquiry Lab (BASIL) model. By doing this, we were able to better understand the student-benefits of CUREs and how these benefits are affected by changes in learning modalities between two relevant semesters, i.e., winter and summer of 2020. Anticipated learning outcomes (ALOs) help partially fill the gap left by the loss of physical interaction in experimental procedures. Our analysis indicated that students learned more through bioinformatic experiments compared to their wet-lab counterparts. Using pre- and post- surveys, students reported that their experience and confidence gains lagged behind their knowledge gain of technique-based skills. Students are not as confident in their understanding of techniques when unable to perform those in the physical laboratory. Thus, despite extensive pursuit of the purpose and protocols of the experiments and techniques, neither their experience nor their confidence was on par with their knowledge. This study is one of the first examples demonstrating a quantitative student-learning assessment of a CURE in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The novel assessment strategies targeted to identify gaps in learning mastery could facilitate the adoption of CUREs, fostering opportunities for all undergraduate students to vital laboratory research experiences in STEM.