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“Making’ - a hands-on practice of creating technology-based artifacts typically involves integrating electronics, programming, or 3D printing. This paper describes the targeted infusion of “making” into undergraduate STEM education as an approach to encourage innovation while building capacity in the 21st-century technical STEM skills of engineering and design. “Making’ has the potential to impact self-efficacy and building capacity in technical STEM skills among underrepresented and underserved science majors. To investigate how “making” experiences are received by Underrepresented Minority (URM) students at an Historically Black College or University (HBCU), we applied and received funding through the National Science Foundation HBCU-UP Targeted Infusion Project (TIP) mechanism. The infusion included “making” instructional practices and Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) into two undergraduate biology courses. Assessment data indicates the targeted - infusion courses were well-received by these communities with females exceling in iteration and communication of engineered designs. 

Many undergraduate students understand that model organisms are important for understanding how biology works, but may not make the connection that animal models such as Drosophila melanogaster can be used to understand such human conditions as Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). To address this knowledge gap, we introduced an inquiry-based laboratory module in which students perform hands-on Ethanol Behavior Mobility Assays (EMBAs) using flies with either different Alcohol Dehydrogenase (ADH) alleles or different developmental exposure to ethanol. The lab module contains a bioinformatic component for students to explore the evolutionary conservation of the ADH gene between flies and humans. The implementation of this exercise in a sophomore/junior-level Genetics course led to a high level of student satisfaction and a more integrated view of the role of model organisms in studying AUD and FAS. Funding acknowledgements: ABLE Roberta Williams Laboratory Teaching Initiative Grant and NSF HBCU-UP TIP Grant # 1912188. 

Many undergraduate students understand that model organisms are important for understanding how biology works, but may not make the connection that animal models such as Drosophila melanogaster can be used to understand such human conditions as Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). To address this knowledge gap, we introduced an inquiry-based laboratory module in which students perform hands-on Ethanol Behavior Mobility Assays (EMBAs) using flies with either different Alcohol Dehydrogenase (ADH) alleles or different developmental exposure to ethanol. The lab module contains a bioinformatic component for students to explore the evolutionary conservation of the ADH gene between flies and humans. The implementation of this exercise in a sophomore/junior-level Genetics course led to a high level of student satisfaction and a more integrated view of the role of model organisms in studying AUD and FAS. Funding acknowledgements: ABLE Roberta Williams Laboratory Teaching Initiative Grant and NSF HBCU-UP TIP Grant # 1912188.