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ABSTRACT Integrating primary scientific literature into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) curricula enhances critical thinking, scientific literacy, and communication skills but presents challenges due to complex terminology and data interpretation barriers. To address these challenges, a scaffolded journal club approach was implemented in a Cancer Biology course. The course utilized Hypothes.is web-based annotations, methods presentations, figure annotations, and structured discussions to promote active engagement with the literature. Additionally, integrated science communication assignments—including written, graphical, and video abstracts—provided diverse opportunities for students to develop scientific literacy. This structured approach is designed to facilitate comprehension, encourage proactive learning, and foster confidence in engaging with primary scientific literature. Student feedback highlighted improved ability to dissect research articles, enhanced presentation skills, and increased enjoyment of scientific reading. The journal club model and science communication assignments offer a replicable framework for enhancing primary scientific literature engagement across various STEM disciplines and educational levels. 

ABSTRACT Molecular case studies (MCSs) are open educational resources that use a storytelling approach to engage students in biomolecular structure-function explorations, at the interface of biology and chemistry. Although MCSs are developed for a particular target audience with specific learning goals, they are suitable for implementation in multiple disciplinary course contexts. Detailed teaching notes included in the case study help instructors plan and prepare for their implementation in diverse contexts. A newly developed MCS was simultaneously implemented in a biochemistry and a molecular parasitology course at two different institutions. Instructors participating in this cross-institutional and multidisciplinary implementation collaboratively identified the need for quick and effective ways to bridge the gap between the MCS authors’ vision and the implementing instructor’s interpretation of the case-related molecular structure-function discussions. Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive and engaging experience that has been used effectively in teaching molecular sciences. Its accessibility and ease-of-use with smart devices (e.g., phones and tablets) make it an attractive option for expediting and improving both instructor preparation and classroom implementation of MCSs. In this work, we report the incorporation of ready-to-use AR objects as checkpoints in the MCS. Interacting with these AR objects facilitated instructor preparation, reduced students’ cognitive load, and provided clear expectations for their learning. Based on our classroom observations, we propose that the incorporation of AR in MCSs can facilitate its successful implementation, improve the classroom experience for educators and students, and make MCSs more broadly accessible in diverse curricular settings. 

As one of the most famous fermented drinks in the world, beer is an especially relatable topic for microbiology courses. Here, we describe a short and easily adaptable module based on the antibacterial properties of hops used in brewing. By the 15th century, beer recipes included hops (the flower of the Humulus lupulusplant) as a bittering agent and antimicrobial. By the 19th century, the highly hopped Indian Pale Ale (IPA) became popular, and a modern myth has emerged that IPAs were invented to survive long ocean voyages such as from Britain to India. With that myth in mind, we designed a hypothesis-driven microbiology lab module that tests the plausibility of this brewing myth—namely that highly hopped beers possess enough antibacterial activity to prevent spoilage, while lowly hopped beers do not. The overall design of the module is to test the antimicrobial properties of hops using petri plates containing varying concentrations of hop extract. The module includes hypothesis generation and testing related to bacterial physiology and cell envelope morphology (hops are not equally effective against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria) and to mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance (as beer spoilage bacteria have repeatedly evolved hop resistance). Pre- and post-assessment showed that students made significant gains in the learning objectives for the module, which encourages critical thinking and hypothesis testing by linking microbial physiology and antimicrobial resistance to an important and topical real-world application. 

ABSTRACT Widespread usage of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) in the LIFE SCIENCES has produced a demand for undergraduate and graduate institutions to offer classes exposing students to all aspects of HTS (sample acquisition, laboratory work, sequencing technologies, bioinformatics, and statistical analyses). Despite the increase in demand, many challenges exist for these types of classes. We advocate for the usage of the sourdough starter microbiome for implementing meta-amplicon sequencing. The relatively small community, dominated by a few taxa, enables potential contaminants to be easily identified, while between-sample differences can be quickly statistically assessed. Finally, bioinformatic pipelines and statistical analyses can be carried out on personal student laptops or in a teaching computer lab. In two semesters adopting this system, 12 of 14 students were able to effectively capture the sourdough starter microbiome, using the instructor’s paired sample as reference.