A qualitative analysis to identify the elements that support department level change in the life sciences: The PULSE Vision & Change Recognition Program.

The 2011 report, Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action, provided the impetus to mobilize the undergraduate life sciences education community to affect change in order to enhance the educational experiences of life sciences majors. The work of the appointed Partnership for Undergraduate Life Sciences Education (PULSE) Vision and Change (V&C) Leadership Fellows has focused on the development of programs and resources to support departmental change. In this report, we present a qualitative assessment of several documents generated from the PULSE V&C Leadership Fellow Recognition Team. The Recognition Team developed two initiatives to provide departments with feedback on their change process. The first initiative, the validated PULSE V&C Rubrics, enables departments to collaboratively self-assess their progress in enacting change. The second initiative, the PULSE Recognition Program, involves completion of the aforementioned Rubrics and a site-visit by two Recognition Team members to provide external insights and suggestions to foster a department's change process. Eight departments participated in the Recognition Program in 2014. An evaluation of the documents yielded from the Recognition Program review of seven of the eight departments and a comparison of Rubric scores from before and three years following the site-visits uncovered several common elements required for successful department level change. These elements include an institutional culture that values and supports excellence in teaching and learning with resources and infrastructure, a departmental emphasis on program and course level assessment, and, most importantly, a departmental champion who actively supports endeavors that enhance teaching excellence.

Participation in a Year-Long CURE Embedded into Major Core Genetics and Cellular and Molecular Biology Laboratory Courses Results in Gains in Foundational Biological Concepts and Experimental Design Skills by Novice Undergraduate Researchers.

This two-year study describes the assessment of student learning gains arising from participation in a year-long curriculum consisting of a classroom undergraduate research experience (CURE) embedded into second-year, major core Genetics and Cellular and Molecular Biology (CMB) laboratory courses. For the first course in our CURE, students used micro-array or RNAseq analyses to identify genes important for environmental stress responses by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The students were tasked with creating overexpressing mutants of their genes and designing their own original experiments to investigate the functions of those genes using the overexpression and null mutants in the second CURE course. In order to evaluate student learning gains, we employed three validated concept inventories in a pretest/posttest format and compared gains on the posttest versus the pretest with student laboratory final grades. Our results demonstrated that there was a significant correlation between students earning lower grades in the Genetics laboratory for both years of this study and gains on the Genetics Concept Assessment (GCA). We also demonstrated a correlation between students earning lower grades in the Genetics laboratory and gains on the Introductory Molecular and Cell Biology Assessment (IMCA) for year 1 of the study. Students furthermore demonstrated significant gains in identifying the variable properties of experimental subjects when assessed using the Rubric for Experimental (RED) design tool. Results from the administration of the CURE survey support these findings. Our results suggest that a year-long CURE enables lower performing students to experience greater gains in their foundational skills for success in the STEM disciplines.

The PULSE Vision & Change Rubrics, Version 1.0: A Valid and Equitable Tool to Measure Transformation of Life Sciences Departments at All Institution Types.

The PULSE Vision & Change Rubrics, version 1.0, assess life sciences departments' progress toward implementation of the principles of the Vision and Change report. This paper reports on the development of the rubrics, their validation, and their reliability in measuring departmental change aligned with the Vision and Change recommendations. The rubrics assess 66 different criteria across five areas: Curriculum Alignment, Assessment, Faculty Practice/Faculty Support, Infrastructure, and Climate for Change. The results from this work demonstrate the rubrics can be used to evaluate departmental transformation equitably across institution types and represent baseline data about the adoption of the Vision and Change recommendations by life sciences programs across the United States. While all institution types have made progress, liberal arts institutions are farther along in implementing these recommendations. Generally, institutions earned the highest scores on the Curriculum Alignment rubric and the lowest scores on the Assessment rubric. The results of this study clearly indicate that the Vision & Change Rubrics, version 1.0, are valid and equitable and can track long-term progress of the transformation of life sciences departments. In addition, four of the five rubrics have broad applicability and can be used to evaluate departmental transformation by other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines.

Online Pre-laboratory Modules Enhance Introductory Biology Students' Preparedness and Performance in the Laboratory.

Introductory biology students are typically overwhelmed in the laboratory. Many of the students are unsure of how to prepare for each session. Two online pre-laboratory modules were developed to introduce the students to the concepts required for laboratory. The students studied the information in the modules and took an online quiz prior to each lab session. Of the 49 students who reviewed the first module and took the online quiz, the average quiz grade was 83.7% ± 12.8. A control group that did not review the online module had an average quiz grade of 53.6% ± 17.5. Of the 20 students who reviewed the second module and took the online quiz, the average quiz grade was 76% ± 15.0. The average quiz grade of the control group was 47.2% ± 16.5. The students were required to prepare laboratory reports for each session. Students who were required to review the modules received slightly higher grades on their laboratory reports compared to the control group. The students and faculty took a survey to determine their perceived impact of the modules on laboratory preparedness and performance. Both the faculty and students agreed that students are typically underprepared for lab (100% and 62%, respectively). Eighty-five percent of the students and all faculty felt that the modules did help them with preparation for the lab. Eighty-eight percent of the students and 76% of the faculty reported that the modules helped them to prepare their laboratory reports. These data clearly indicate that the pre-laboratory modules do enhance student preparedness and performance in the laboratory.

A triclosan-ciprofloxacin cross-resistant mutant strain of Staphylococcus aureus displays an alteration in the expression of several cell membrane structural and functional genes.

Triclosan is an antimicrobial agent found in many consumer products. Triclosan inhibits the bacterial fatty acid biosynthetic enzyme, enoyl-ACP reductase (FabI). Decreased susceptibility to triclosan correlates with ciprofloxacin resistance in several bacteria. In these bacteria, resistance to both drugs maps to genes encoding multi-drug efflux pumps. The focus of this study was to determine whether triclosan resistance contributes to ciprofloxacin resistance in Staphylococcus aureus. In S. aureus, triclosan resistance maps to a fabI homolog and ciprofloxacin resistance maps to genes encoding DNA gyrase, topoisomerase IV and to the multi-drug efflux pump, NorA. Using a norA overexpressing mutant, we demonstrated that upregulation of NorA does not lead to triclosan resistance. To further investigate triclosan/ciprofloxacin resistance in S. aureus, we isolated triclosan/ciprofloxacin-resistant mutants. The mutants were screened for mutations in the genes encoding the targets of triclosan and ciprofloxacin. One mutant, JJ5, was wild-type for all sequences analyzed. We next monitored the efflux of triclosan from JJ5 and determined that triclosan resistance in the mutant was not due to active efflux of the drug. Finally, gene expression profiling demonstrated that an alteration in cell membrane structural and functional gene expression is likely responsible for triclosan and ciprofloxacin resistance in JJ5.

A discussion group program enhances the conceptual reasoning skills of students enrolled in a large lecture-format introductory biology course.

It has been well-established that discussion groups enhance student learning in large lecture courses. The goal of this study was to determine the impact of a discussion group program on the development of conceptual reasoning skills of students enrolled in a large lecture-format introductory biology course. In the discussion group, students worked on problems based on topics discussed in lecture. The program was evaluated using three assessment tools. First, student responses to pre- and posttests were analyzed. The test question asked the students to demonstrate the relationships between 10 different but related terms. Use of a concept map to link the terms indicated an advanced level of conceptual reasoning skills. There was a 13.8% increase in the use of concept maps from pre- to posttest. Second, the students took a Likert-type survey to determine the perceived impact of the program on their conceptual reasoning skills. Many of the students felt that the program helped them understand and use the main course concepts to logically solve problems. Finally, average exam grades increased as the semester progressed. The average final grade in the course was 75%. Students enrolled in the course the previous year (where the lecture component of the course did not assess or reflect student learning in the discussion group) had an average final grade of 69%. The results of this study demonstrate that the discussion group program improves the conceptual reasoning skills of students enrolled in a large lecture-format introductory biology course.

Arginine homeostasis in J774.1 macrophages in the context of Mycobacterium bovis BCG infection.

The competition for L-arginine between the inducible nitric oxide synthase and arginase contributes to the outcome of several parasitic and bacterial infections. The acquisition of L-arginine, however, is important not only for the host cells but also for the intracellular pathogen. In this study we observe that strain AS-1, the Mycobacterium bovis BCG strain lacking the Rv0522 gene, which encodes an arginine permease, perturbs l-arginine metabolism in J774.1 murine macrophages. Infection with AS-1, but not with wild-type BCG, induced l-arginine uptake in J774.1 cells. This increase in L-arginine uptake was independent of activation with gamma interferon plus lipopolysaccharide and correlated with increased expression of the MCAT1 and MCAT2 cationic amino acid transport genes. AS-1 infection also enhanced arginase activity in resting J774.1 cells. Survival studies revealed that AS-1 survived better than BCG within resting J774.1 cells. Intracellular growth of AS-1 was further enhanced by inhibiting arginase and ornithine decarboxylase activities in J774.1 cells using L-norvaline and difluoromethylornithine treatment, respectively. These results suggest that the arginine-related activities of J774.1 macrophages are affected by the arginine transport capacity of the infecting BCG strain. The loss of Rv0522 gene-encoded arginine transport may have induced other cationic amino acid transport systems during intracellular growth of AS-1, allowing better survival within resting macrophages.

Nitric oxide regulation of L-arginine uptake in murine and human macrophages.

L-arginine uptake systems in macrophages play a role in regulating nitric oxide synthesis via the inducible L-arginine nitric oxide pathway. This paper describes the association of L-arginine transport with nitric oxide production in human peripheral blood monocyte-derived macrophages and in peritoneal macrophages from control and inducible nitric oxide synthase knock out C57BL6 mice. Experiments performed with human macrophages suggested that little or no nitric oxide was produced in human macrophages in vitro and that human macrophages exhibit a different arginine transport-specific response to stimuli compared with rodent macrophages. We conclude that increased L-arginine transport in both human and murine macrophages is dependent on the requirement for intracellular nitric oxide.

Modulation of J774.1 macrophage L-arginine metabolism by intracellular Mycobacterium bovis BCG.

Using a Mycobacterium bovis BCG mutant (AS1) lacking a Bacillus subtilis L-arginine transporter homolog, we demonstrate here that the interaction between intracellular mycobacteria and the macrophage with respect to L-arginine transport and metabolism is quite complex. Intracellular AS1 stimulates macrophage L-arginine transport and accumulates 2.5-fold more (3)H label derived from L-arginine than does the wild type. These studies suggest that the accumulation of (3)H label reflects the acquisition of metabolites of L-arginine produced by the macrophage.