Integrating scientific literacy skills into a biochemistry course for nonscience majors.

One of the goals for requiring all college students to take science courses is to develop critical thinking about scientific issues they will encounter as citizens, consumers, and patients. This article integrates skill development activities targeting civic scientific literacy skills in a nonscience majors (liberal arts) biochemistry course, but similar principles could be integrated into nursing and major levels biochemistry courses. Strategies include teaching information acquisition, source analysis argument analysis, and civic engagement. These can be integrated into classroom activities, homework assignments, and outside of class projects. The impact of these activities was assessed through performance on the activities, open ended exam questions, and an end of course survey. Students gained both biochemical content and skills in evaluating claims with evidence, and reported the course helped them better understand what scientists do and how to make decisions based upon scientific evidence without detracting from the typical content learning goals of the course.

Enhancing student retention of prerequisite knowledge through pre-class activities and in-class reinforcement.

To foster the connection between biochemistry and the supporting prerequisite concepts, a collection of activities that explicitly link general and organic chemistry concepts to biochemistry ideas was written and either assigned as pre-class work or as recitation activities. We assessed student learning gains after using these activities alone, or in combination with regularly-integrated clicker and discussion questions. Learning gains were determined from student performance on pre- and post-tests covering key prerequisite concepts, biochemistry course exams, and student self-evaluation. Long-term retention of the material was assessed using a comprehensive exam given to a subset of the students. Our results show that using the pre-class exercises in combination with integrative questions was effective at improving student performance in both the short and long term. Similar results were obtained at both a large research institution with large class enrollments and at a private liberal arts college with moderate enrollments. © 2016 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 45(2):97-104, 2017.

The ethical implications of genetic testing in the classroom.

The development of classroom experiments where students examine their own DNA is frequently described as an innovative teaching practice. Often these experiences involve students analyzing their genes for various polymorphisms associated with disease states, like an increased risk for developing cancer. Such experiments can muddy the distinction between classroom investigation and medical testing. Although the goals and issues surrounding classroom genotyping do not directly align with those of clinical testing, instructors can use the guidelines and standards established by the medical genetics community when evaluating the ethics of human genotyping. We developed a laboratory investigation and discussion which allowed undergraduate science students to explore current DNA manipulation techniques to isolate their p53 gene, followed by a dialogue probing the ethical implications of examining their sample for various polymorphisms. Students never conducted genotyping on their samples because of the ethical concerns presented in this paper, so the discussion replaced the actual genetic testing in the class. A science faculty member led the laboratory portion, while a genetic counselor facilitated the discussion of the ethical concepts underlying genetic counseling: autonomy, beneficence, confidentiality, and justice. In their final papers, students demonstrated an understanding of the practice guidelines established by the genetics community and acknowledged the ethical considerations inherent in p53 genotyping. Given the burgeoning market for personalized medicine, teaching undergraduates about the psychosocial and ethical dimensions of human genetic testing is important and timely. Moreover, incorporating a genetic counselor in the classroom discussion provided a rich and dynamic discussion of human genetic testing.

Teaching about genetic testing issues in the undergraduate classroom: a case study.

Educating undergraduates about current genetic testing and genomics can involve novel and creative teaching practices. The higher education literature describes numerous pedagogical approaches in the laboratory designed to engage science and liberal arts students. Often these experiences involve students analyzing their own genes for various polymorphisms, some of which are associated with disease states such as an increased risk for developing cancer. While the literature acknowledges possible ethical ramifications of such laboratory exercises, authors do not present recommendations or rubrics for evaluating whether or not the testing is, in fact, ethical. In response, we developed a laboratory investigation and discussion which allowed undergraduate science students to explore current DNA manipulation techniques to isolate their p53 gene, followed by a dialogue probing the ethical implications of examining their sample for various polymorphisms. Students never conducted genotyping on their samples because of ethical concerns, so the discussion served to replace actual genetic testing in the class. A basic scientist led the laboratory portion of the assignment. A genetic counselor facilitated the discussion, which centered around existing ethical guidelines for clinical genetic testing and possible challenges of human genotyping outside the medical setting. In their final papers, students demonstrated an understanding of the practice guidelines established by the genetics community and acknowledged the ethical considerations inherent in p53 genotyping. Given the burgeoning market for personalized medicine, teaching undergraduates about the psychosocial and ethical dimensions of human gene testing seems important and timely, and introduces an additional role genetic counselors can play in educating consumers about genomics.

Screening a library of household substances for inhibitors of phosphatases: An introduction to high-throughput screening.

Library screening methods are commonly used in industry and research. This article describes an experiment that screens a library of household substances for properties that would make a good "drug," including enzyme inhibition, neutral pH, and nondenaturing to proteins, using wheat germ acid phosphatase as the target protein. An adaptation of the experiment appropriate for lower level biochemistry or outreach is also described. This work was supported by Wabash College through the Haines Fund for the Study of Biochemistry and the National Science Foundation through Grant DUE 0126242.