Design and implementation of skill‐specific assessments in introductory and advanced cell biology and biochemistry courses

Curriculum requirements in the sciences often reflect the importance of a laboratory experience as an opportunity to enhance the learning of science‐related skills, content and processes. Most science faculty would agree that laboratories play an important role in allowing students an opportunity for hands‐on applied learning which has been documented to enhance the learning and retention of new information. In today’s high tech laboratories and professions, students will be required to work with increasingly sophisticated equipment that many teaching institutions do not have available. Interestingly though, it is often not the lack of experience on sophisticated equipment that prevents students from acquiring and excelling after graduation, but rather a lack of basic laboratory skills that many laboratory veterans, including faculty, take for granted. In order to ensure that students graduate with the basic skills required for succeeding in the day‐to‐day operation of a laboratory or as a professional, a series of skill‐related assessments are being developed and tested for use in the introductory cell biology and biochemistry courses at Missouri Western State University. These standardized skills can then be assessed later in advanced cell biology and biochemistry courses in order to monitor retention. The advantage of developing and using standardized assessment tools will permit changes in future laboratory assignments in order to improve the retention of these skills.