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Aligning and using assessments in gateway courses for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology majors (348.5)
Author(s) -
Bell Ellis
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.28.1_supplement.348.5
Subject(s) - context (archaeology) , hierarchy , curriculum , mathematics education , biology , chemistry , physiology , computational biology , mathematics , psychology , pedagogy , paleontology , economics , market economy
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology majors rarely take introductory courses in the discipline of “biochemistry and molecular biology” during the first year or two of their undergraduate degree program, more usually taking introductory courses in biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics before taking “biochemistry” in their junior year. To foster the interdisciplinary approaches to the life sciences recommended by recent reports such as Vision & Change a hierarchy of foundational concepts and skills drawn from those expected of graduating majors in biochemistry and molecular biology should be presented and assessed during the first two years of an undergraduate curriculum. It is suggested that these should include foundational concepts of the basic sciences (biology, chemistry and physics), mathematics skills necessary for data analysis and modeling, and process of science skills including using the primary literature, hypothesis development and proposal writing. These areas should be introduced in the context of examples drawn from big picture areas of the molecular life sciences and should focus on foundational concepts of the five critical content areas, evolution, matter and energy transformation, homeostasis, information flow and macromolecular structure and function. Such courses can be either “blended” introductory courses or stand‐alone courses specific for biochemistry and molecular biology majors. This work is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation: NSF 0957205 to EB