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Transforming an Undergraduate Biochemistry Laboratory Courses: Do the Pros Outweigh the Cons?
Author(s) -
Hazzard James T.
Publication year - 2016
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.30.1_supplement.880.1
Subject(s) - undergraduate research , capstone , cons , presentation (obstetrics) , medical education , curriculum , capstone course , institution , mathematics education , engineering ethics , psychology , pedagogy , computer science , political science , engineering , medicine , algorithm , law , radiology , programming language
Recommendations from a number of different agencies (ASBMB, NSF, HHMI, AAAS) have urged undergraduate laboratory courses to adopt a more research‐like curriculum. Often a justification is made that these courses potentially represent the only research experience an undergraduate might have at their institution, valid only for institutions or programs that do not have a mandatory capstone research requirement. Whereas this pedagogical approach is relatively simple for a two‐semester laboratory course, making this transformation in a one semester course requires much greater thought and planning. We have just completed a six year transformation of our upper level one semester biochemistry lab course from a traditional methods and techniques format to one in which the students are involved in an inquiry‐guided research project for three quarters of the semester. This presentation will focus on the pros and cons as well as the challenges of carrying out this transformation.