Integration of literature‐based activities to enhance the learning of content, scientific process, and quantitative analysis in biochemistry courses

Upper level biochemistry courses are a gateway to many different career paths. Students enroll in these courses in preparation for graduate school, professional school or immediately joining the work force. Regardless of their career interests, the application of knowledge into practice is important, but can be challenging to some students. At Indiana University Kokomo, Biochemistry I and II are the only major specific courses that students complete before their senior seminar course which requires students to prepare a mock research proposal. Therefore, one of the learning goals of the Biochemistry courses is to practice the higher order objectives in Bloom's taxonomy of learning, such as evaluation and synthesis of knowledge. In previous years, students expressed difficulties interpreting quantitative data, understanding experimental approaches and reading and finding appropriate research articles, which are all required skills in order to construct a proposal. Several in‐class and homework activities to practice such skills were developed. In collaboration with the science librarian at IUK, flipped lessons to effectively identify articles using NCBI and other databases were developed and tailored for students who lacked any experience in reading and writing scientific articles. Group discussions on a protein purification paper were followed by individual assignments to search for and comprehend articles describing methods such as protein purification, enzyme kinetics, and regulation. Students learned various aspects of a specific protein that they chose at the beginning of the semester. In particular, a protein with a known single amino acid substitution that leads to a genetic disease was suggested as a topic for selection to pique student's interest. Students presented their finding as a poster presentation at the end of semester. In the second semester, students were asked to formulate case study problems based on the reading to lead a discussion on each metabolic pathway. In parallel, students proposed and conducted a simple enzyme activity assay for the uncharacterized protein in laboratory sessions. These activities seemed to have reinforced the lecture material. Moreover, their understanding of the experimental approach and data analysis seemed to have improved. Positive effects of such activities on student learning, as well as current challenges will be discussed.