Implementing course‐embedded research projects in a large biochemistry lecture

Abstract

The Biochemistry course at James Madison University is a one‐semester survey course covering everything from atoms to organisms. The students come from a variety of backgrounds and majors, thus it is challenging to make the content accessible to the students and cover the content in adequate depth to prepare students for their careers. I have taken this challenge as an opportunity to develop a series of lecture‐based projects that have students learn biochemistry content through research and experimentation. The large biochemistry lecture section is not an environment where course‐embedded research projects are often found. However, large lecture sections offer the opportunity to expose a large number of students with diverse backgrounds to an open, collaborative research experience. Over the semester long course, students use freely available databases and servers to explore biomolecule structure and function in projects which require students to apply their knowledge of chemistry to biological research questions in an authentic manner. Project topics include spectroscopy, protein purification, drug design, and biomolecule structure prediction and evaluation. In addition to learning the fundamentals of biochemistry, participants develop their skills in experimental design and improve their ability to communicate and disseminate science. To manage the projects on the scale of 50 to 100+ participants at a time, I use the Open Science Framework to store data and report out the findings. From post‐activity assessment, students report increased confidence in their ability to understand fundamental biochemical concepts while also showing increased professional skills. Students also can assemble their projects into portfolios of their work to show to future employers and admissions committees.Support or Funding InformationThomas and Kate F. Jeffress Memorial TrustAccelerating Creative Teaching grant from JMU Libraries