Improving Student Understanding of Pre‐Requisite Knowledge and Long Term Understanding of Biochemical Concepts

Abstract

Biochemistry builds on many fundamental concepts from General and Organic Chemistry. However, students don't always correctly remember (or might not have ever mastered) those pre‐requisite concepts. This study tested strategies for strengthening this underlying foundational knowledge and improving long term understanding of Biochemistry. A collection of activities that explicitly link general and organic chemistry concepts to biochemistry ideas was written and either assigned as pre‐class work or as recitation activities. Student learning gains were assessed after using these activities alone, or in combination with regularly‐integrated clicker and discussion questions. Learning gains were determined from student performance on a pre‐ and post‐tests covering key prerequisite concepts, biochemistry course exams, and student self‐evaluation. Long‐term retention of the material was assessed using a comprehensive exam given to a subset of the students. Our results show that using the pre‐class exercises in combination with integrative questions was effective at improving student performance in both the short and long term. Similar results were obtained at both a large research institution with large class enrollments and at a private liberal arts college with moderate enrollments.Support or Funding InformationThis work was funded by the Haines Fund for The Study of Biochemistry at Wabash College and the National Science Foundation's Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (TUES) program under Award No. 1140711. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.