Introducing Students to Biochemistry Through An Inquiry‐Based Curriculum Documented Using Electronic Notebooks on SciNote

Abstract

In the laboratory section of the Biochemistry course at St. Mary's University, we perform a year‐long series of experiments; the first semester is a standard curriculum focused on teaching techniques and protein characteristics. The students learn to overexpress the enzyme tyrosine hydroxylase in bacteria, purify the enzyme, and after ten weeks, finish with determination of steady‐state kinetic parameters. The second semester is a CURE (curriculum‐based undergraduate research experience), facilitated by the students already knowing basic biochemistry techniques*. In the second semester we attempt to identify the functions of a handful of proteins that have been crystallized but whose activities are unknown. In order to simulate a real research lab, from the beginning, students are taught to keep notes using a research lab format rather than a teaching lab format. That is, emphasis is on data recording and analysis rather than on extensive background introductions. Further, to facilitate co‐operation and collaboration within and between student teams, we have integrated usage of the web electronic notebook program SciNote (scinote.net). SciNote is structured for a principal investigator of a tier one research team, but is flexible, so it is valuable to the teaching lab professor as well. SciNote allows table teams of students to share their data and ideas. After an exploration period with the features of SciNote, we have adopted a protocol in which students set up their own “projects”, which are filled with “experiments” that consist of “tasks”. “Tasks” are not what are usually considered “tasks”, rather, they are report sections such as materials, observations, data, results, discussion, and conclusion. The professor and all the students are enrolled in one large team, but smaller subteams, such as the ones that exist at each teaching lab table, can be set up. The professor particularly appreciates the simplicity and legibility of the reports that are automatically generated by the program after all text and data are entered. Further, the professor is able to monitor the progress and participation of each team member. It is hoped that once all the intricacies of SciNote usage are mastered, students at every campus will be able to compare findings and data on proteins that are being studied simultaneously across the country.Support or Funding Information* The inquiry curriculum is a shared project among several universities, and the delivery of the course differs in various regards at all of them. Those campuses and faculty colleagues include Rochester Institute of Technology (Drs. P. Craig, J. Mills, H. Bernstein, and S. O'Handley), Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (Drs. A. Goodman and A. McDonald), Ursinus College, (Dr. R. Roberts and N. Scharf) LaGrange College (Dr. A. Sikora), Purdue University (Dr. T Anderson and S. Irby), Hope College (Dr. M. Pikaart), and SUNY Oswego, (Drs. J. Koeppe and W. Kadima). The project is funded by NSF DUE‐1709592.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.