Systems thinking in biochemistry: Assessing students’ understanding of metabolic pathway dynamics and regulation

Abstract

Systems thinking requires consideration of dynamic processes, how parts of a whole interact through causal relationships, and how such systems change over time, often in response to environmental stimuli. A systems thinking approach is essential to understanding the complexities of metabolic pathways, yet few tools exist to probe students’ proficiency in this area. We have developed and used an assessment instrument to measure undergraduate students’ understanding of biochemical pathway dynamics and regulation in a metabolic context. A community of biochemistry educators was involved in an iterative process of designing and testing the instrument and accompanying rubric. The assessment instrument was embedded on final exams in an introductory biochemistry course and student responses were collected over several terms. Analysis of student responses showed that most students were able to interpret visual conventions in an unfamiliar metabolic pathway. Furthermore, many students could make basic predictions about how the system would be expected to respond to changes. However, fewer students generated nuanced responses that accounted for both microscopic changes at the protein level and macroscopic changes in pathway product outputs. Interviews revealed that students struggled to process the volume of complex information provided in prompts and the metabolic pathway diagram. This suggests that supporting information processing skills may be an important part of teaching systems thinking and metabolic logic.Support or Funding InformationNSF‐DUE‐1224868