Use of the Pope Engagement Index to Measure the Cognitive Load of Biochemistry Students while Completing a 3D Physical Serine Protease Modeling Activity

Abstract

Research has shown students have significant difficulty understanding enzyme‐substrate relationships. One way instructors have suggested to support students while learning this content is through the use of 3D physical models of the enzyme and substrate. However, little research has been conducted on how the models impact the learning process and the cognitive load of the students. This study aims to measure the cognitive load of biochemistry students while completing a modeling activity focused on understanding the relationship between the substrates and active site of serine proteases. During a simulated learning environment, biochemistry students completed an activity related to how enzymes and substrates interact based on electronics, stereochemistry and geometric complementary using the serine protease physical models. During the activity electroencephalography was used to capture student cognitive processing in order to assign cognitive load of the tasks in the activity using the Pope Engagement Index. This presentation will specifically focus on how spatial ability of the student impacted the level of engagement and in what region of the brain was engaged when completing various tasks. Additional discussion will focus on how changes to the models impacted the cognitive load of the participants when completing the activity. Suggestions will be provided for faculty to think about when developing modeling activities to decrease extraneous cognitive load for students.Support or Funding InformationThis project is supported by the National Science Foundation under award number IUSE 1711402/1711425 to University of Minnesota, Rochester and Kennesaw State University.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.