Biochemistry Course Research Articles

Enhancing science literacy and communication among the next generation of scientists in an online learning environment.

Many large, undergraduate science courses, which still heavily rely on traditional lecture-based dissemination of content, passive learning, and exam-based assessments, have been forced online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. To address the challenges facing students in regards to engagement, self-directed learning, and the development of soft skills, we modified a large, lecture-based third-year undergraduate biochemistry course at the University of Toronto to foster active learning through interactive e-modules. We also adjusted the evaluation model to focus on the development of reflection, critical thinking, science literacy, and communication.

Lactate Is a Metabolic Mediator That Shapes Immune Cell Fate and Function.

Lactate and the associated H+ ions are still introduced in many biochemistry and general biology textbooks and courses as a metabolic by-product within fast or oxygen-independent glycolysis. However, the role of lactate as a fuel source has been well-appreciated in the field of physiology, and the role of lactate as a metabolic feedback regulator and distinct signaling molecule is beginning to gain traction in the field of immunology. We now know that while lactate and the associated H+ ions are generally immunosuppressive negative regulators, there are cell, receptor, mediator, and microenvironment-specific effects that augment T helper (Th)17, macrophage (M)2, tumor-associated macrophage, and neutrophil functions. Moreover, we are beginning to uncover how lactate and H+ utilize different transporters and signaling cascades in various immune cell types. These immunomodulatory effects may have a substantial impact in cancer, sepsis, autoimmunity, wound healing, and other immunomodulatory conditions with elevated lactate levels. In this article, we summarize the known effects of lactate and H+ on immune cells to hypothesize potential explanations for the divergent inflammatory vs. anti-inflammatory effects.

Team idea mapping method: A brainstorming session for enhancing problem-solving skills in postgraduate medical biochemistry students as assessed by self-efficacy

Objectives: The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Team Idea Mapping (TIM) sessions on the problem solving skills of postgraduate (PG) students of Biochemistry, as deduced from retro-pre self-efficacy questionnaire. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted enrolling students pursuing PG-MD course in Medical Biochemistry in a premier medical college. First TIM session was preceded by sensitization of PG students and departmental faculty. In total, four TIM sessions were conducted. Retro-pre self efficacy questionnaire was administered 3 months after the last session. Feedback from the students was collected immediately after last session and satisfaction index was also calculated. Results: The satisfaction index was highest (100) for items stating that TIM sessions promoted interactivity and participatory behaviorand lowest (78) for item stating that TIM sessions promoted reflective behavior respectively. The students expressed enhanced self-efficacy in understanding Biochemistry concepts, clinical application of Biochemistry, problem solving skills in Biochemistry, interpreting laboratory reports, participation in group works and clarifying problems with peers and seniors. However, the sessions were not as effective in instilling technical skills like trouble shooting for analyzer breakdowns. Conclusion: TIM is an effective tool for instilling problem solving skills in medical PG students, additionally fortifying their attitude to work in groups.

The value of diversifying blackboard writing in college education: taking Biochemistry teaching as an example

Blackboard writing undertakes the dual task of knowledge transmission and classroom culture inheritance. Well-designed blackboard writing will not only help students to better memorize, understand and construct knowledge framework, but also create a serious but lively classroom atmosphere, strengthen the soul of moral education in the classroom, leading to improved quality of education. Taking the practice of blackboard writing in teaching the Biochemistry course as an example, the authors categorized the blackboard writing approaches according to the teaching objectives to be achieved, and discussed the necessity and application scope of each type of blackboard writing approach in the multimedia era. Our goal was to make blackboard writing, a conventional teaching approach, play an important role in the new era of classroom education.

Design and Implementation of a Tool to Assess Students' Understanding of Metabolic Pathways Dynamics and Regulation.

Metabolic systems form the very foundation of life and as such are broadly taught in the molecular life sciences. Here, we describe the biochemistry educator community-based development and use of an assessment instrument designed to evaluate students’ ideas about metabolic pathway dynamics and regulation in undergraduate biochemistry courses. Analysis of student responses showed that most students were able to interpret visual representations in an unfamiliar metabolic pathway and that many 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. These findings identify some of the challenges of meaningfully assessing students’ understanding of metabolic pathways and could inform how instructors think about teaching and assessing metabolism in undergraduate biochemistry and beyond. The results also suggest future avenues for biochemistry education research.

Analisis Faktor-Faktor Kesulitan Pembelajaran Online Mata Kuliah Biokimia di Masa Pandemi COVID-19

The distance learning system implemented by all universities during the Covid-19 pandemic has a number of challenges for lecturers and students. This article describes empirically the application of online learning in the Biochemistry course, Biology Education study program, Mahaputra Muhammad Yamin University. This pandemic has brought a paradigm shift in learning, namely developing and empowering various media in the learning environment, one of which is the internet facility. The results showed that the use of the internet as a learning medium in general was able to increase student learning motivation in taking Biochemistry courses, but on the other hand it created a dilemma where students had difficulty understanding concepts. This is due to the limited means of supporting the learning process such as textbooks. Difficulties are also experienced by lecturers, this difficulty creates a pleasant learning atmosphere in the midst of limited facilities and learning facilities and infrastructure.

Aiming for the Bullseye: Targeted activities decrease misconceptions related to enzyme function for undergraduate biochemistry students.

Biochemistry curricula present a particular challenge to undergraduate students with abstract concepts which can lead to misconceptions that impede learning. In particular, these students have difficulty understanding enzyme structure and function concepts. Targeted learning activities and three-dimensional (3D) physical models are proposed to help students challenge these misconceptions and increase conceptual understanding. Here we assessed such pedagogical tools using the Enzyme-Substrate Interactions Concept Inventory (ESICI) to measure (mis)conceptual changes from Pre- to Post- time points in a single semester undergraduate biochemistry course. A Control group of students engaged with the active learning activities without the 3D physical models and students in the Intervention group utilized these activities with the 3D physical models. At the Post- time point both groups had higher, yet similar ESICI scores of the same magnitude as the highest scoring group from the national sample. Concomitantly, many misconception markers decreased compared to the national sample, although some of these differed between the Control and Intervention groups. Based on this assessment, both pedagogical approaches successfully increased conceptual understanding and targeted many of the misconceptions measured by the ESICI, however, several misconceptions persisted. Surprisingly, the students who used the 3D physical models did not demonstrate a further decrease in the misconception markers. Additionally, psychometric evaluation of the ESICI with our sample recommends the revision of several questions to improve the validity of this assessment. We also offer suggestions to improve instruction and pedagogical tools with further avenues for research on learning.

Encouraging Biochemistry Students’ Metacognition: Reflecting on How Another Student Might Not Carefully Reflect

Many studies in science education research have found metacognition to be beneficial for undergraduate STEM students. Students do not necessarily know how to employ their metacognition without some training or prompting, and undergraduate chemistry instructors do not always have the capacity to instruct their students on metacognition. Thus, it would be beneficial for instructors and students if metacognition development could be implicitly incorporated into typical classroom activities. In this study, 25 undergraduate students in an upper-division biochemistry course were interviewed via a think-aloud protocol. In the interviews, they were asked to solve two open-ended buffer problems. Before answering the second buffer problem, the students were asked questions designed to target their metacognition. The interview transcripts were qualitatively analyzed through a codebook thematic analysis, with deductive and inductive coding, to understand the types of metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive skills these students demonstrated while solving the buffer problems. The transcripts were also analyzed to understand how these metacognitive prompts may have changed students’ metacognitive approaches to solving the problems. Overall, 20 of the 25 students demonstrated some type of metacognition in response to the metacognitive prompts that they had not demonstrated in the first buffer problem. We discuss how asking students to think how an “unreflective” student would answer a question can prompt students to metacognitively evaluate their thought processes.

Teaching Reform Practice of Biochemistry Course Based on Computer Technology

The course of biochemical engineering is an important content of modern scientific research and it has very important applications in the fields of biology and medicine. After entering the new era, with the rapid development of computer technology, the biochemistry field has the corresponding development, but the biochemistry curriculum teaching exposes many malpractices and the insufficiency in the traditional teaching mode. This paper analyzes the existing problems in the teaching of biochemistry course, expounds the teaching reform content of biochemistry course and puts forward specific ideas and practical methods for reference of relevant personnel.

Retraction: Teaching Reform Practice of Biochemistry Course Based on Computer Technology (J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 1992 022117)

This article has been retracted by IOP Publishing following an allegation that raises concerns this article may have been created, manipulated, and/or sold by a commercial entity. In addition, IOP Publishing has seen no evidence that reliable peer review was conducted on this article, despite the clear standards expected of and communicated to conference organisers. The authors of the article have been given opportunity to present evidence that they were the original and genuine creators of the work, however at the time of publication of this notice, IOP Publishing has not received any response. IOP Publishing has analysed the article and agrees there are enough indicators to cause serious doubts over the legitimacy of the work and agree this article should be retracted. The authors are encouraged to contact IOP Publishing Limited if they have any comments on this retraction. Retraction published: 9 September 2022

Misconceptions of biology education students in Biochemistry Course during the COVID-19 pandemic

Misconception is one of the main problems in biology education which has the potential to increase when course is packaged in a e-learning. This study aimed to map the level of the biochemistry concept accuracy of students who take online biochemistry lectures. This quantitative research involved Biology Education students, FKIP UMM as research subjects. Online lectures were conducted for ten meetings using ELMU UMM. At the 11st meeting, a concept accuracy test was carried out. The data were then analyzed using descriptive statistics. The result, 64% of students have a low level of concept accuracy, 14% moderate, and 0% good. Therefore, online learning packaging needs to be optimized so that the percentage accuracy of the biochemical concepts of students is maximized.

Growth mindset interventions improve academic performance but not mindset in biochemistry.

Growing evidence suggests that students' self-beliefs about altering their academic abilities can directly influence long-term achievement. These self-beliefs or mindsets can either be fixed (unchangeable) or growth oriented. Students with growth mindsets believe their academic abilities can change, which leads to higher grades and academic persistence in contrast to students with fixed mindsets. However, less is known about how these attributes affect student learning, particularly in college level biochemistry courses. In this study, we utilized metacognitive interventions to promote growth mindset among third and fourth year undergraduate students enrolled in a one semester Biochemistry survey course. Using a mixed-methods study design, we evaluated student mindset, attitudes toward learning, and academic performance over four semesters. Our results suggest that although students' mindsets did not change as a result of growth mindset interventions, their positive perceptions about learning versus performance did increase. Furthermore, students receiving growth mindset interventions significantly outperformed students who did not receive interventions on the final cumulative exam that assessed critical thinking skills. These results suggest that these types of metacognitive interventions can be an effective tool to improve student academic performance in a biochemistry course.

If They Build It

In an undergraduate biochemistry and molecular biology lab course, students designed their own final assignment to communicate their laboratory work to non-disciplinary audiences. A “meta-assignment” guided them as they proposed the content, form, and process requirements. Students strove to develop unique ideas, and all successfully completed their self-assigned projects. Providing students in this class with the freedom, responsibility, and appropriate scaffolding to build their own projects and learning experiences allowed them to interact with their discipline in new ways and enhanced their abilities to design and plan their work, communicate scientific ideas to nonscientists, and think creatively.

Active Learning and Competency Preconditioning Strengthen Osteopathic Medical Student Performance, Physician Attributes, and Competency Assessments

Background: Medical education has been reliant on didactic lectures, which are predominantly teacher-centered learning. Competency-based education was introduced in North America and with this came a paradigm shift in how schools conceptualize curricula and measure learning outcomes. This modern approach started a change away from traditional lecture-based and teacher-centered curricula to a more student-centric approach using various tools. Competency based education is widely regarded as an outcome-based approach to design, implement and evaluate the curriculum using widely accepted competencies. Authorities recommend seven core competencies which have various indicators to address student performance. The main purpose of this research is to utilize active learning tools to enhance this approach and then assess competencies in the first year of medical school to improve academic outcomes as well as exposing students to competency domains on which they will be assessed and to ultimately create a complete physician. Methods: The study was conducted at a medical school during the first semester of medical school and included 145 students. Various active learning tools, such as modified case-based learning, quizzes, and case discussions, were used to assess competency in a biochemistry and genetics course, and these were compared to questions based on concepts delivered by the traditional lecture method. Results: Student performance on high-stakes examinations after active learning sessions on content and concepts had statistically higher average percentages on the second, third and fourth examinations. The average Diff (p) for the second, third, and fourth examination to the questions being considered for the study were (Diff p= 0.84, 0.83, and 0.92) with a positive moderate correlation for the second examination (r= 0.535) and strong positive correlation for the third and fourth examination (r=0.745 and r=0.856) for their final biochemistry grades. Conclusion: The study shows some positive and significant results that active learning methods are a useful and meaningful way to deliver a curriculum for a competency-based education system, and may be better suited than traditional lectures for providing content and assessing competencies which are necessary to become a complete physician.

Combining a Flipped Learning Approach and an Animated Video to Improve First-Year Undergraduate Students’ Understanding of Electron Transport Chains in a Biochemistry Course

The electron transport chain (ETC) is a challenging topic due to the complexity of the reaction that occurs at the molecular level because the students cannot directly interact with the reaction at this level. The use of animated video and flipped learning in improving student understanding of this topic was evaluated. The students were randomly and equally divided into three groups. The first group was taught with a PowerPoint presentation, the second group was taught with an animated video, and the third group was taught through a combination of flipped learning and an animated video. The students were given a multiple-choice pre-test, three types of post-tests that assessed their memory, comprehension, and application (Bloom’s taxonomy cognitive levels 1–3), and a questionnaire. The results showed that both the animated video and flipped learning significantly increased their understanding, particularly for their comprehension and application. The students instructed through the combination of the animated video and flipped learning achieved the highest grade for all types of post-tests. However, from the students’ point of view, students from group 2 were the happiest and highly preferred the animated video instruction compared to the other groups.

Whole-Genome Sequencing and Annotation of 10 Endophytic and Epiphytic Bacteria Isolated from Lolium arundinaceum.

We report the whole-genome sequence and annotation of 10 endophytic and epiphytic bacteria isolated from the grass Lolium arundinaceum as part of a laboratory exercise in a Fundamentals of Plant Biochemistry and Pathology undergraduate course (BIOL403) at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.

Lessons Learned: Active Engagement in a Large‐Enrollment Introductory Biochemistry Course During a Remote Quarter

In the spring of 2020, faculty worldwide were forced to abruptly transition in-person courses to an online format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To keep students engaged in a large-enrollment introductory biochemistry course, I employed a plethora of techniques from synchronous lectures and active learning via the Zoom platform, to the asynchronous online discussion board Piazza. I also modified the course and assessments in consideration of students’ non-academic struggles relating to the pandemic. Student evaluations at the conclusion of the quarter indicated that they preferred synchronous lectures over asynchronous ones, flipping their pre-course preferences. These techniques and accommodations to the remote learning environment led to an overwhelmingly positive overall experience and promoted student engagement, especially in the face of increasing worldwide social unrest during the remaining two weeks of the quarter.

Using Metacognitive Strategies to Improve Academic Performance in Biochemistry

Growing evidence suggests that students’ self-beliefs about the ability to alter their academic abilities can directly influence long-term achievement. These self-beliefs or mindsets can either be fixed (unchangeable) or growth oriented. Students with growth mindsets believe their academic abilities can change, which leads to higher grades and academic persistence in contrast to students with fixed mindsets. However, less is known about how these attributes affect student learning, particularly in college level biochemistry courses. In this study, we utilized social-psychological interventions to promote growth mindset among third and fourth year undergraduate students enrolled in a one semester Biochemistry survey course. Using a mixed-methods study design we evaluated student mindset, attitudes towards learning, and academic performance over four semesters. Our results suggest that although students’ mindsets did not change as a result of metacognitive interventions, their positive perceptions about learning vs performance did increase. Furthermore, students receiving growth mindset interventions significantly outperformed students who did not receive interventions on the final cumulative exam that assessed critical thinking skills. These results suggest that metacognitive interventions can be an effective tool to improve student academic performance in a biochemistry course.

Factors Influencing Student Confidence and Their Perception of Learning in Chemistry and Biochemistry Courses

In this study, various course features affecting student confidence and their perceived learning experience were examined in the context of undergraduate chemistry and biochemistry courses. Online surveys were used to measure student-reported confidence in their ability to solve problems in groups versus working individually, and to measure the extent to which various course features influenced their learning experience. Compared to working alone, working in small groups of 3-4 had a remarkably large effect on students' confidence in solving problems. Upon examining over 1500 student responses to more than 150 different problems/exercises presented over dozens of classes across 3 separate courses, students' self-reported confidence in solving problems increased to an average reported value of 8.0 out of 10 when working on problems in small groups compared to an average reported value of 6.5 out of 10 when working individually. The positive and close correlation between a learner's confidence and their actual performance has been well-established in both educational and neurocognitive fields. These data demonstrate that group work significantly enhances student confidence in solving problems, which suggests how important it is for instructors to incorporate regular group work as part of their course experience to improve students' learning and performance. Further, this study also examined specific course features and the extent to which such features influence students' self-reported perceptions of their learning. Survey responses indicated that students found regular instructor feedback, opportunities to revisit/correct assessments for additional credit (i.e. multi-stage assessments), and the class environment as the top-three course features that were most influential on their learning. Instructors can thus further improve student learning by structuring their courses to include strategic opportunities for students to revisit assessments, for instance by using multi-stage exams or quizzes, while also providing frequent and high-quality feedback, as well as by facilitating a positive class environment in which students are best poised to learn.

A Narrative Curriculum Using the Primary Literature to Teach Biochemistry

The interdisciplinary field of biochemistry and molecular biology (BMB) is expansive, and the pace of scientific discovery is dizzying. This makes teaching the entirety of BMB - even in three semesters - nearly impossible. Instead, BMB education has moved to competencies over content coverage, as enumerated in ASBMB's Foundational Concepts and Skills and in AAAS's Vision and Change. Focusing on a checklist of competencies can still lead students to learning a collection of disparate facts rather than integrating this knowledge across domains. The second-year Biochemistry course at Juniata College uses acetylcholine neurotransmission as a central narrative from which content is constructed. Beginning with texts from the 1700s, students work in groups to iteratively interrogate primary scientific literature by (i) developing specific questions, (ii) using resources to find answers to those questions, (iii) communicating those answers with the peers in their team, and (iv) using the answers to interpret data and figures. In the process, students teach themselves core biochemical concepts interwoven with mathematics, physiology, chemistry, and physics and set in cultural and historical context. Here, I present evidence that this social constructivist approach leads to gains in inclusivity and self-efficacy with respect to teamwork, curiosity, and scientific literacy. Moreover, the approach has led to several collaborative projects, including translations of 19th-century texts from German and French to English. The design of this course stretches BMB education beyond the limits of traditional content acquisition and into new and exciting ways of engaging students and encouraging them to take control of their own education.