Genetics Course Research Articles

Using Biological Organisms as Chemical Sensors: The MicRoboCop Project

The MicRoboCop project introduces chemistry students to the concepts and protocols of synthetic biology. MicRoboCop is a biosensor that has been designed for unique applications in forensic chemistry. The lab is carried out in collaboration with an instructor teaching a genetics course. Students in the biology course synthesize biosensors using Escherichia coli (E. coli), and students in the chemistry course evaluate the effectiveness of the biosensors using analytical chemistry methods. Chemistry students learn basic microbiological techniques to culture the bacteria, and they analyze the expression of red fluorescent protein (RFP) using fluorescence spectroscopy. Students in upper-division (third- and fourth-year) chemistry courses evaluated one part of the MicRoboCop system for its response to arsenic(III) and antimony(III) ions using fluorescence spectroscopy. The limits of detection for the biosensor were estimated using a spectrofluorimeter fitted with a 96-well plate reader, and were found to be less than 1 ppb for antimony and arsenic. Additionally, the biosensor was shown to respond similarly to both antimony and arsenic. Several different variations on the analysis of RFP expressing biosensors are presented, as well as different instrumental options for fluorescence analysis.

The Effectiveness of Scaffolding Based Virtual Class to Improve Student’s Logical Thinking Ability

The low logical thinking ability of students causes them to experience difficulties in making the reasoning of genetic concepts. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of scaffolding based virtual class to improve student’s logical thinking ability. Quasi experiment was used in this study. The population was the 4th semester students of Biology education of Faculty of Teacher Training and Education at one of University at Serang, Indonesia, Academic Year 2016/2017, taking the Genetics course. Samples were taken randomly. The student’s logical thinking ability was measured by using the Test of Logical Thinking Ability (TOLT). The students pretest results of logical thinking ability in the experimental and control classes show the same average value of 2.64 included in the transition category, whereas post test results show different values. The experimental class indicates an average grade of 6.41 and a control class of 4.13, although the average difference between the two groups is significantly different, but both still show the same category of initial formal. Based on Mann-Whitney statistical test results, there is a difference of logical thinking ability between the two treatment classes. This can be interpreted that learning by using scaffolding based virtual class is effective in improving student’s logical thinking ability.

Mendel or Molecules First: What is the Best Approach for Teaching General Genetics?

A key question in teaching a General Genetics course is whether to present the major concepts of Mendelian genetics first, or to start with the essential ideas of molecular genetics. A comparison of two sequential courses at Creighton University with similar groups of students indicated that there were no statistically significant differences in exam scores or final grades with the two approaches. It thus may be better to focus on the questions of how best to present the material in each area to contemporary students and how better to prepare them to take exams that involve different types of questions requiring analytical, numerical, and writing skills. These issues are discussed in the context of the modern biology curriculum.

Do you incorporate recent literature or themes from your own research into your genetics courses?

Do you incorporate recent literature or themes from your own research into your genetics courses?

From students to scientists: The impact of interactive engagement in lectures

“Graduate attributes” are widely believed to be important in developing the scientific skill-set, with generic skills being viewed as more important than discipline-specific qualities. Importantly, students need opportunities to think and practice in ways akin to experts. The continued use of didactic lectures in university education often leads to the accumulation of superficial knowledge, and does not adequately train students to acquire the skills and attributes required of an effective scientist: critical thinking, an inquiring mind and creativity. We analysed active learning lecture strategies in a second year genetics course to determine their effectiveness in developing the scientific skill-set. These were found to be more beneficial than standard lecturing. Investigation of one of these strategies, the “quecture” (an adaptation of the flipped classroom), found that students did not view this method as being the most useful, despite being the most interactive. Our evidence suggests this student resistance to result from the requirement for prior preparation, perceived as an increased workload. We advocate the incorporation of active learning strategies in lectures to support the development of students’ scientific skill–set and specifically advise the introduction of novel formats such as the quecture early in university level science education. Keywords: Active learning, interactive engagement, quecture, scientific skill-set, graduate attributes

Is the introduction of medical genetics course using Team-Based Learning session more effective in the first year or second year of medical school?

Is the introduction of medical genetics course using Team-Based Learning session more effective in the first year or second year of medical school?

RClone Red facilitates bacterial gene expression research by undergraduates in the teaching laboratory.

rClone Red is a low-cost and student-friendly research tool that has been used successfully in undergraduate teaching laboratories. It enables students to perform original research within the financial and time constraints of a typical undergraduate environment. Students can strengthen their understanding of the initiation of bacterial translation by cloning ribosomal binding sites of their own design and using a red fluorescent protein reporter to measure translation efficiency. Online microbial genome sequences and the mFold website enable students to explore homologous rRNA gene sequences and RNA folding, respectively. In this report, we described how students in a genetics course who were given the opportunity to use rClone Red demonstrated significant learning gains on 16 of 20 concepts, and made original discoveries about the function of ribosome binding sites. By combining the highly successful cloning method of golden gate assembly with the dual reporter proteins of green fluorescent protein and red fluorescent protein, rClone Red enables novice undergraduates to make new discoveries about the mechanisms of translational initiation, while learning the core concepts of genetic information flow in bacteria.

BUTTERFLY HOUSE AS A GENETIC LEARNING MEDIA

Implementation of a good learning process should use appropriate learning media and can support contextual learning, and one such medium is a butterfly house. The research method is quasi-experiment. The result of the research shows that there is an increase of student learning result of biology teacher candidate using butterfly house as a medium of learning in Genetics course significantly in the medium category. This increase is not in the high category because there are many technical obstacles in the process of preserving butterflies, but these are the technical constraints that make the process of solving the problem in maintaining butterflies can be honed. Thus the use of butterfly house as a learning medium of Biology is to bridge the difficulty of studying butterflies in the wild and lack of study of butterflies using the media animation.

What Are Some of the Major Challenges in Teaching/Designing Genetics Courses Today?

What Are Some of the Major Challenges in Teaching/Designing Genetics Courses Today?

Learning the genetics concepts through project activities using Drosophila melanogaster: A qualitative descriptive study

Genetics is one of difficult subject for many undergraduate students majoring biology. Authentic-based research is one of learning activity believed could overcome the situation. One of Genetics course that facilitating the students to conduct authentic-based research is Genetics course in Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, State University of Malang. The aim of this study was to describe the project research activities in Genetics course, especially the authentic-based research that utilize Drosophila melanogaster. The present study is qualitative descriptive with the object of this study is project activities in Genetics course. In this institution, the Genetics course is divided into Genetics I (taken by fourth semester students) and Genetics II (taken by fourth semester students). Data collection was conducted from 2014 until 2017 using open ended interviews and observation. An analytical strategy from Miles & Huberman was used to analyze the data. D. melanogaster was used as model organism in several Genetics projects. The genetics project was conducted from first until sixteenth week. In the project activities, the students get some flies strains, observe its phenotypes, design their research project, collect the data, analyze the data , prepare the report, ant present their project result.In this activities, students could practice to be a real researcher. Based on interviews with some students and observations during the presentation of the project reports,it can be seen that through this learning activities the students achieved better understanding about many genetics concepts. Moreover, several students have an opportunity to present their research results in International Conference events.

DNA barcoding of stoneflies (Plecoptera) in a general genetics course

DNA Barcoding is a powerful molecular biology tool for the identification of species, analysis of gene flow from within and between populations and evaluating species concepts. The process can be incorporated into a college genetics or bioinformatics core curriculum. Here we demonstrate how, by simply using Plecoptera, we actively engaged students in DNA extraction, amplification and DNA Barcoding. As a result, 38 new DNA sequences were accepted by an international DNA database, with potentially three of them being new species to the database. More importantly, through multiple assessment measurements, students showed a high degree of learning took place and that all student learning objectives were met.

How long have you been teaching undergraduate genetics and how have genetics courses changed since you were a student or when you first started teaching?

This is the second of a series of ten questions that we asked experts in the field of undergraduate genetics education. These questions range from the importance of genetics education to the practice of teaching undergraduates the theory of genetics while keeping them engaged in the subject. In this series we hope to bring out a discussion of the importance of genetics education not just for future scientists but for those not seeking science as a profession. It is our hope that the answers provided by these experts will stimulate thought and discussion on the importance of genetics education today, so please feel free to share your thoughts with us through the comment section on this site or with the panelists separately (two questions will be published in each issue for the next five issues).

Application of case teaching in genetics courses to students majoring in forestry.

Undergraduate students majoring in forestry generally reflect that genetics is one of the most difficult compul-sory courses, because the traditional teaching method is difficult to satisfy their needs. According to the theoretical charac-teristics of forestry and actual demands of the students, in the light of teaching and research experience in recent years, we adopted a series of typical genetic cases such as 'opening coffin to identify relatives', stem-throne of Lycium ruthenicum Murr, and magic powers in Harry Potter. Our practices revealed that the case teaching in genetics could train good personality traits, learning abilities and creativity of the students, stimulate their interests and initiatives in learning, and increase systematic learning.

A Hands-On Activity to Demonstrate the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology Via a Simulated VDJ Recombination Activity.

Essential or enduring understandings are often defined as the underlying core concepts or “big ideas” we’d like our students to remember when much of the course content has been forgotten. The central dogma of molecular biology and how cellular information is stored, used, and conveyed is one of the essential understandings students should retain after a course or unit in molecular biology or genetics. An additional enduring understanding is the relationships between DNA sequence, RNA sequence, mRNA production and processing, and the resulting polypeptide/protein product. A final big idea in molecular biology is the relationship between DNA mutation and polypeptide change. To engage students in these essential understandings in a Genetics course, I have developed a hands-on activity to simulate VDJ recombination. Students use a foldable type activity to splice out regions of a mock kappa light chain gene to generate a DNA sequence for transcription and translation. Students fold the activity several different times in multiple ways to “recombine” and generate several different DNA sequences. They then are asked to construct the corresponding mRNA and polypeptide sequence of each “recombined” DNA sequence and reflect on the products in a write-to-learn activity.

Genetic Determinism in the Genetics Curriculum

Twenty-first-century biology rejects genetic determinism, yet an exaggerated view of the power of genes in the making of bodies and minds remains a problem. What accounts for such tenacity? This article reports an exploratory study suggesting that the common reliance on Mendelian examples and concepts at the start of teaching in basic genetics is an eliminable source of support for determinism. Undergraduate students who attended a standard ‘Mendelian approach’ university course in introductory genetics on average showed no change in their determinist views about genes. By contrast, students who attended an alternative course which, inspired by the work of a critic of early Mendelism, W. F. R. Weldon (1860–1906), replaced an emphasis on Mendel’s peas with an emphasis on developmental contexts and their role in bringing about phenotypic variability, were less determinist about genes by the end of teaching. Improvements in both the new Weldonian curriculum and the study design are in view for the future.

Understanding phospholipid function: Why are there so many lipids?

In the 1970s, phospholipids were still considered mere building blocks of the membrane lipid bilayer, but the subsequent realization that phospholipids could also serve as second messengers brought new interest to the field. My own passion for the unique amphipathic properties of lipids led me to seek other, non-signaling functions for phospholipids, particularly in their interactions with membrane proteins. This seemed to be the last frontier in protein chemistry and enzymology to be conquered. I was fortunate to find my way to Eugene Kennedy's laboratory, where both membrane proteins and phospholipids were the foci of study, thus providing a jumping-off point for advancing our fundamental understanding of lipid synthesis, membrane protein biosynthesis, phospholipid and membrane protein trafficking, and the cellular roles of phospholipids. After purifying and characterizing enzymes of phospholipid biosynthesis in Escherichia coli and cloning of several of the genes encoding these enzymes in E. coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, I was in a position to alter phospholipid composition in a systematic manner during the cell cycle in these microorganisms. My group was able to establish, contrary to common assumption (derived from the fact that membrane proteins retain activity in detergent extracts) that phospholipid environment is a strong determining factor in the function of membrane proteins. We showed that molecular genetic alterations in membrane lipid composition result in many phenotypes, and uncovered direct lipid-protein interactions that govern dynamic structural and functional properties of membrane proteins. Here I present my personal "reflections" on how our understanding of phospholipid functions has evolved.

Developing Scientists: Authentic Research in Genetics using Paramecia

Attempting to foster mastery learning for students in the biological sciences, we incorporated an authentic research-based activity that contained real-world applications. To do this, we redesigned a laboratory component of a junior level, general genetics course. This included lengthening the time for the experiment, incorporating new technology for data analyses, and generating new assessments. These changes led to a more collaborative and interactive environment. Students were given the challenge of inducing a phenotypic change within the model organism, Paramecium. This allowed students to design their own experimental approaches. We assessed the students on formative and summative levels to determine if they were accomplishing the learning outcomes. Students demonstrated they were successful in meeting these, which included mastering a set of laboratory skills, designing their own experiment, and incorporating technology needed for data collection and analyses.

Relevance of Human Chromosome Analysis Activities against Mutation Concept in Genetics Course

This study describes the relevance of human chromosome analysis activities against genes and cromosomes mutation in genetics course. This activities is to analyze the images of photomicrograph chromosomes of various cases and disorders caused by irregularities of human chromosome number or structure in the form of a karyotype. The purpose of this analysis is to gain relevance practicum against the theory course. Object of this research is the lab activities of analysis human chromosomes. Source of data derived from syllabus documentation, SAP, genetics lecture, lab instructions, journals genetics, and 40 respondents taken by purposive sampling. The results showed analysis of human chromosomes activities can only preach of chromosome mutation concept only. The use of inquiry-based lab project can be to preach more concept of gene mutations with more knowledge coverage, the allocation of more time, greater cost, fewer students so that it matches given to undergraduate student biology deepen molecular genetics. Conclusion of this studies, analysis of human chromosomes activities is relevant to preach human chromosome mutation concept but can not be used to preach concept of gene mutations

Tracking the Resolution of Student Misconceptions about the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology.

The goal of our study was to track changes in student understanding of the central dogma of molecular biology before and after taking a genetics course. Concept maps require the ability to synthesize new information into existing knowledge frameworks, and so the hypothesis guiding this study was that student performance on concept maps reveals specific central dogma misconceptions gained, lost, and retained by students. Students in a genetics course completed pre- and posttest concept mapping tasks using terms related to the central dogma. Student maps increased in complexity and validity, indicating learning gains in both content and complexity of understanding. Changes in each of the 351 possible connections in the mapping task were tracked for each student. Our students did not retain much about the central dogma from their introductory biology courses, but they did move to more advanced levels of understanding by the end of the genetics course. The information they retained from their introductory courses focused on structural components (e.g., protein is made of amino acids) and not on overall mechanistic components (e.g., DNA comes before RNA, the ribosome makes protein). Students made the greatest gains in connections related to transcription, and they resolved the most prior misconceptions about translation. These concept-mapping tasks revealed that students are able to correct prior misconceptions about the central dogma during an intermediate-level genetics course. From these results, educators can design new classroom interventions to target those aspects of this foundational principle with which students have the most trouble.

Assessing the impact of an "Echo360-Active Learning Platform"-enabled classroom in a large enrolment blended learning undergraduate course in Genetics

In response to calls from the higher education science community to increase student engagement in learning, scientific teaching (reflecting the true nature of science by capturing the process of discovery in the classroom) and reflective teaching (or scholarly teaching), a genetics course was redesigned as a blended learning course. The new course model has provided several opportunities to engage students in the 5E learning cycle and to redefine the classroom experience. Despite the growing literature on effective design of blended courses, very little research has been conducted and very little is known about the impact of components of blended courses for large enrolment courses in relation to student learning outcomes. The goal of this investigation was to assess the impact of an Echo360-ALP enabled classroom on learning gains in a large enrolment blended learning course.