Collaborative Research: Development of Learning Progressions for Biochemistry - Concept Linkage through the College Curriculum

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Biochemistry and the courses that precede it in the college curriculum are foundational for careers in many sciences and related professional pathways. This Improving Undergraduate STEM Education project will focus on research to define the essential concepts and principles that students must understand to successfully navigate from general chemistry to organic chemistry to biochemistry, and to map the paths that undergraduate chemistry and biochemistry students may take in developing expertise. By recruiting students from two very different institutions (a highly selective liberal arts college and a large state university) to participate in the research, the findings will be relevant for a wide range of college students. In addition, the project will build a community of college instructors who are committed to developing tools to help students learn key concepts at the appropriate levels in the courses they teach. To define learning progressions in general chemistry and organic chemistry that allow for sophisticated understanding of concepts in biochemistry, researchers at Wellesley College and the University of South Florida will design, conduct, and analyze responses to semi-structured interviews with faculty who teach the relevant chemistry and biology courses, as well as with 100 undergraduate students from beginning to advanced level. The researchers will select two to three essential concepts to be expanded into learning progressions through the courses, including identification of lower and upper anchors. Later in the project, a survey will be developed based on findings of the interviews. The survey will be administered to larger numbers of students, and the responses will be analyzed to refine the learning progressions. This research is expected to contribute to understandings of how students transfer knowledge from one course to another, and what types of connections can be made across courses to assist student learning. It will also promote faculty collaboration across chemistry, biology, and biochemistry courses and disciplines.