Development of an Inquiry-Based Cell Biology Laboratory with Emphasis on Scientific Communication Skills

其中最重要的技能，科学的学生必须获得批判性思维，有效的沟通，和道德推理。 此外，探究式学习是一种基于项目的教学策略，涉及问题的制定以及回答这些问题的策略的制定和实施，这种类型的学习已被证明可以显着提高批判性思维能力。 该项目通过将这些属性纳入克莱姆森大学的一门新颖的基于探究的细胞生物学实验室课程来解决这些属性，该课程由三个研究模块（每个模块四周）组成，旨在让学生通过实验和合作提出和回答问题。 这些模块是围绕重要的细胞生物学概念设计的，如细胞-细胞和细胞-基质相互作用，细胞生长，死亡和分化，囊泡运输和信号转导。 学生们正在获得各种技术的“动手”经验，包括荧光显微镜，分光光度计和荧光。 重要的是，每周的实验课以指导小组讨论结束，以解释实验结果并为下一组实验提出假设。 为了解决沟通问题，每个模块的高潮是通过海报展示，口头陈述或标准期刊格式的手稿传播科学数据。 科学交流的一个重要但经常被忽视的方面是伦理推理，因此，作为科学探究和交流过程的一部分，学生也参与科学交流伦理的讨论。 在批判性思维和技术交流的广泛评估是课程的评价的一部分，因为有证据表明，获得批判性思维技能可能会积极影响学生在科学方面的保留，课程参与者的科学相关的态度。每年，大约有225名生物科学、微生物学、遗传学、生物化学、生物工程、化学工程以及动物和兽医科学的本科生受到该项目的直接影响。 该项目团队包括一个跨学科的团队，来自生物科学，技术通信和教育的教师。 创建和传播一个独特的细胞生物学实验室课程，显着结合了基于探究的研究，科学传播和伦理推理组件，预计将显着促进STEM教育的研究。

Among the most important skills that students of science must acquire are critical thinking, effective communication, and ethical reasoning. Moreover, inquiry-based learning is a project-based pedagogic strategy that involves the formulation of questions and the development and implementation of strategies to answer such questions, and this type of learning has been shown to significantly enhance critical thinking skills. This project addresses these attributes by their inclusion in a novel inquiry-based cell biology laboratory course at Clemson University that consists of three research modules (four weeks each) designed to allow students to ask and answer questions via experimentation and collaboration. The modules have been designed around important cell biology concepts such as cell-cell and cell-substrate interactions, cell growth, death and differentiation, vesicle trafficking, and signal transduction. Students are acquiring "hands on" experience in a variety of techniques including fluorescence microscopy, spectrophotometry, and fluorimetry. Importantly, each week's lab session ends with a guided group discussion to interpret the results of experiments and to develop hypotheses for the next set of experiments. To address communication, each module culminates with the dissemination of the scientific data through a poster presentation, oral presentation, or manuscript in standard journal format. A crucial, but often overlooked, dimension of scientific communication is ethical reasoning so, as a part of the scientific inquiry and communication processes, students also engage in the discussion of the ethics of scientific communication. Extensive assessment in critical thinking and technical communication is part of the evaluation of the course as are science-related attitudes of course participants since evidence suggests that acquiring critical thinking skills may positively impact retention of students in the sciences. Each year, approximately two hundred and twenty-five biological sciences, microbiology, genetics, biochemistry, bioengineering, chemical engineering, and animal and veterinary sciences undergraduate students are being directly impacted by the project. The project team includes an interdisciplinary team of faculty from biological sciences, technical communication, and education. The creation and dissemination of a distinctive cell biology laboratory course that significantly combines inquiry-based research, science communication, and ethical reasoning components is expected to significantly contribute to research in STEM education.