Collaborative Research: Using protein function prediction to promote hypothesis-driven thinking in undergraduate biochemistry education

认识到国家需要显著改善本科STEM教育，来自六个机构（罗切斯特理工学院，圣玛丽大学，Oral Roberts大学，Hope学院，Ursinus学院和加州理工大学）的合作者将探索一种新的方法，向学生介绍生物化学实验室课程的真实研究。该项目将测试参与真实研究将提高学生掌握实验关键方面（实验设计，数据处理和解释，以及研究成果的交流）和可视化（使用表征来交流研究过程的各个方面）的能力的假设。该项目可能会转移到其他机构，并且是将基于课程的研究引入本科课程的成本效益方式的一个例子。生物化学实验课程将被重新设计，以包括学生将整合计算和湿实验室技术的模块，因为他们将描述三维结构已知但功能未知的蛋白质。因为这个项目的重点是发现，所以我们有理由期待一些学生会产生对生物化学领域有贡献的新结果。形成性和总结性评价将通过使用由开放式和封闭式问题组成的经过验证的工具，从提高概念理解和可视化实验的角度来评估学生的学习成果。教师和助教将被调查和采访，以了解他们对项目的满意度、可用性，以及他们将项目视为自己和学生发展的一部分的程度。项目团队将创建并传播模块（promol.org），这些模块构成了本科生物化学实验课程新课程的核心。研究结果将在专业会议上发表，如美国生物化学和分子生物学学会，并提交给学术期刊。

Recognizing the national need for significant improvement in undergraduate STEM education, collaborators from six institutions (Rochester Institute of Technology, St. Mary's University, Oral Roberts University, Hope College, Ursinus College, and California Polytechnic University) will explore a new approach to introduce students to authentic research in biochemistry laboratory courses. The project will test the hypotheses that engaging in authentic research will improve students' abilities to master key aspects of experimentation (experimental design, data processing and interpretation, and communication of research outcomes) and visualization (use of representations to communicate various aspects of the research process). The project is likely to be transferrable to other institutions, and is an example of a cost-effective way to introduce course-based research into the undergraduate curriculum.Biochemistry laboratory courses will be redesigned to include modules in which students will integrate computational and wet lab techniques as they characterize proteins whose three dimensional structures are known but to which functions have not been previously ascribed. Because the project is focused on discovery, it is reasonable to expect that some of the students will produce novel results that will contribute to the field of biochemistry. Formative and summative evaluation will address assessment of student learning gains in terms of improved conceptual understanding and visualization of experiments using a validated instrument composed of open-ended and closed-ended questions. Faculty members and teaching assistants will be surveyed and interviewed about their satisfaction with the project, its usability, and the extent to which they see the project as part of their own and their students' development. The project team will create and disseminate modules (promol.org) that form the core of a new curriculum for undergraduate biochemistry laboratory courses. The results of the work will be presented at professional meetings, such as the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and submitted to scholarly journals.