Building an Inclusive Community of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Educators to Develop Competencies for Facilitating Biomolecular Visual Literacy

了解生物分子的结构是了解其功能的关键组成部分；这些信息在个性化医疗、农业生产和生物燃料开发等领域非常重要。分子可视化，或从二维表示中理解三维的能力，是构建这种理解的有用元素，然而很少有教师教授或评估解释二维图像所需的技能。这个项目将制定策略和方法来帮助学生获得这些重要的技能。特别是，该项目将建立一个生物化学和分子生物学教育工作者的社区，他们将帮助培养一套定义特定任务的能力，学生将被要求执行这些任务，以培养他们的分子可视化技能。具体地说，在这个项目为期一年的期限内，将组织一系列国家和区域讲习班，以发展一个致力于制作可靠和有效的分子可视化概念清单任务的教育工作者社区。本小组将为理解分子可视化的四个基本主题——单体识别、拓扑和连通性、交替渲染和分子相互作用，制定目标框架。该小组还将开发和填充一个网站，其中包括讲习班产生的能力。该项目将扩展在2013年美国生物化学和分子生物学学会会议上建立的教育研讨会框架，将最终导致构建分子可视化概念清单的能力包括在内。该项目将集中于四个基本主题：单体识别、拓扑和连通性、交替渲染和分子相互作用。理解这四个主题将为学生理解生物分子内在的结构-功能关系奠定基础。区域讲习班将汇集教育工作者，以确定这四个主题的能力并达成共识。这些能力将被添加到位于http://cbm.msoe.edu/crest/molviz/的分子可视化框架中供公众使用。这个项目已经开始改变许多生物化学和分子生物学教师在课堂上使用分子表征的方式。例如，一些教师理解在他们使用模型进行更高层次的推断（例如函数）之前，评估学生对特定模型表示的理解的必要性。在阐明基于共识的学习目标和目的以及确定能力方面，该项目将确定未来几年开发概念清单的基础。重要的是，这项工作将围绕建立一个实践社区的研讨会，为分子可视化技能的明确指导而努力。

Understanding the structure of biomolecules is a critical component of understanding their function; this information is important in fields such as personalized medicine, agricultural production, and biofuels development. Molecular visualization, or the ability to understand three-dimensionality from two-dimensional representation, is a useful element in this building this understanding, yet few instructors teach or assess the skills needed to interpret two-dimensional images. This project will develop strategies and approaches to help students gain these important skills. In particular, the project will build a community of biochemistry and molecular biology educators who will help develop a set of competencies defining specific tasks that students will be expected to perform to develop their molecular visualization skills. Specifically, during the one-year term of this project, a series of national and regional workshops will be organized to develop a community of educators who are dedicated to the task of producing reliable and valid molecular visualization concept inventories. This group will develop a framework of goals and objectives for understanding four fundamental themes in molecular visualization - Monomer Recognition, Topology and Connectivity, Alternate Renderings, and Molecular Interactions. The group will also develop and populate a website with the competencies arising from the workshops.This project will expand a framework established following an education symposium at the 2013 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology meeting to include competencies that will ultimately lead to constructing concept inventories in molecular visualization. This project will focus on four fundamental themes: Monomer Recognition, Topology and Connectivity, Alternate Renderings, and Molecular Interactions. Understanding these four themes will build a foundation that allows students to comprehend the structure-function relationship inherent in biomolecules. Regional workshops will bring together educators to identify and reach a consensus on competencies within these four themes. These competencies will be added to the molecular visualization framework housed at http://cbm.msoe.edu/crest/molviz/ for public use. This project has already begun to transform the way many biochemistry and molecular biology instructors use molecular representations in their classroom. For example, several instructors understand the need to assess their students' comprehension of the representations of a particular model before they used the model to draw higher level inferences (e.g. function). In articulating consensus-based learning goals and objectives and identifying competencies, this project will identify the foundations upon which concept inventories will be developed in future years. Importantly, this effort will be built around workshops that establish a community of practice for the explicit instruction of molecular visualization skills.