Integrating scientific literacy skills into a biochemistry course for nonscience majors.

One of the goals for requiring all college students to take science courses is to develop critical thinking about scientific issues they will encounter as citizens, consumers, and patients. This article integrates skill development activities targeting civic scientific literacy skills in a nonscience majors (liberal arts) biochemistry course, but similar principles could be integrated into nursing and major levels biochemistry courses. Strategies include teaching information acquisition, source analysis argument analysis, and civic engagement.

Enhancing student retention of prerequisite knowledge through pre-class activities and in-class reinforcement.

To foster the connection between biochemistry and the supporting prerequisite concepts, a collection of activities that explicitly link general and organic chemistry concepts to biochemistry ideas was written and either assigned as pre-class work or as recitation activities. We assessed student learning gains after using these activities alone, or in combination with regularly-integrated clicker and discussion questions. Learning gains were determined from student performance on pre- and post-tests covering key prerequisite concepts, biochemistry course exams, and student self-evaluation.

The ethical implications of genetic testing in the classroom.

The development of classroom experiments where students examine their own DNA is frequently described as an innovative teaching practice. Often these experiences involve students analyzing their genes for various polymorphisms associated with disease states, like an increased risk for developing cancer. Such experiments can muddy the distinction between classroom investigation and medical testing.

Teaching about genetic testing issues in the undergraduate classroom: a case study.

Educating undergraduates about current genetic testing and genomics can involve novel and creative teaching practices. The higher education literature describes numerous pedagogical approaches in the laboratory designed to engage science and liberal arts students. Often these experiences involve students analyzing their own genes for various polymorphisms, some of which are associated with disease states such as an increased risk for developing cancer.

Screening a library of household substances for inhibitors of phosphatases: An introduction to high-throughput screening.

Library screening methods are commonly used in industry and research. This article describes an experiment that screens a library of household substances for properties that would make a good "drug," including enzyme inhibition, neutral pH, and nondenaturing to proteins, using wheat germ acid phosphatase as the target protein. An adaptation of the experiment appropriate for lower level biochemistry or outreach is also described.