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

合作研究：利用蛋白质功能预测促进本科生物化学教育中的假设驱动思维

基本信息

批准号：
1709355
负责人：
Julia Koeppe
金额：
$ 2.69万
依托单位：
SUNY College at Oswego
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2017
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2017-09-01 至 2021-08-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1709355&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative Research Using protein function

项目摘要

One of the fundamental challenges in STEM education is teaching students what it means to be a scientist. This project will demonstrate that engaging in hypothesis-driven experimental science is a powerful tool in educating students to become scientists. The objective of the project is to train students to think and act like scientists - to propose hypotheses, to design experiments, to analyze data, to draw conclusions, and to communicate with other scientists. Students on six campuses (Rochester Institute of Technology, Hope College, California Polytechnic Institute, Ursinus College, St. Mary's University, and SUNY Oswego) will engage in computational and wet lab approaches to predict protein function. In a previous project, the team of principal investigators created a series of modules to guide student inquiry and video instructions for the computational techniques, which were deployed in biochemistry teaching laboratories across the six campuses. In the present project, the faculty team will classify and characterize the research behaviors that students display during the course and will develop and validate methods for understanding students' development as scientists. Because the students are participating in authentic research, results from their experiments will also be collated into a database that can be used by future students to pursue biologically relevant protein functions, such as the potential discovery of drug targets for diseases.The primary purpose of the project is to introduce cutting-edge biochemistry research into the classroom to investigate whether getting students to participate in hypothesis-driven experimental science is a useful tool in educating students to become scientists. In this second phase of a course-based undergraduate research experience, students' learning and growth as scientists will be assessed by local biochemistry faculty and evaluated by educational researchers at Purdue University, to ascertain students' understanding of research methods, visualization, biological context, and mechanisms of protein function. The faculty team will develop validated assessment tools to measure these objectives, and will balance the homogeneity of curricular materials needed to ensure sound education with the flexibility needed for adaptation in different institutional settings. The course instructors and project evaluators will collaborate using education research techniques to monitor both students' development of research behaviors and changes in instructors' teaching approaches. The refined and tested curriculum will then be ready for wider dissemination into the biochemistry teaching community. The need for significant improvement in undergraduate STEM education and for the inclusion of a more diverse population is widely recognized. The project team includes faculty from a Hispanic-serving institution and from an institution with a large number of deaf and hard-of-hearing students; inclusion of these faculty ensures that the needs and concerns of these communities will be included in the project.

STEM 教育的基本挑战之一是教导学生成为一名科学家意味着什么。该项目将证明参与假设驱动的实验科学是教育学生成为科学家的有力工具。该项目的目标是训练学生像科学家一样思考和行动——提出假设、设计实验、分析数据、得出结论以及与其他科学家沟通。六个校区（罗彻斯特理工学院、霍普学院、加州理工学院、乌尔西努斯学院、圣玛丽大学和纽约州立大学奥斯威戈分校）的学生将采用计算和湿实验室方法来预测蛋白质功能。在之前的一个项目中，主要研究人员团队创建了一系列模块来指导学生查询和计算技术的视频说明，这些模块部署在六个校区的生物化学教学实验室中。在本项目中，教师团队将对学生在课程中表现出的研究行为进行分类和表征，并将开发和验证理解学生作为科学家的发展的方法。由于学生正在参与真实的研究，他们的实验结果也将被整理到一个数据库中，未来的学生可以使用该数据库来追求生物学相关的蛋白质功能，例如疾病药物靶点的潜在发现。该项目的目的是将前沿的生物化学研究引入课堂，以调查让学生参与假设驱动的实验科学是否是教育学生成为科学家的有用工具。在基于课程的本科研究经历的第二阶段，学生作为科学家的学习和成长将由当地生物化学教师进行评估，并由普渡大学的教育研究人员进行评估，以确定学生对研究方法、可视化、生物背景、和蛋白质功能的机制。教师团队将开发经过验证的评估工具来衡量这些目标，并将平衡确保良好教育所需的课程材料的同质性与适应不同机构环境所需的灵活性。课程讲师和项目评估者将使用教育研究技术进行合作，以监测学生研究行为的发展和讲师教学方法的变化。经过改进和测试的课程将准备好在生物化学教学界更广泛地传播。人们广泛认识到需要显着改善本科 STEM 教育并包容更多样化的人群。项目团队包括来自西班牙裔服务机构和拥有大量聋哑学生的机构的教师；这些教师的加入确保了这些社区的需求和关切将被纳入项目中。