Instructional Design for an Undergraduate Laboratory Course in Molecular Biophysics

ABSTRACT In this article, an approach to teaching molecular biophysics is described. The organization and course content has been carefully chosen and curated so that fundamental ideas in molecular biophysics can be taught effectively to upper classmen in higher education. Three general topic areas are introduced along with accompanying experiments that illustrate major principles related to each topic area. This article outlines an approach to organizing chosen course material and suggests multiple teaching activities within each major topic area: thermodynamics, kinetics, and structural biology. Subtopics are presented along with suggested laboratory experiments. The experiments are outlined in a way that they can be readily adopted by educators teaching a biophysical chemistry lab. The accompaniment of workshop exercises as an additional teaching modality is a component of the course intended to enhance the development of important problem-solving skills and comprehension of new content. Finally, a reflection on student feedback and course outcomes along with targeted learning goals is discussed.

Staff-student interactions in a physiology laboratory class: What do they involve and are they important?

Although considerable staff resources are often allocated to the teaching of undergraduate laboratory classes, there is a paucity of discussion regarding the extent and substance of the staff-student interactions that occur within classes and also whether these interactions benefit student learning in any way. Performed across four undergraduate laboratory sessions, this exploratory study aimed to quantify the interactions in terms of frequency, duration, and initiation of interactions, as well as gathering staff and student perceptions of the impact of the interactions. Staff gathered descriptive data by completing an observation checklist after each interaction and also provided their own perceptions of the interaction focus and outcome. Student perceptions were collected using an online survey after each class. Staff perceived that the most frequent achievement of the interactions was to enable students to progress with work. However, students’ perceptions suggested that staff may underestimate the impact of staff-student interactions on conceptual learning. The most striking findings were the students’ perceptions of the impact of interactions on their affective domain. On average, 93% of students agreed that when staff take an interest in their work, it motivates them to work hard, and 78% agreed that interactions with staff made the classes more enjoyable. With evidence that positive affect such as enjoyment is positively associated with aspects of learning, this is a salient finding. The study underscores the value of staff availability within the laboratory class and provides impetus to reevaluate how we perceive these interactions and their impact on student learning.