Description

Biomolecular structure and function is emphasized as a core concept in many community-determined educational standards in various STEM disciplines. Most biology, chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular biology curricula introduce students to the building blocks and principles of assembly of biological macromolecules in introductory lessons of the course, but only a few engage students in actively visualizing and exploring their shapes, interactions, and functions throughout the curriculum. Many educators teaching these courses are unfamiliar with the vast amounts of bioinformatics data, three-dimensional structural data, and rapidly evolving tools for exploring them. Learning to use these data and tools, then developing suitable lessons focused on structure-function relationships can be time-consuming and challenging.

Faculty participating in the Spring 2022, BioQuest Faculty Mentoring Network developing and using molecular case studies (for Molecular CaseNet), expressed the need for professional development for educators and new resources to prepare and support students in the early stages of biomolecular structure-function explorations. They collaboratively gathered resources and lessons they had independently developed to help introduce students to the structures of biological macromolecules, their building blocks, and various small molecule ligands that interact with them. After being reviewed by 34 undergraduate educators, revised, and then pilot tested by eight faculty across 11 courses in three countries the “Box of Lessons” is available for use. This talk will provide an overview of the resource and share lessons learned from piloting them.

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