Cargando…
Hormones and Antibiotics in Nature: A Laboratory Module Designed to Broaden Undergraduate Perspectives on Typically Human-Centered Topics
Bringing discovery-based research into undergraduate laboratory courses increases student motivation and learning gains over traditional exercises that merely teach technique or demonstrate well-documented phenomena. Laboratory experiences are further enhanced when they are designed to challenge stu...
Autor principal: | |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
American Society of Microbiology
2014
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4278499/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25574294 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v15i2.734 |
_version_ | 1782350533364809728 |
---|---|
author | Weber, Carolyn F. |
author_facet | Weber, Carolyn F. |
author_sort | Weber, Carolyn F. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Bringing discovery-based research into undergraduate laboratory courses increases student motivation and learning gains over traditional exercises that merely teach technique or demonstrate well-documented phenomena. Laboratory experiences are further enhanced when they are designed to challenge student perspectives on topics relevant to their lives. To this end, a laboratory module on antibiotics and hormones, which are generally discussed in the context of human health, was developed for students to explore the multifaceted roles of antibiotics and hormones in nature (e.g. interspecies communication) via reading primary scientific literature and performing discovery-based experiments. The main objective of this module was to increase the general biological literacy of students as determined by their ability to connect the Five Core Concepts of Biological Literacy (American Association for the Advancement of Science, Vision and Change in Undergraduate Education: A Call to Action, 2011) to the topics “hormones” and “antibiotics” in pre- and postmodule surveys. After discussing unpublished research findings, cell biology students performed experiments demonstrating that: 1) fungi may promote fern growth via hormone production, 2) novel bacterial isolates in the genus Streptomyces produce antifungal compounds, and 3) subinhibitory antibiotic concentrations may enhance soil bacterial growth. The third finding provided evidence supporting a hypothesis framed in a scientific article that students read and discussed. Student perspectives on premodule surveys focused on roles of hormones and antibiotics in the human body (e.g. development, fighting infection), but their broadened postmodule perspectives encompassed the roles of these molecules in organismal communication and possibly the evolution of multicellularity. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4278499 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | American Society of Microbiology |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-42784992015-01-08 Hormones and Antibiotics in Nature: A Laboratory Module Designed to Broaden Undergraduate Perspectives on Typically Human-Centered Topics Weber, Carolyn F. J Microbiol Biol Educ Curriculum Bringing discovery-based research into undergraduate laboratory courses increases student motivation and learning gains over traditional exercises that merely teach technique or demonstrate well-documented phenomena. Laboratory experiences are further enhanced when they are designed to challenge student perspectives on topics relevant to their lives. To this end, a laboratory module on antibiotics and hormones, which are generally discussed in the context of human health, was developed for students to explore the multifaceted roles of antibiotics and hormones in nature (e.g. interspecies communication) via reading primary scientific literature and performing discovery-based experiments. The main objective of this module was to increase the general biological literacy of students as determined by their ability to connect the Five Core Concepts of Biological Literacy (American Association for the Advancement of Science, Vision and Change in Undergraduate Education: A Call to Action, 2011) to the topics “hormones” and “antibiotics” in pre- and postmodule surveys. After discussing unpublished research findings, cell biology students performed experiments demonstrating that: 1) fungi may promote fern growth via hormone production, 2) novel bacterial isolates in the genus Streptomyces produce antifungal compounds, and 3) subinhibitory antibiotic concentrations may enhance soil bacterial growth. The third finding provided evidence supporting a hypothesis framed in a scientific article that students read and discussed. Student perspectives on premodule surveys focused on roles of hormones and antibiotics in the human body (e.g. development, fighting infection), but their broadened postmodule perspectives encompassed the roles of these molecules in organismal communication and possibly the evolution of multicellularity. American Society of Microbiology 2014-12-15 /pmc/articles/PMC4278499/ /pubmed/25574294 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v15i2.734 Text en ©2014 Author(s). Published by the American Society for Microbiology. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ and https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode), which grants the public the nonexclusive right to copy, distribute, or display the published work. |
spellingShingle | Curriculum Weber, Carolyn F. Hormones and Antibiotics in Nature: A Laboratory Module Designed to Broaden Undergraduate Perspectives on Typically Human-Centered Topics |
title | Hormones and Antibiotics in Nature: A Laboratory Module Designed to Broaden Undergraduate Perspectives on Typically Human-Centered Topics |
title_full | Hormones and Antibiotics in Nature: A Laboratory Module Designed to Broaden Undergraduate Perspectives on Typically Human-Centered Topics |
title_fullStr | Hormones and Antibiotics in Nature: A Laboratory Module Designed to Broaden Undergraduate Perspectives on Typically Human-Centered Topics |
title_full_unstemmed | Hormones and Antibiotics in Nature: A Laboratory Module Designed to Broaden Undergraduate Perspectives on Typically Human-Centered Topics |
title_short | Hormones and Antibiotics in Nature: A Laboratory Module Designed to Broaden Undergraduate Perspectives on Typically Human-Centered Topics |
title_sort | hormones and antibiotics in nature: a laboratory module designed to broaden undergraduate perspectives on typically human-centered topics |
topic | Curriculum |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4278499/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25574294 http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v15i2.734 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT webercarolynf hormonesandantibioticsinnaturealaboratorymoduledesignedtobroadenundergraduateperspectivesontypicallyhumancenteredtopics |