A revolution in biochemistry and molecular biology education informed by basic research to meet the demands of 21st century career paths

Abstract

The National Science Foundation estimates that 80% of the jobs available during the next decade will require math and science skills, dictating that programs in biochemistry and molecular biology must be transformative and use new pedagogical approaches and experiential learning for careers in industry, research, education, engineering, health-care professions, and other interdisciplinary fields. These efforts require an environment that values the individual student and integrates recent advances from the primary literature in the discipline, experimentally directed research, data collection and analysis, and scientific writing. Current trends shaping these efforts must include critical thinking, experimental testing, computational modeling, and inferential logic. In essence, modern biochemistry and molecular biology education must be informed by, and integrated with, cutting-edge research. This environment relies on sustained research support, commitment to providing the requisite mentoring, access to instrumentation, and state-of-the-art facilities. The academic environment must establish a culture of excellence and faculty engagement, leading to innovation in the classroom and laboratory. These efforts must not lose sight of the importance of multidimensional programs that enrich science literacy in all facets of the population, students and teachers in K-12 schools, nonbiochemistry and molecular biology students, and other stakeholders. As biochemistry and molecular biology educators, we have an obligation to provide students with the skills that allow them to be innovative and self-reliant. The next generation of biochemistry and molecular biology students must be taught proficiencies in scientific and technological literacy, the importance of the scientific discourse, and skills required for problem solvers of the 21st century. The National Science Foundation estimates that 80% of the jobs available during the next decade will require math and science skills, dictating that programs in biochemistry and molecular biology must be transformative and use new pedagogical approaches and experiential learning for careers in industry, research, education, engineering, health-care professions, and other interdisciplinary fields. These efforts require an environment that values the individual student and integrates recent advances from the primary literature in the discipline, experimentally directed research, data collection and analysis, and scientific writing. Current trends shaping these efforts must include critical thinking, experimental testing, computational modeling, and inferential logic. In essence, modern biochemistry and molecular biology education must be informed by, and integrated with, cutting-edge research. This environment relies on sustained research support, commitment to providing the requisite mentoring, access to instrumentation, and state-of-the-art facilities. The academic environment must establish a culture of excellence and faculty engagement, leading to innovation in the classroom and laboratory. These efforts must not lose sight of the importance of multidimensional programs that enrich science literacy in all facets of the population, students and teachers in K-12 schools, nonbiochemistry and molecular biology students, and other stakeholders. As biochemistry and molecular biology educators, we have an obligation to provide students with the skills that allow them to be innovative and self-reliant. The next generation of biochemistry and molecular biology students must be taught proficiencies in scientific and technological literacy, the importance of the scientific discourse, and skills required for problem solvers of the 21st century. For many biochemists and molecular cell biologists, the foundations driving interests in biology were immediately experiential. Most young children watch seeds sprout, plant a small garden, or conduct the celery experiment with colored water; some may make a pH indicator from purple cabbage or help deliver a calf or a litter of puppies. With such experiences, I always had questions about natural things—mostly biology, many not immediately answered—and thus required a visit to the local library or taking a dusty college book off the shelf in the living room. By middle school, interests grew, and learning about and drawing atomic orbitals was nothing short of fantastic. The subsequent foundations in math, chemistry, physics, and biology in high school were routine and lacked the excitement from earlier instructors with one exception. As a senior and taking now what would be called AP Biology or AP Chemistry, there was immersion with hands-on activities that included everything from pH curves and enzyme assays to animal dissections coupled with active discussions by teams of students of how and why. This was the foundation that established interests, thus setting the stage for my decisions and programs of study in college. As an undergraduate student in the mid-1970s, I immediately realized that basic research was fundamental in driving education in biochemistry and cell and molecular biology. The journal Cell had been established in 1974 and, along with more established journals including the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Cell Biology, and Biochemistry, served as a platform linking cutting-edge research with teaching a sophomore-level cell biology course and extending to biochemistry and biophysical chemistry in subsequent years. The use of primary literature, while tough, provided real-time information that was being integrated into foundational concepts. As so, following my sophomore year, it was time to join a research laboratory, which was initially daunting, yet in time, an independent research project was developed that along with a rigorous course of study in biology and chemistry was foundational for advanced studies. Graduate school offered the opportunity to deploy many of the same strategies using primary literature while teaching cell and molecular biology laboratory and learning the value of teamwork. There was an immediate realization that one's passion for cutting-edge science was not universal, and thus it was essential to develop strategies demonstrating how the use of a research article in a laboratory setting was approachable. It became important to ask: How do you teach a sophomore to read a primary research paper? Where does data come from, and how can it be interpreted? How can a team be more effective that a single individual in addressing a specific question? And how does that data yield new information to drive the field forward? What came from this two-year period was a basic understanding of balancing the need to understand a concept and coupling that information with cutting-edge research to further advance that concept. One of the highlights of being a postdoctoral research fellow in the early 1980s was working with undergraduate students with a keen interest in biochemistry and molecular biology. My research was addressing the mechanistic basis of fatty acid transport and linkages to fatty acid activation and oxidation in Escherichia coli. It was during this period that the real importance of teamwork in science at the bench became apparent and that undergraduate students were effective members of a team given the proper mentoring. 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