Focus of my investigation My project focused on using public health issues - HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, tuberculosis, alcohol abuse, bird flu - as a way to help students connect concepts in biochemistry to both institutional and personal values. Examples to illustrate fundamental concepts found in the upper level biochemistry sequence were taken from these public health issues, along with readings from a diverse sources such as The New Yorker, Nature, Science, and UNAIDS. The Reflective Judgment model of King and Kitchener along with core values of the Benedictine tradition that are central to Saint Vincent served as a scaffolding or "critical lens" for certain assignments. I wanted to learn more about how students could relate scientific concepts and how they are used in solving real-world problems to values such as community, care, and hospitality.

Background The motivation for this project came from several sources: my experience teaching courses for nonscience majors my involvement with the SENCER Project (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities) recent work by Saint Vincent faculty to revise the natural sciences component of our core curriculum reading documents such as Greater Expectations various articles and editorials published in the past few years in Science

photo from Pep Bonet/Panos Pictures The photo to the left is of an HIV patient being weighed at a rural clinic in Zambia Approach Used and Evidence Gathered Public health issues were incorporated into the course in two ways to encourage students to connect ideas in biochemistry to larger issues: 1. using illustrative examples from specific public health issues for the fundamental concepts that were already part of the upper level biochemistry sequence (e.g. using HIV protease to illustrate basic ideas in enzyme catalysis) 2. incorporating readings, class discussions, and other assignments that would provide students with an opportunity to articulate connections that they saw between these public health issues, other disciplines, institutional values, and their own personal values. Four core values (community, care, hospitality, stewardship) of the Benedictine tradition that shape Saint Vincent were used as a framework for the connections that students were asked to make Evidence gathered to date includes: Student-drafted definitions for each core value (community, care, hospitality, stewardship) in context of biochemistry Student responses to take-home exam questions that asked students to connect public health issues and biochemical concepts to other perspectives and values (institutional and personal). Triple Entry Notebooks for three different sets of readings (two from fall, one from spring). Survey (fall semester) of what courses outside of science students saw as relevant to public health issues Public health final projects created by groups of 2-4 students at the end of each semester In addition, I made digital recordings of two class discussions from the fall semester. Helpful frameworks during my project: "three apprenticeships" of professional education (cognitive apprenticeship, apprenticeship of practice, moral apprenticeship) described in Work and Integrity Reflective Judgment model of King and Kitchener Four core values (community, care, hospitality, stewardship) of the Benedictine tradition that serve as an institutionally appropriate perspective and critical lens in approaching public health topics and "moral apprenticeship". More information about the Benedictine tradition, particularly in the context of higher education, and values that are central to it can be found at the following sites: Association of Benedictine Colleges and Universities "Catholic, Benedictine Values in an Educational Environment" - a wonderful essay by three Benedictines at Saint John's University in Minnesota Public health topics and biochemistry concepts This chart shows which public health topics were used as cases or themes for particular concepts in biochemistry. TB question - student answers Compiled student answers to a take home question from the second exam in Nucleic Acids and Membranes that dealt with tuberculosis. Student definitions of Core Values - spring 2006 Compiled student definitions for the four Core Values, from the spring biochemistry class Nucleic Acids and Membranes syllabus This is the syllabus for the spring semester biochemistry course. Public health projects fall 2005 Gallery of public health projects created by students in Proteins and Metabolism, fall 2005. SARS question - student answers Compiled student answers to a take-home question from the second exam in Proteins and Metabolism that dealt with SARS. Student definitions of Core Values - fall 2005 Compiled student definitions for the four Core Values, from the fall biochemistry class Proteins and Metabolism syllabus This is the syllabus for the fall semester biochemistry course. Readings used with students This file gives a complete list of readings that students were asked to respond to or that served as an integral part of take-home exam questions. Public health projects spring 2006 Gallery of public health projects created by students in Nucleic Acids and Membranes, spring 2006.

Emerging Results Can integrative activities that involve connecting academic material to values (such as care and community) be incorporated successfully into "content heavy courses"? Yes. I looked at exam averages from this year compared to previous years; the exams were extremely similar. There is no evidence at this point that the modifications I made this year in the course significantly reduced student learning in regards to basic biochemical concepts. The exams that I have used for the past several years require students to accomplish several different types of tasks – interpretation of data, application of concepts to novel situations, simple explanation of observations. In some ways I would say that the take home questions this year were more challenging than in previous years. Based on the results of my project during the 2005-2006 academic year, I would say that there is more room in undergraduate biochemistry courses to incorporate activities related to "moral apprenticeship" than many people have previously thought. What other perspectives outside of biochemistry (encompassing both naming and salient characteristics) can students purposefully identify as important in the public health issue of ______? The answer to this question is mixed, depending on which semester I look at. In the fall semester, the quality of student work varied with the assignment - answers to take home exam questions were good, while the public health projects were quite variable and sometimes disappointing. Often the only perspectives outside of biochemistry that students purposefully identified were those of other (and related) scientific disciplines. In the spring semester, students seemed to be more effective at identifying other perspectives that would be important in a particular public health issue. This is clearly evident in several of the public health projects, as well as in answers to two different take home exam questions that I gave to students during the semester. With the exam questions, there was generally a difference in the quality of students answers when I compared how they addressed the use of evidence in an article vs. evaluation of the author's position in the context of the core values of community, care, hospitality, or stewardship. Is there a change in what students identify as important over the course of a semester and can I observe it? It became clear during the year that this question would be impossible to answer. In large part I think that was because for most students this was the first time that they encountered many of these issues. "Malaria is a disease that I always took for granted. Not living in a 3rd-wrold country, I never really thought about this disease. As a result of doing this project, I now see how serious the issue is. I also now see that is a serious global problem that demands the attention and resources for the international community." "Doing the research behind this project has really opened my eyes to the seriousness of diabetes. I was not aware that there were so many complications and annual deaths attributed to diabetes. After dedicating a significant part of this semester to hormone binding and signal transduction, it was interesting to see some of these components applied through looking at insulin. It is humbling to think of how problems with one, single hormone can cause so many hardships." Can students relate scientific concepts and how they are used in solving real-world problems to values such as community, care, and hospitality? Yes. Student work in a variety of forms demonstrates their ability to make these connections and outline these relationships. These forms include the student definitions for each of the Core Values, Triple Entry Journals, responses to more open ended questions tied to readings, answers to appropriate parts of take home exam questions, and the public health projects. The connections that I saw in student work largely involved scientific concepts and the opinions/beliefs of the individual students. There was much less evidence that in their work students were incorporating concepts from other disciplines that they would have encountered in courses taken to fulfill core curriculum requirements. In the context of King and Kitchener's Reflective Judgment model, some students found it more difficult to distinguish between interpretation and opinion, others found it more difficult to use evidence to justify a point of view (both difficult tasks from a Stage 3 perspective), while yet others found it difficult to demonstrate the difference between facts and interpretations (a difficult task from a Stage 4 perspective).

photo from Arturo Arzoz/Panos Pictures The photo to the right shows a man taking a blood test on the Crow Reservation, Montana Implications for the work of others As pointed out elsewhere in this snapshot, the results of this project suggest that "content heavy" courses such as biochemistry can be modified to provide integrative learning opportunities without significant loss of important content. Student work during both semesters also clearly supported the conclusion that students can make integrative connections between values such as care or community, public health issues, and biochemical concepts when given the opportunity. At the same time, evidence from student work - particularly the difficulties that students had with some particular assignments - suggests that instructors should not assume that students will naturally and easily make connections on their own between scientific concepts covered in biochemistry how those concepts are used in solving real-world problems values such as community and care (encompassing connections to other disciplines as well). From Sullivan's model, moral apprenticeship (obligation the profession as a whole has to society) is an important part of becoming a member of a profession. The dimension of moral apprenticeship needs to be incorporated in some explicit manner into the undergraduate biochemistry curriculum. What many faculty may assume happens during undergraduate education - students take a number of courses and then put things together "on their own" - was not supported by the evidence that I have gathered to date. What I have described as "student surprise" that was evident at several points suggests that faculty teaching biology, chemistry, or biochemistry cannot assume that students will develop on their own an understanding of public health issues and the role that biochemistry and molecular biology play in this area. Specific public health issues are related to specific goals of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology curricular guidelines (major issues at the forefront of the discipline, ethical issues in the molecular life sciences) and therefore need be incorporated explicitly into student learning experiences. Finally, instructors who wish to include reading/reflective writing assignments in biochemistry would be well served by talking to colleagues in English first to make sure that the biochemistry assignments effectively build on what students would have encountered in previous courses.

Resources Resources A short bibliography of books and a journal article that I found very helpful in this work. Panos Pictures Panos Pictures was a wonderful source of images to use with my biochemistry class throughout the year. Some of those images made it into various project snapshots. Panos Pictures is a London-based independent photo agency representing photojournalists worldwide. Their photographers document issues and geographical areas which are under-reported, misrepresented or ignored.