The effective implementation of evidence-based teaching (EBT) in large college courses benefits from the successful use of instructional teams. An instructional team's feedback allows instructors to act based on evidence of student learning, addressing students' needs. This feedback may be particularly important for novice instructors or…

High-impact practices (HIPs) are educational practices that foster student success. HIPs have not been widely used in cancer education and research despite the need for students to develop key transferable skills and cultivate social responsibility. Our study addresses this need by implementing four community-based learning HIPs within the context…

Cancer databases collect original cancer studies and patient clinical information into one site that allows for global analysis. While many courses focus on cancer, few utilize these powerful cancer databases. Our goal was to create a lab experience in which students could explore original cancer study databases, looking at the expression and…

Case-based learning (CBL) is a learner-centric educational approach that fosters independent learning and exploration through case analysis, guided by teachers' heuristic instruction. The study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of CBL versus traditional teaching methods in advanced breast cancer education for residents. In this randomized controlled…

Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) has become an important tool in the biological sciences and has a growing number of applications across medical fields. Currently, few undergraduate programs provide training in the design and implementation of NGS applications. Here, we describe an inquiry-based laboratory exercise for a college-level molecular…

We describe an advanced, inquiry driven undergraduate course in Cancer Biology that combines faculty lectures typical of undergraduate courses with literature-driven discussions typical of graduate courses. As a capstone course, one goal of this course is to integrate knowledge from previous coursework in physiology, cell and molecular biology,…

These three biology songs can be used for educational purposes to teach about biochemical concepts. They touch on three different topics: (1) cancer progression and germ cells, (2) gene expression, promoters, and repressors, and (3) electronegativity and the biochemical basis of photosynthesis.

Focused self-directed learning process needs to be promoted at present among graduate medical students in view of the information load and limited time available with them. In this study, comparison of the effect of identifying and correcting the mistakes in a given set of wrong statements with the effect of studying correct statements…

Laboratory courses should cultivate enthusiasm for research and an appreciation for real-world scientific challenges to retain undergraduate students and encourage them to pursue STEM-related careers. Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CURE) have emerged as an inclusive pedagogical model that facilitates laboratory skill development,…

Many students in the sciences are interested in exploring research opportunities; however, the one-on-one faculty mentorship model often lacks the ability to supervise large numbers of students. An alternative mechanism for exposing undergraduate students to the research process is participation in a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience…

This work presents a three-dimensional (3D) modeling exercise for undergraduate students in chemistry and health sciences disciplines, focusing on a protein-group linked to immune system regulation. Specifically, the exercise involves molecular modeling and structural analysis of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) proteins, both wild type and mutant. The…

The opportunity to engage in scientific research is an important, but often neglected, component of undergraduate training in biology. We describe the curriculum for an innovative, course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE) appropriate for a large, introductory cell and molecular biology laboratory class that leverages students' high…

Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) provide an opportunity for students to engage in experiments with outcomes that are unknown to both the instructor and students. These experiences allow students and instructors to collaboratively bridge the research laboratory and classroom, and provide research experiences for a large…

Topics on the molecular basis underlying cancer are quite popular among students. Also, excellent textbooks abound that provide interesting materials for discussion during lectures and tutorials about major events leading to cancer formation and progression. However, much less is available for students to conduct experiments for the analysis of…

The experiment described in this test was aimed at identifying DNA repair proteins in human and yeast cells. Terms to be familiar with before you start to solve the test: DNA repair, germline mutation, somatic mutation, inherited disease, cancer, restriction endonuclease, radioactive labeling, [alpha-[superscript 32]P]ATP, [gamma-[superscript…