As a universal and extensively adopted technique, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) can be used to detect and quantify small molecules in many applications both clinical and analytical. However, generally, students experiment mechanically using commercial ELISA kits according to the instructions and eventually produce a standard curve to…

In theory, there is broad agreement among science education stakeholders that supporting the achievement of scientific literacy is crucial for citizens to make informed and critical decisions about socioscientific issues (SSI). Likewise, it is widely held that argumentation is an important component of scientific literacy. In practice, however,…

In this article, a proven safety concept with documented success is presented. The concept aligns with best safety practices and the international engineering educational framework termed "The CDIO Initiative," and it has resulted in a strong safety culture among students and staff. This concept has been developed for undergraduate…

We present a course-embedded undergraduate research module that involves real-time polymerase chain reaction testing for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in environmental samples. A positive control RNA was constructed and two RNA extraction methods were compared and a range of primers were available to compare. Using a combination of published…

The rapid development of molecular biotechnology presents a curricular challenge for educators trying to provide students with relevant coursework. A comprehensive biology education should also include opportunities for students to develop intellectual and technical skills through authentic research experiences. Integrating relevant and…

Undergraduates learn that gene editing in diverse organisms is now possible. How targeted manipulation of genes and genomes is utilized in basic science and biomedicine to address biological questions is challenging for undergraduates to conceptualize. Thus, we developed a lab experience that would allow students to be actively engaged in the full…

To inspire upper-division undergraduate students to gain a deeper understanding of biorefinery, an experiment related to biofuels and lignin-based sunscreen products from corncob was performed in multiple offerings of a summer-semester class. Specifically, corncobs were pretreated with 1% H[subscript 2]SO[subscript 4] to obtain hemicellulose…

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) are a revolutionary tool based on a bacterial acquired immune response system. CRISPR has gained widespread use for gene editing in a variety of organisms and is an increasingly valuable tool for basic genetic research, with far-reaching implications for medicine, agriculture, and…

With the advancement of ribonucleic acid (RNA) research in the field of biochemistry, ensuring that undergraduate students have both the theoretical and practical knowledge of current, cutting-edge experimental techniques is of marked importance. Many current biochemistry experiments demonstrate various basic molecular biological techniques…

As nonrenewable resources deplete and educators seek relevant interdisciplinary content for organic chemistry instruction, biobased laboratory experiments present themselves as potential alternatives to petroleum-based transformations, which offer themselves as sustainable variations on important themes. Following the principles of green chemistry…

Our paper describes a solution we found to a still existing need to develop mathematical modeling courses for undergraduate biology majors. Some challenges of such courses are: (i) relatively limited exposure of biology students to higher-level mathematical and computational concepts; (ii) availability of texts that can give a flavor of how…

This study took place in a biotechnology laboratory course series that provided students with authentic research experiences. We documented student identities after the experience and explored how these identities related to future career aspirations.

A multiday laboratory exercise is described that is suitable for first-year undergraduate chemistry, biochemistry, or biotechnology students. Students gain experience in performing chromatographic separations of biomolecules, in both a column and thin layer chromatography (TLC) format. Students chromatographically separate amino acids (AA) in an…

Students frequently expressed difficulty in understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in chromosomal recombination. Therefore, we explored alternative methods for presenting the two concepts of the double-strand break model: Holliday junction and heteroduplex formation, and Holliday junction resolution. In addition to a lecture and…

Project-based learning and action research are powerful pedagogies in improving science education. We implemented a semester-long course using project-based action research to help students apply biotechnology knowledge learned in the classroom to the real world. Students had several choices to make in the project: working individually or as a…