• Programme: Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Biotechnology
• Standard learning track year: BA3
• Course unit(s): C003374 - Biochemistry & Microbiology
• Average number of students: 85
• Involved lecturer(s): Bart.Devreese@ugent.be, Lisa Slachmuylders, Elien De Bousser
• Academic year of (first) implementation: 2022-2023

Description

The integrated practical brings together practicals linked to different theoretical courses such as 'Analytical biochemistry', 'Biochemistry: Metabolism 2' and 'Microbial evolution and diversity'. An example of such a practical is growing two bacterial cultures where one is treated with an antibiotic and the other is not. This practical requires students to work with a mass spectrometer for the first time in order to identify differentially expressed proteins.

Through the years, the practical at hand was confronted with the following challenges. On the one hand, the group size makes it impossible to supervise students individually, even though this creates room for making mistakes that could compromise the whole experiment. A first solution to this was found in a rotation system where during four practical afternoons groups of 10 students were each time supported by a different supervisor. Next, students appeared to spend little time to prepare thoroughly for the practical, whether due to an already busy schedule or a lack of motivation.

To answer both challenges, the tool 'LabBuddy' was introduced. Whereas previously a student was given a ready-made, step-by-step instruction for the practical via the protocol, LabBuddy starts from a research question and lets the students construct the flow of the practical themselves. Not only does the tool provide real-time and personalised feedback, it also allows students to be asked a number of substantive and/or procedural questions at each step. Via LabBuddy, students must now, for example, calculate the correct buffer themselves, rather than reading off the required quantities directly from the protocol.

By letting the students compile their own protocol in advance (and in doing so already referring to the data interpretation afterwards in the preparation phase) they see the connection between the seperate parts of the practical better than before. Moreover, once they have gone through the tool, the students receive their self-composed protocol, which not only increases their understanding of the structure of the practical but also their motivation.

Tips

• Tip 1: By already providing info via LabBuddy about the location of the products students will need during the practical, supervisors gain time for more explicit content-related questions
• Tip 2: LabBuddy also provides a lab journal, a functionality that allows printing out the protocol obtained and then taking these notes to the lab. This way, students do not have to expose valuable laptops to hazardous substances.
• Tip 3: Since students can also add their own notes and information at any time during the preparation and the actual practical, they can collect all data in one place.

Recording

The recording of the presentation on Labbyddy given at the revisionday of the "Virtual Science Labs" project can be found here.