Teaching Cell and Molecular Biology within the Context of Human Disease

Students are most motivated and “learn best” when they are immersed in an environment that causes them to realize why they should learn. Perhaps nowhere is this truer than when teaching the biological sciences to engineers. Transitioning from a problem-based to a knowledge-based classroom can challenge student learning and engagement. To address this, human pathologies were used as a problem-based context for teaching knowledge-based biological mechanisms. Lectures were divided into four modules. First, a disease was presented from clinical, economic and etiological standpoints. Second, fundamental concepts in cell biology were taught that were directly relevant to that disease. Finally, we discussed the cellular and molecular basis of the disease based upon these fundamental concepts, together with current clinical approaches to the disease. Evaluation of this contextual technique suggests that it is very useful in improving student focus and motivation, and may result in improved student achievement. Among the fundamental assumptions about learning is that students are most motivated and “learn best” when they are immersed in an environment that causes them to realize why they should learn (7, 14). That is, concepts and knowledge are best introduced when students see their application and their relationship to other concepts (2). Perhaps nowhere is this assumption better highlighted than when teaching physiology and molecular biology to engineers – an endeavor that is growing more common as biomedical engineering (BME) programs flourish. Transitioning students from a problem-based style of education to a knowledge-based style can prove particularly difficult in terms of student learning, engagement and testing. Other challenges include stylistic differences in teaching biology versus engineering, diverse educational backgrounds, and a comparative lack of quantitative theories and expressions in molecular biology. Indeed, one must ask whether teaching biology as biologists do is the most effective way to convey the material, or if it is more effective to adapt the teaching style and biological content to engineers? One must also consider what is meant by teaching in a “style” familiar and engaging to engineering students. Aside from quantitative measures of learning styles, this is often equated with presenting the material within the context of mathematics. However, possibly more familiar and engaging to engineers is “problem solving,” and not mathematics per se. Thus, seeing the application of the material, as described above, is of critical importance in engineering education. This is supported by an Index of Learning Styles (ILS) study of biomedical Teaching within the Context of Disease © William H. Guilford, 2004 2 engineering undergraduates that showed them to be both sensory and global learners (4). Each of these measures may be interpreted as learning best within a broader context of application and knowledge. To this end, we present an assessment of a knowledge-centered curriculum for teaching cell and molecular biology to undergraduates. Human pathologies were used as a problem-based context for teaching basic biological mechanisms. A proposal to teach in this manner has been published elsewhere (8). The curriculum was very successful in improving student focus and motivation. However, the method was not as successful when teaching cell biology to engineering faculty. The reasons for this difference are explored, as well as the benefits of using contextualized and highly modularized lectures.