Genetic engineering course wins Science magazine prize

Public release date: 26-Sep-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Natasha Pinol npinol@aaas.org 202-326-6440 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Biology students at the University of Minnesota take a course in their very first semester in which they propose their own gene-based solution to a problem. Among the projects they have worked on was a camouflage military suit that could change color through the use of a gene that allows an octopus to camouflage itselfa technology that happened to be developed by the U.S. military a few years later.

"We've got these undergrads who propose amazingly practical, valuable, doable and sophisticated projects," Sue Wick, director of biology major undergraduate studies at the University of Minnesota and one of four professors there who developed the course.

Because of its effectiveness at teaching undergraduates how to think like professional biologists, the Genetic Engineering Proposal curriculum module has been chosen to receive the Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction.

The Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction (IBI) was developed to showcase outstanding materials, usable in a wide range of schools and settings, for teaching introductory science courses at the college level. The materials must be designed to encourage students' natural curiosity about how the world works, rather than to deliver facts and principles about what scientists have already discovered. Organized as one free-standing "module," the materials should offer real understanding of the nature of science, as well as provide an experience in generating and evaluating scientific evidence. Each month, Science publishes an essay by a recipient of the award, which explains the winning project. The essay about the Genetic Engineering Proposal, written by course co-creators Wick, Mark Decker, David Matthes and Robin Wright, will be published on September 27.

"We want to recognize innovators in science education, as well as the institutions that support them," says Bruce Alberts, editor-in-chief emeritus of Science. "At the same time, this competition will promote those inquiry-based laboratory modules with the most potential to benefit science students and teachers. The publication of an essay in Science on each winning module will encourage more college teachers to use these outstanding resources, thereby promoting science literacy."

From its inception, the Genetic Engineering Proposal course module has applied one main principle: that students should do biology, rather than just read about it. This idea was familiar to Wick, even when she was taking high school biology at her Milwaukee, Wisc., all-girls high school. Her teacher, a former medical technologist, made sure her students' science education was inquiry-based.

"There was inquiry, the idea of exploring, that we didn't know everything, that there were still so many things to discover, to explore and find out about," Wick says.

With her teacher's encouragement, Wick participated in a National Science Foundation summer high school program, took Advanced Placement biology, and ultimately went on to earn a PhD in the biological sciences.

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Genetic engineering course wins Science magazine prize