The goal of this project is to evaluate correlations between ISSM interventions and motivation by assessing components such as how students allocate their time to different study methods, what type of learner a student is, how a student’s learning style changes over the course of the semester, how a student engages in peer feedback and a student’s success in critical thinking assessments over the course of the semester. Goal setting has proved to be a high-impact teaching strategy as it allows students to take ownership of their work and make progress towards their goals. Additionally, goal-setting can help students and teachers establish a clear path towards a student’s learning. Through implementation of a Weekly Learning Planner, a platform where students are able to tailor their learning by choosing assignments that are beneficial to their learning, we expect to establish correlations by assessing the effectiveness of increased personalized choice by qualitatively measuring student interaction with material through a Learning Log. The Learning Log will allow students to input progress on material by evaluating the length of time it takes to complete assignments, which assignments have been completed, and what resources students have used to complete assignments. Through this, we hope to evaluate how individual student choice of learning can affect performance on class-wide assessments including peer review. 

This research project sets off on an investigation to see if student usage of laboratory video assessment reflections as their post-lab assignments helps retain the knowledge of necessary laboratory techniques and increase student awareness of laboratory safety precautions. Assessments that require student-created videos have proven to be very effective as a part of the laboratory curriculum. This study will explore if it is possible to increase the benefit of such assignments by having students go through their own, as well as their peers’ videos while pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of the performed techniques. The goal is to monitor if there is any added benefit or better progress made from the reflections and peer reviews both short and long term. It is possible that giving students an opportunity to come back to their work and reflect upon its quality can help maintain a steady focus on assignment completion. Both the quality of future assessments and the overall laboratory performance can be advanced in this way.

The ability to interpret molecular structures and related diagrams is a key skill in biochemistry and general science communication. First term biochemistry students often find it difficult to reach a conceptual understanding of the subject material as it requires recognizing the foundational connection of three-dimensional structure to function and regulation.  Due to the extensive content of a typical biochemistry course, developing scientific visual literacy tends to be deprioritized in undergraduate instruction.  Prior literature in science education has proven the relevance and efficacy of increased visual literacy, particularly during the protein section of a biochemistry class. However, there is a lack of research on developing visual literacy with a semester-long scaffolding approach.

This project aims to develop molecular visualization activities and training material to supplement the standard Biochemistry instructional materials and the use of Molecular Case Studies and assess their efficacy in enhancing visual literacy. 

In this project, the idea of supplemental targeted peer mentorship is weaved into an introductory biochemistry course; this will in an attempt to assist and support students as they work on their linguistic, visual, and numerical literacy skills as a part of their customizable learning experience. Over the course of the semester, as students are being introduced to different biochemical concepts, structures, and models, they will have an option to meet with a peer facilitator and/or work on optional worksheets and projects to guide their understanding of one of the three literacies stated above. This will provide a collaborative and resourceful environment where the students can go into depth on a concept in a way that interests them, rather than prioritizing the way that something needs to be learned to achieve a specific grade in the course. 

Data will consist of the observation of students’ learning habits and whether they decide to use this supplemental academic resource or not. This information will be collected through weekly student questionnaires and student journals. The weekly questionnaires will assist in gathering control and experimental groups of students without giving them a direct incentive to participate in this optional resource; additionally, the student journals, given at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester will allow students to “grade themselves” and reflect on how they feel they understand the content, and to what extent. By the use of community study hours with a peer facilitator and the student questionnaires, this data will be collected and analyzed in an attempt to learn more about how supplemental targeted mentorship reflects on students’ success in their introductory biochemistry course.

There have been significant advancements in Computer visualization and engineering in the past couple of decades, but they haven’t been reaching the classrooms as fast as they need to - most STEM teaching curricula still use the basic 2D drawings of molecules and tell students to “imagine” what they look like in 3D with or make analogies with everyday objects that don’t accurately represent the underlying molecular structure. These advancements can help students majoring in a variety of fields, mainly within the life and health science fields, to have a better grasp over their molecular understanding of the material they are learning in the classroom, and give a fuller, more fortified backbone that they can use as they pursue their career.

This project aims to introduce these advancements into CH172 (Principles of Organic and Biochemistry), CH373 (Principles of Biochemistry) courses through an Augmented Reality program called MERGE and ChemDraw/ChemDraw3D to improve students’ visual literacy in chemistry.

Project 1: Laboratory course components have a special role in the curriculum to provide hands-on, real world applications for the lecture content and develop the skills needed in the field.  Maintaining a balance between establishing a fundamental biochemistry laboratory skill set and reinforcing transferable skills is critical for preparing students for the challenges of professional life.  

In Fall 421, Brandon led a student driven initiative to develop laboratory deliverables to be used as effective formative assessments as well as for competency based summative assessments in the biochemistry laboratory. He completely revised the pre-laboratory workflow to incorporate student voices and enable asynchronous preparation between partners prior to laboratory time.

Project 2: Due to the heavy content load and being the last course in the pre-med course requirement series, the one semester undergraduate Principles of Biochemistry course is well known for being one of the most challenging courses at Boston University. Many students merely struggle through it with rote memorization and miss the overarching concepts. The large enrollment numbers in the course and the low teaching staff to student ratio, limit the ability for students to receive the continuous and timely feedback they need to succeed.  In Spring 2022, Brandon led the initiative to introduce weekly peer evaluation activities to the course curriculum using Kritik Platform and continue to help evaluate its impact on learning gains.