Tonight I watched the ASMCUE 2022 recorded session entitled “Teaching Metabolic Pathways Using Hands-on, Interactive Stations in Introductory Biology.” This ten-minute session was presented by Daniel Labadini and Emily Nowicki at Curry College in Milton, MA. Nowicki is an Associate Professor and Daniel Labadini was their student. The major metabolic pathways that they discuss are the light-dependent and light-independent reactions of photosynthesis, Krebs cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation. The major concept that Nowicki covers is energy transfer, with three student learning outcomes focusing identifying factors. Nowicki stated that the problem encountered in class was that the activities did not have a hands-on component. The activities they did included worksheets, models, questions, table completion. Dan and Nowicki created hands-on interactive metabolic pathway stations. The examples they shared included poster board with cellular components and moving parts for electrons, ATP, and other elements. Students received prompts and were asked to work in small groups. They spent five minutes at each station during which they manipulated the model, took pictures of completed model, and wrote a short summary. The protons and electrons were magnetic along with the Ps for the ATP! Nowicki asked for student feedback: rate how helpful they felt the activity was from 1-5 and share feedback for potential modifications. Student feedback was very detailed, and I agree with Nowicki that this suggested they not only liked the experience but also understood the concepts. Nowicki concluded that most students responded favorably, though some students indicated that the activity was not helpful or confusing. Nowicki will create more organized diagrams and prompts. Nowicki ended with a photo with Dan during their graduation events. This session gave me some ideas for hands-on and even digital metabolic models for a couple of the courses I teach, including Metabolic Modeling!
