The BASIL (Biochemistry Authentic Scientific Inquiry Lab) project began in 2015 with faculty members from seven campuses who had the desire to introduce research into the undergraduate biochemistry teaching lab. Our plan was to combine computational and wet lab methods with an open-ended approach that enabled our students to transition from thinking like technicians to thinking like scientists. Throughout the most recent phase of this project from 2017-2021 a number themes have emerged, ranging from the curriculum itself to building the BASIL community to the impact of the BASIL project on our students and on our faculty.

BASIL Curriculum. We have developed a flexible curriculum of 11 modules that can be implemented in a variety of settings. On some participating campuses, the faculty and students engage the full curriculum and other campuses use parts of the curriculum. Over the past two years, we found that education in the biochemistry lab can continue even during a pandemic. The nature of the BASIL curriculum includes 5 computational modules which can be done in a fully online setting. Quite a number of our colleagues employed the computational aspects of our curriculum during emergency remote instruction that was needed during the pandemic. We have found that the flexibility of the curriculum is always important and was especially important during the pandemic.

BASIL Community. The BASIL team is built around a core of eleven faculty members on nine campuses, who have developed the curriculum, maintain and update BASIL resources, publish manuscripts (14 publications between 2017 and 2021), present our findings at national meetings, and provide mentoring to new faculty members who want to try the curriculum on their campuses. In addition to this core, we are working with 60 faculty members on 58 other campuses who are using parts of the basal curriculum or have been in discussions with us on how to use it. To build our community, we hold weekly online Zoom meetings and maintain two online Slack groups - one for established users and one where newcomers can learn more about the project and request assistance/mentoring.

Student impact. To date, a total of about 1500 students have been influenced by participating in the BASIL curriculum. Following their initial discovery during the course itself, many of them ask to continue the research as independent studies with their professors. Some of these students have also presented their findings at national conferences. About 30 of our students have participated in summer workshops at the Institute for Quantitative Biology at Rutgers University. One of those students subsequently received a Fulbright Fellowship to study drug resistant microorganism in New Delhi, India, in the year after he finished his undergraduate degree. In addition to participating in BASIL, students have supported the course by providing background research for future offerings of the course; still others have served as teaching assistants in subsequent offerings of the course. 

The BASIL curriculum emphasized student teamwork and presentation skills, based on both computational and wet lab exercises. This helps prepare students better for Co-op positions, long-term employment and for graduate school. We have noticed enhanced computational tools skills throughout the period covered by this grant but most notably even more so during the pandemic.

Faculty impact. Another important result of this project is faculty development. We've been meeting electronically as a team in virtual chat rooms for more than six years. In addition, we have been collaborating on the curriculum, manuscripts, presentations, and proposals using Zoom and Google docs. When the pandemic hit, we were already very comfortable teaching and doing research via Zoom chat rooms.. Three of our faculty members have enjoyed professional leaves that focused on (a) building the BASIL curriculum, (b) learning more about educational research and (c) developing computational tools for future BASIL materials. Four of our team members recently wrote an invited article based on their experiences and perspectives, entitled, “Undergraduate structural biology education: A shift from users to developers of computation and simulation tools.” Four members who have joined the group have become organizers and leaders of the BASIL team even though neither they nor their institutions were contributors to the original proposal that was submitted.

The BASIL team has been involved in a number of collaborations. Several of our team members are interacting with other groups of faculty who are also supported by NSF. For example, two of the BASIL team members are also participants and leaders in the BioMolVis Project. One contributed to a CURENet workshop on CURE sustainability (https://serc.carleton.edu/curenet/sustainability.html). Six members have also participated in workshops at The Institute for Quantitative Biology that have been offered at Rutgers University in affiliation with the Protein Data Bank, which is also supported by the NSF.

Last Modified: 10/12/2021
Modified by: Paul A Craig