CoLab: A Workshop-based Undergraduate Research Experience for Entering College Students

Overview

Journal J Chem Educ

Specialties Chemistry
Medical Education

Date 2023 Jul 31

PMID 37519308

Authors

Adrian Wierzchowski

Donald J Wink

Hongyang Zhang

Kristy Kambanis

Jacqueline O Rojas Robles

Avia Rosenhouse-Dantsker

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The goal of undergraduate chemistry laboratories is to allow students to learn about chemical systems and key laboratory skills. They should then apply this knowledge to solve problems and connect macroscopic observations in the laboratory with those occurring at the submicroscopic level. Unfortunately, these needs are not met through traditional confirmation labs. Therefore, many chemistry instructors are turning towards research-based labs course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). There are also many cases where summer workshops, often with non-traditional pedagogy, are used for students. This article describes the STEM CoLab Program, a novel type of summer workshop that seeks to build student chemistry knowledge and skills in research and presentation at the beginning of their college work. This program uses the principles of CUREs for students who are just entering the university, mostly as freshmen. Several different phenomena have been investigated during the program. In this paper, we report the overall work of the program from 2016 through 2021 and provide additional details on the program's implementation in 2020 and 2021 when students conducted their work from home, using a combination of a take home research kit for studying salivary amylase "" and computer-based visualizations of amylase-inhibitor interactions " using and online docking tools.

Citing Articles

Summer Research Internship Curriculum to Promote Self-Efficacy, Researcher Identity, and Peer-to-Peer Learning: Retrospective Cohort Study.

Levites Strekalova Y, Liu-Galvin R, Border S, Midence S, Khan M, VanZanten M JMIR Form Res. 2025; 9:e54167.

PMID: 39899006 PMC: 11809269. DOI: 10.2196/54167.

Discovery of antimicrobial peptides clostrisin and cellulosin from Clostridium: insights into their structures, co-localized biosynthetic gene clusters, and antibiotic activity.

Alejo Hernandez M, Villavicencio Sanchez K, Sanchez Morales R, Hernandez-Magro Gil K, Moreno-Gutierrez D, Sanchez-Rueda E Beilstein J Org Chem. 2024; 20:1800-1816.

PMID: 39109298 PMC: 11301040. DOI: 10.3762/bjoc.20.159.

Students' Experiences with the Science and Engineering Practices in a Workshop-Based Undergraduate Research Experience.

Wierzchowski A, Wink D J Chem Educ. 2024; 101(6):2266-2278.

PMID: 38974322 PMC: 11225935. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.4c00035.

Categorizing Student Learning about Research, Nature of Science, and Poster Presentation in a Workshop-Based Undergraduate Research Experience.

Wierzchowski A, Wink D J Chem Educ. 2023; 100(8):2873-2886.

PMID: 37576851 PMC: 10421618. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.3c00174.

References

Maton K, Pollard S, McDougall Weise T, Hrabowski F . Meyerhoff Scholars Program: a strengths-based, institution-wide approach to increasing diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Mt Sinai J Med. 2012; 79(5):610-23. PMC: 3444508. DOI: 10.1002/msj.21341. View

Yilmazer-Musa M, Griffith A, Michels A, Schneider E, Frei B . Grape seed and tea extracts and catechin 3-gallates are potent inhibitors of α-amylase and α-glucosidase activity. J Agric Food Chem. 2012; 60(36):8924-9. PMC: 4356113. DOI: 10.1021/jf301147n. View

Ma C, Sacco M, Hurst B, Townsend J, Hu Y, Szeto T . Boceprevir, GC-376, and calpain inhibitors II, XII inhibit SARS-CoV-2 viral replication by targeting the viral main protease. Cell Res. 2020; 30(8):678-692. PMC: 7294525. DOI: 10.1038/s41422-020-0356-z. View

Ren J, Jenkins T, Chaires J . Energetics of DNA intercalation reactions. Biochemistry. 2000; 39(29):8439-47. DOI: 10.1021/bi000474a. View

Berman H, Westbrook J, Feng Z, Gilliland G, Bhat T, Weissig H . The Protein Data Bank. Nucleic Acids Res. 1999; 28(1):235-42. PMC: 102472. DOI: 10.1093/nar/28.1.235. View

Piparo E, Scheib H, Frei N, Williamson G, Grigorov M, Chou C . Flavonoids for controlling starch digestion: structural requirements for inhibiting human alpha-amylase. J Med Chem. 2008; 51(12):3555-61. DOI: 10.1021/jm800115x. View

Ramasubbu N, Paloth V, Luo Y, Brayer G, LeVine M . Structure of human salivary alpha-amylase at 1.6 A resolution: implications for its role in the oral cavity. Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. 1996; 52(Pt 3):435-46. DOI: 10.1107/S0907444995014119. View

Zhang L, Lin D, Sun X, Curth U, Drosten C, Sauerhering L . Crystal structure of SARS-CoV-2 main protease provides a basis for design of improved α-ketoamide inhibitors. Science. 2020; 368(6489):409-412. PMC: 7164518. DOI: 10.1126/science.abb3405. View

Cahoon L, Freitag N . The electrifying energy of gut microbes. Nature. 2018; 562(7725):43-44. DOI: 10.1038/d41586-018-06180-z. View

10.

Li K, Yao F, Du J, Deng X, Li C . Persimmon Tannin Decreased the Glycemic Response through Decreasing the Digestibility of Starch and Inhibiting α-Amylase, α-Glucosidase, and Intestinal Glucose Uptake. J Agric Food Chem. 2018; 66(7):1629-1637. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jafc.7b05833. View

11.

Weaver G, Russell C, Wink D . Inquiry-based and research-based laboratory pedagogies in undergraduate science. Nat Chem Biol. 2008; 4(10):577-80. DOI: 10.1038/nchembio1008-577. View

12.

Koo S, Noh S . Green tea as inhibitor of the intestinal absorption of lipids: potential mechanism for its lipid-lowering effect. J Nutr Biochem. 2007; 18(3):179-83. PMC: 1852441. DOI: 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2006.12.005. View

13.

Dickson D, Toh C, Lunda M, Yermolina M, Wardrop D, Landrie C . Reduction of solid-supported olefins and alkynes. J Org Chem. 2009; 74(24):9535-8. DOI: 10.1021/jo901764u. View

14.

Schneider C, Rasband W, Eliceiri K . NIH Image to ImageJ: 25 years of image analysis. Nat Methods. 2012; 9(7):671-5. PMC: 5554542. DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.2089. View

15.

McDougall G, Shpiro F, Dobson P, Smith P, Blake A, Stewart D . Different polyphenolic components of soft fruits inhibit alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase. J Agric Food Chem. 2005; 53(7):2760-6. DOI: 10.1021/jf0489926. View

16.

Berman H, Henrick K, Nakamura H . Announcing the worldwide Protein Data Bank. Nat Struct Biol. 2003; 10(12):980. DOI: 10.1038/nsb1203-980. View

17.

Li C, Begum A, Numao S, Hwa Park K, Withers S, Brayer G . Acarbose rearrangement mechanism implied by the kinetic and structural analysis of human pancreatic alpha-amylase in complex with analogues and their elongated counterparts. Biochemistry. 2005; 44(9):3347-57. DOI: 10.1021/bi048334e. View

18.

Kelley E . LAB Theory, HLAB Pedagogy, and Review of Laboratory Learning in Chemistry during the COVID-19 Pandemic. J Chem Educ. 2023; 98(8):2496-2517. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00457. View

19.

Stefanachi A, Leonetti F, Pisani L, Catto M, Carotti A . Coumarin: A Natural, Privileged and Versatile Scaffold for Bioactive Compounds. Molecules. 2018; 23(2). PMC: 6017103. DOI: 10.3390/molecules23020250. View

20.

Yan Y, Zhang D, Zhou P, Li B, Huang S . HDOCK: a web server for protein-protein and protein-DNA/RNA docking based on a hybrid strategy. Nucleic Acids Res. 2017; 45(W1):W365-W373. PMC: 5793843. DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkx407. View