In the fall of 2007, faculty at Viterbo University recognized that the current lab exercises for biochemistry majors were neither intentionally developed to meet our desired learning outcomes nor logically sequenced. Additionally, our current instrumentation did not best prepare students for careers in STEM fields. To address these short comings, faculty developed a TUES grant which secured funding for improved instrumentation, clarified expected laboratory skills and developed more active learning approaches to encourage student confidence. This presentation will present one in-depth example how the intersection of modern equipment, intentional sequencing of lab activities, and clear learning outcomes resulted in a significant increase in student achievement and self- reported confidence in the identified laboratory skills.Out of the twenty-one laboratory skills our TUES grant identified as critical for graduates of our Biochemistry major, almost half of them (10 of the 21) are directly or indirectly related to protein biochemistry experimentation. While our grant mapped how all twenty-one identified skills would be laddered throughout the curriculum, this presentation will focus on a three sequential courses aimed at developing student competency and confidence in protein biochemistry. In each of the courses, we developed approaches which were appropriate for their skill level, invited students into an inquiry based model of learning, and created quantitative and qualitative course embedded assessment to evaluate the students' achievements. At each successive level, the amount of inquiry integrated into the laboratory experiment design increased, inviting students to demonstrate increased mastery and confidence in the selected laboratory skills. When achievement and confidence levels of pre-grant seniors is compared to the three years of assessment data we have collected post-grant implementation, our results show, that our collected efforts have increased both student learning and confidence.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the NSF (DUE 0837347) for support of this project.

Strengthening of student learning and assessment through the development of a series of guided inquiry based laboratory experiments

246th National Meeting (2013)

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