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A "Choose-Your-Own" Classroom-Based Activity That Promotes Scientific Inquiry about RNA Interference.

ABSTRACT: RNA interference (RNAi), the process that results in the degradation of a target gene's mRNA, is a fundamental part of eukaryotic gene regulation and is also an important molecular technique that allows for experimental manipulation of gene expression without altering DNA sequences. Despite the importance of RNAi, there have been relatively few lecture-based activities designed to teach about the consequences of this process and counter common misconceptions. I present here an inquiry-based activity that is centered around a "choose your own experiment" design where students generate hypotheses and critically evaluate their ideas by choosing several simulated experiments. The activity presents students with one of the original puzzling observations, the discovery that triggering overexpression of a given gene in a flower resulted in an opposite change in phenotype than expected, and the subsequent discovery that there was a dramatic decrease of that gene's mRNA, that sparked the discovery of RNAi. Students then propose a molecular mechanism for these results before using a limited budget of funding to simulate their choice of experiments. Simulated results are provided for these experiments, and students must work together to interpret and discuss these results before deciding on the next experiment. I provide a guide for instructors on how to implement this activity, with suggestions on how to vary the activity to fit different class sizes as well as an abbreviated version for instructors who are short on time. Finally, I include an aligned assessment so that instructors may check student learning about the impacts of RNAi.

SUBMITTER: Hsu JL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6914344 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A "Choose-Your-Own" Classroom-Based Activity That Promotes Scientific Inquiry about RNA Interference.

Hsu Jeremy L JL

Journal of microbiology & biology education 20191218 3

RNA interference (RNAi), the process that results in the degradation of a target gene's mRNA, is a fundamental part of eukaryotic gene regulation and is also an important molecular technique that allows for experimental manipulation of gene expression without altering DNA sequences. Despite the importance of RNAi, there have been relatively few lecture-based activities designed to teach about the consequences of this process and counter common misconceptions. I present here an inquiry-based acti ...[more]

PMID: 31890074

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Project description:Scientific reasoning involves a person's ability to think and act in ways that help advance their understanding of the natural world. Young children are naturally inclined to engage in scientific reasoning and display an emerging competence in the component skills of, for example, hypothesizing, experimenting and evaluating evidence. Developmental psychology research has shown that same-age children often differ considerably in their proficiency to perform these skills. Part of this variation comes from individual differences in cognition; another part is due to the fact that the component skills of scientific reasoning emerge at a different age and mature at a different pace. Significantly less attention has been paid to children's capacity to improve in scientific reasoning through instruction and deliberate practice. Although elementary science lessons are generally effective to raise the skill level of a group of learners, not all children benefit equally from the instructional treatment they receive. Knowing what causes this differential effectiveness is important as it can inform the design of adaptive instruction and support. The present study therefore aimed to identify and explain how fifth-graders (N = 138) improve their scientific reasoning skills over the course of a 5-week inquiry-based physics unit. In line with our expectations, significant progress was observed in children's achievements on a written scientific reasoning test, which was administered prior to and after the lessons, as well as in their responses to the questions and assignments that appeared on the worksheets they filled out during each lesson. Children's reading comprehension and mathematical skillfulness explained a portion of the variance in children's pretest-posttest gain. As these overall results did not apply equally to all component skills of scientific reasoning, we recommend science teachers to adapt their lessons based on children's past performance in reading and math and their actual performance of each scientific reasoning skill. The orchestration and relative effectiveness of both adaptive science teaching approaches is an interesting topic for future research.

Dataset Information

A "Choose-Your-Own" Classroom-Based Activity That Promotes Scientific Inquiry about RNA Interference.

Publications

A "Choose-Your-Own" Classroom-Based Activity That Promotes Scientific Inquiry about RNA Interference.

Similar Datasets

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