Abstract:

Spanish universities are integrated in the European Higher Education Area or EHEA, aimed at improving the quality of higher education in Europe, in which ECTS credits express students’ workloads in each subject or activity (private study and practical work and projects). These works are an important strategy to enable the academic and professional promotion of students. The acquisition of key competences by all students is connected to “The Role of Education and Training in the Implementation of the Europe 2020 Strategy”

During the first year at university, bachelor’s degrees in biochemistry students have to prepare and discuss a presentation in teamwork. The topics of these presentations usually are biomolecules which appear in some books, news and movies about medical research or TV series like CSI and Dr. House and standard biochemical techniques. The increasing amount of new information in the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology has significant implications in our life. This choice requires a lot of time looking for a specific molecule, one that attracts the attention of each group member. When the students have decided on their biomolecule, they have to search information about it and compare its propieties with those which appeared in media.

It is also important, or almost necessary, that they divide the work in different sections, so every student can deal with one or two specific points. This requires a biomolecule with a wide range of points to investigate, like properties, mechanism of action, origins, uses and applications, comparisons with other molecules and others; not to forget the contrast between real life and TV, books or films where they have found ‘their’ biomolecule.
Finally, if the chosen biomolecule appears in a film or a TV series most group members have seen or the molecule was found in a book all team members have read, the motivation during the elaboration of the presentation will be positive for the final results.

Students’ opinions about this initiative, presented in this contribution, were extremely positive and “Choosing a biomolecule” provided an effective pedagogical tool that can be adopted by a broad spectrum of academic institutions.

Keywords:

Teaching and learning, biochemistry, biomolecules, educational tool.