Abstract:

The explosive rate at which research papers in the biological and biomedical sciences are published has resulted in an often under-appreciated problem in science education, namely, defining the core curriculum. As more details are discovered, more inventions are made and as applications of new technologies mature, it is crucial for educators to redefine what is fundamental, in a field-specific manner, during the design and development of any course curriculum. A traditional measure for core content could be derived from a perusal of college-level texts in a specific field, for example, Biochemistry. However, as any experienced educator knows, even the best and most widely used texts suffer from editorial inertia; the requirement for any new text to not deviate much from its predecessor in order to ensure adoption of the book by instructors quite happy to teach what they have always taught with only minor changes. The update is often the lengthening of chapters with new material and sometimes the addition of a couple of chapters that briefly address current issues towards the end of the book. In the classroom, it means studying core content very much like it was done two, three or more decades ago. Scientific phenomena know no boundaries and the most exciting discoveries are often made at boundaries of disciplines. Cross-disciplinary connections that either did not exist or were not appreciated when age-old core curricula were defined, make for the most exciting learning experiences for students, and help retention of not only student-interest but also course content. So perhaps it is time to reassess, or rather redraw, some of the traditional boundaries in order to make course content more accessible, applicable and exciting for the next generation of students. This paper will discuss some successful, non-traditional pedagogical approaches to teaching undergraduate science courses and address how redefining the core curriculum could make courses current and inclusive, while enhancing the learning experience without the need for information overload.

Keywords:

Curriculum design, curriculum development, core-curriculum, undergraduate science courses, course content, textbooks, non-traditional pedagogy.