Abstract:

Introductory Physics in Biochemistry degrees is often perceived as a generic service course with limited relevance to students’ future academic and professional needs. This contribution reports a teaching innovation implemented in two consecutive cohorts (2024/25: 65 students; 2025/26: 66 students) in a first-year Physics course for Biochemistry students, aiming to increase perceived usefulness while supporting inclusive learning.

The intervention kept the overall course structure unchanged (same assessment scheme, deliverables, and exam format) to preserve comparability across cohorts. Changes focused on the learning materials and practice activities. First, the problem sets were redesigned to incorporate contexts aligned with biochemistry and health sciences, emphasising authentic applications of core concepts (e.g., modelling heat loss through body fat by conduction and radiation, analysing blood pressure changes in orthostatic hypotension, estimating capillary numbers and diffusion surface area, and applying electric and magnetic fields to electrophoresis and blood-flow measurements). Second, the theoretical block included a structured gender perspective: in each topic, the content was connected to the work and scientific trajectory of a notable woman scientist related to the field, using short contextual elements integrated into lectures and supporting materials.

The evaluation plan combines student feedback on relevance and inclusivity with performance indicators across cohorts. Preliminary results show that students value the systematic inclusion of gender perspective positively and perceive it as meaningful in the learning experience. Descriptive comparisons of deliverable grades across cohorts suggest no clear overall improvement at this stage: the second assignment shows a tendency to higher scores among students who submitted it, while cohort-level averages are influenced by a higher non-submission rate in 2025/26. Further analyses will incorporate exam results and a full cohort comparison once assessment is completed. The approach offers a practical model for contextualisation and gender-inclusive teaching in STEM service courses within life-science curricula.

Keywords:

Physics, Biochemistry, contextualised learning, STEM service courses, gender perspective, inclusive teaching, student perception.