NEW CHALLENGES IN THE BIOCHEMISTRY LABORATORY: CONNECTING SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS OF BIOCHEMISTRY DEGREE TO LABORATORY PRACTICE

"Laboratory of Biochemistry I" is a compulsory subject for all second-year students of the Biochemistry Degree at Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). It takes approximately 110 hours over a 2-3 months period, in 4-hour-long working sessions. The goal of this subject is to introduce students to the scientific method and the application of different biochemical procedures to reach a pre-established objective (e.g. the isolation of a protein or the kinetic characterization of an enzyme). Two Assistant Professors per 25 students supervised the theoretical and practical classes. This situation allows students to have their work closely supervised and provides an ideal scenario for new challenges. In the context of this subject, several UCM-funded innovation projects have been carried out in recent years. The present work describes two initiatives whose aim is connecting students to different biochemical professional options. The development of these activities involved the coordinated work of 5 teachers, 4 technicians and 4 helper third-year students from the Biochemistry Degree. A) Student's workshop. Students have the opportunity of optionally designing a short video (about 3 minutes long) in Spanish or English, in which they explain one of the work topics considered during the subject. Alternatively, they can make posters in English presenting their work on a whole subject area (e.g. the isolation of hen egg white lysozyme, or the kinetic characterization of sweet almond beta-glucosidase). Their different projects are collected and later presented in a workshop where everyone is encouraged to rate their classmates' videos and posters in order to choose the best among them. B) Visit to the Biochemistry Department's facilities. In order to let students know first-hand the facilities of our Department, they are enrolled in groups of ten and led to share a technician's two-hour labour session. At the end of the laboratory, this activity is complemented with a gymkhana, where all the student's teams must face five different biochemical challenges. In general, these initiatives get good acceptance rates among students: more than 60% contribute a poster or a video in the workshop and around 97% join the additional activities planned for them.