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Design, implementation and assessment of basic laboratory skills in an introductory molecular cell biology course

Over the past three years changes in the design and implementation of laboratory exercises in the lower level molecular cell biology course at MWSU have been made with the aim of increasing the proficiency of basic laboratory skills acquired by our biology and biochemistry majors. Simultaneously, improvements in the methods for how to assess student performance have been designed and implemented. Previous results have shown that our students do not significantly increase specific laboratory skill proficiency as they progress from the lower level to upper level biology and chemistry courses. This suggests that skills introduced early, with appropriately administered rigorous assessment early in the curriculum, will have the best opportunity for impacting student performance in subsequent courses. Results from student surveys administered during the spring 2007 semester show a significant increase in what students think they learned in the revised laboratories during the course of the semester. These results however, have not yet been carefully correlated with an assessment of how these students actually performed in the laboratory. Work is currently underway to improve the correlation of how students evaluate their performance in the laboratory with their instructor‐assessed laboratory skill proficiency.