Suggested solutions include a renewed emphasis on highlighting topics that are relevant to the real world and students’ daily lives, increased exposure to the scientific method, and integration of different disciplines within a single course. These, and other issues, have been highlighted in recently released national reports regarding STEM education ( 2, 13– 15), which also include various means to address these problems. Unfortunately, this does not always come across, as students often view undergraduate biology education as memorization-based and lacking in the development of critical thinking skills ( 2, 12, 21). Journal of Microbiology & Biology EducationĪs biology instructors, we strive to instill in our students the curiosity and excitement that we feel when tackling a scientific problem. By completing this experimental module, students accomplished the module objectives, had greater interest in brewing, and were more likely to view beer in scientific terms. These objectives included describing the role of the brewing ingredients and predicting how altering the ingredients would affect the characteristics of the beer, amongst others. In addition, we assessed whether students were capable of achieving the module learning objectives through a pre-/posttest, student self-evaluation, exam-embedded questions, and an associated worksheet.
The experiment allows students to brew their own beer and characterize it based on taste, alcohol content, calorie content, pH, and standard reference method.
To further this effort, we have developed, implemented, and assessed an undergraduate microbiology laboratory experiment that requires students to use the scientific method while brewing beer. In an effort to improve and assess student learning, there has been a push to increase the incorporation of discovery-driven modules and those that contain real-world relevance into laboratory curricula.
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