Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, United States of America.
Department of Biology, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2018 Apr 11;13(4):e0193696. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0193696. eCollection 2018.
A critical area of emphasis for science educators is the identification of effective means of teaching and engaging undergraduate students. Personal microbiome analysis is a means of identifying the microbial communities found on or in our body. We hypothesized the use of personal microbiome analysis in the classroom could improve science education by making courses more applied and engaging for undergraduate students. We determined to test this prediction in three Brigham Young University undergraduate courses: Immunology, Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory, and Genomics. These three courses have a two-week microbiome unit and students during the 2016 semester students could submit their own personal microbiome kit or use the demo data, whereas during the 2017 semester students were given access to microbiome data from an anonymous individual. The students were surveyed before, during, and after the human microbiome unit to determine whether analyzing their own personal microbiome data, compared to analyzing demo microbiome data, impacted student engagement and interest. We found that personal microbiome analysis significantly enhanced the engagement and interest of students while completing microbiome assignments, the self-reported time students spent researching the microbiome during the two week microbiome unit, and the attitudes of students regarding the course overall. Thus, we found that integrating personal microbiome analysis in the classroom was a powerful means of improving student engagement and interest in undergraduate science courses.
对于科学教育工作者来说，一个重点关注的关键领域是确定有效的教学方法和手段，以吸引大学生的参与。个人微生物组分析是一种识别存在于我们身体表面或内部的微生物群落的方法。我们假设，在课堂上使用个人微生物组分析可以通过使课程更具实用性和吸引力来提高科学教育水平。我们决定在三所杨百翰大学的本科课程中验证这一预测：免疫学、高级分子生物学实验室和基因组学。这三门课程都有为期两周的微生物组单元，在 2016 年的学期中，学生可以提交自己的个人微生物组试剂盒，也可以使用演示数据，而在 2017 年的学期中，学生可以访问匿名个体的微生物组数据。在人类微生物组单元之前、期间和之后，学生们都接受了调查，以确定分析自己的个人微生物组数据与分析演示微生物组数据相比，是否会影响学生的参与度和兴趣。我们发现，个人微生物组分析显著提高了学生在完成微生物组作业时的参与度和兴趣，以及学生在两周的微生物组单元中研究微生物组的自我报告时间，以及学生对课程的总体态度。因此，我们发现将个人微生物组分析纳入课堂是提高本科科学课程学生参与度和兴趣的有力手段。
