Human Extracellular Superoxide Dismutase Recombination:A Project-Based Learning Program in Biochemistry Designed for Nursing Students

In nursing school, students often feel pressed to learn some subjects of medical sciences, especially biochemistry. Previously, teachers were used to adopt a traditional teacher-centered, lecture-based teaching style that required students to learn biochemistry mainly by rote. This teaching style has many drawbacks and it is not suitable for nursing students. The aim of the course is not to teach them biochemistry but is to teach them how to learn biochemistry and solve problems using biochemistry in their future career. Under this circumstance, it is emergent to develop a new teaching style which must be student-centered, inquiry-based. And there is no one competent but the style of project based learning (PBL). PBL is an innovative pedagogical approach that has been developed through researches and has been used by teachers in colleges, universities, and high schools. As a modern educational pattern, PBL is highly evaluated because of its advantages in the process of learning. This paper is going to suggest a program in biochemistry that could be conducted by students in the laboratory. The program is a basic way of genetic engineering that is used to recombine a certain human protein, in this case the extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD). It is designed to give the students a reference from which they could borrow ideas to achieve their own goal. Through this program, students are expected to boost their problem solving, communication, and collaboration skills as well as the knowledge of biochemistry.