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...as they apply to human metabolic systems. The students gain familiarity with biological molecules such as proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, and they learn how the body metabolizes each of these molecules. Traditionally this course has been taught with lecture-based format placing the students in a passive learning role. Recently, case studies have been incorporated as a supplement to these lectures allowing small student groups solve problems similar to the types of problems they will encounter in their chosen profession. This method motivates and engages students because they see relationships between complicated metabolic pathways and metabolic or nutritional disorders. The case study method has proved to be very successful in the Nutritional Biochemistry course at Georgia Southern University. The students were actively engaged in learning the material, and these exercises developed their analytical skills as well as writing skills.
Keywords: Biochemistry, Learning Aids, Nutrition
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INTRODUCTION
The Department of Chemistry at Georgia Southern University (GSU) provides two foundation courses for nutrition majors in the Department of Health and Kinesiology, a General Organic and Biochemistry (CHEM 1140) followed by Nutritional Biochemistry (CHEM 2542). Nutritional Biochemistry is a one-semester course that focuses on the basic principles of biochemistry as they apply to human metabolic systems. The students gain familiarity with biological molecules such as proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, and they learn how the body metabolizes each of these molecules. In the past Nutritional Biochemistry has been taught in the traditional lecture/laboratory method. The students could recite many biochemical facts, draw the structures for many carbohydrates, amino acids, and fats as well as complicated metabolic pathways (including all the intermediates), but they often could not see a connection between these pathways and subsequent health problems. Making these types of connections is not just a problem at Georgia Southern University but has been acknowledged in other undergraduate biochemistry courses (1). Since it has been well documented that case studies motivate students and allow them to make connections among many different concepts, case studies were incorporated into Nutritional Biochemistry as a supplement to traditional lectures (2).
The case study method has been used for years to teach law, business, and medicine with substantial success (1-4). In the past instructors of science have rarely used the case study method, but this fact has changed in the past two decades. Articles have been published in several journals in which instructors describe using case studies in general chemistry (5,6), environmental chemistry (7), molecular modeling and computational chemistry (8), biochemistry (9), and non-majors sciences courses (10). Cases are usually written as dilemmas that give a personal history of an individual, institution, or business faced with a problem that must be solved. The students must work through all the facts and...
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