Cytoskeletal Proteins in Amoeba
At a Glance
Discipline
- Biology
- STEM
Instructional Level
- College & CEGEP
Course
- General Biology I
Tasks in Workflow
Social Plane(s)
- Individual
- Group
Type of Tasks
- Analyzing
- Reading
- Taking a quiz & test
Technical Details
Useful Technologies
- Clicker System
- Microsoft Excel Software
Time
- Brief segment of class period (< 20 mins)
Instructional Purpose
- Assessment & knowledge refinement
- Application & knowledge building
Overview
In this peer-instruction case study, students will learn about the dynamics of cytoskeleton through the shape-shifting amoeba.
Students take the role of a cell biologist and are given a dataset with amoeba cell counts under multiple drug treatments that affect cell shape. They are then tasked to determine if there is a statistically significant difference between treatments. This case study uses the flipped classroom strategy in which students will prepare for the task by watching videos, reading and performing a quiz before entering the classroom. Assigned videos to watch: A tour of the cell, Tour of an animal cell. In the classroom, students are asked to produce a graph that best represents the data and to chose an appropriate statistical test to analyze the data. Following that, they are asked to provide conclusions about the role of cytoskeleton in Amoeba.
Instructional Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Explain cytoskeletal dynamics
- Analyze, interpret and present data using appropriate statistical interpretation
Workflow & Materials
Activity Workflow
Contributor's Notes
Benefits
Challenges
Tips
Benefits
- The case study presents students with a simple drug-to-phenotype experimental scenario that is often seen in research. Students learn how to plot data, to analyze it and to infer conclusion from it.
Challenges
- The students tend to have difficulty with excel and producing a meaningful and properly labelled graph on excel;
- They also tend to choose the wrong statistical test.
Tips
- Students require lots of guidance and help reading the data, analyzing it, and plotting it using excel.
Published: 13/06/2019
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