From classroom to clinic: Biochemistry lab for pre-health majors

Undergraduate laboratory courses are vital for both enhancing student learning and preparing students for their future careers. Despite their importance, laboratory courses are often met with a lack of enthusiasm from students. For pre-health students specifically, laboratory courses are commonly seen as part of a check-list that needs to be completed in order to achieve future education or a career, instead of seeing the information that is taught in laboratories as essential preparation. A one-semester biochemistry laboratory module was designed to demonstrate the real-life applications of experimental techniques. This laboratory module introduced students to common clinical measurements and included learning metabolite analysis through hands-on experiments, connections to simulated patient visits, generation of a research question, and implementation of a student-designed independent experiment. Surveys indicate that this approach was helpful in creating a greater understanding of the applicability of undergraduate laboratory concepts appealing specifically to pre-health students. Additionally, students found this module to provide a variety of gained benefits, knowledge, and confidence in performing scientific techniques. The outcomes of this laboratory module indicate its success and potential to be used in curricula as an effective way to engage pre-health students in an undergraduate biochemistry laboratory.