Many calls to improve science education in college and university settings have focused on improving instructor pedagogy. Meanwhile, science education at the K-12 level is undergoing significant changes as a result of the emphasis on scientific and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas. This framework of “three-dimensional learning” is based on the literature about how people learn science and how we can help students put their knowledge to use. Recently, similar changes are underway in higher education by incorporating three-dimensional learning into college science courses. As these transformations move forward, it will become important to assess three-dimensional learning both to align assessments with the learning environment, and to assess the extent of the transformations. In this paper we introduce the Three-Dimensional Learning Assessment Protocol (3D-LAP), which is designed to characterize and support the development of assessment tasks in biology, chemistry, and physics that align with transformation efforts. We describe the development process used by our interdisciplinary team, discuss the validity and reliability of the protocol, and provide evidence that the protocol can distinguish between assessments that have the potential to elicit evidence of three-dimensional learning and those that do not.

Focus on core ideas, crosscutting concepts, and scientific practices

An institutional effort to transform gateway science courses is evaluated using a novel approach based on course assessments.

Dipyridamole is an effective inhibitor of cardiovirus growth in cell culture. The effects of dipyridamole on mengovirus replication in vivo and in vitro were examined in the hope the drug could be used as an experimental analog of the poliovirus inhibitor guanidine. Guanidine selectively inhibits poliovirus RNA synthesis but not RNA translation, and as such, has been a valuable research tool. Although guanidine does not inhibit cardiovirus infection, a compound with similar discriminatory characteristics would be experimentally useful for parallel work with these viruses. We found that mengovirus plaque formation in HeLa or L cells was inhibited nearly 100% by the presence of 80 M dipyridamole. The inhibitory effect was reversible and targeted an early step in the replication cycle. Studies with luciferase-expressing mengovirus replicons showed that viral protein synthesis was unaffected by dipyridamole, and rather, RNA synthesis was the step targeted by the drug. This assessment was confirmed by direct analyses of viral translation and RNA synthesis activities in a Krebs-2-derived in vitro system that supported complete, infectious cardiovirus replication. In Krebs extracts, dipyridamole specifically inhibited viral RNA synthesis to more than 95%, with no concomitant effect on viral protein translation or polyprotein processing. The observed inhibition reversibly affected an early step in both minus-strand and plus-strand RNA synthesis, although inhibition of plus-strand synthesis was more profound than that of minus-strand synthesis. We conclude that dipyridamole is a potent experimental tool that readily distinguishes between cardiovirus translation and RNA replication functions.The positive-sense RNA genomes of all members of the family Picornaviridae have 5Ј untranslated regions, followed by single, long open reading frames, 3Ј untranslated regions, and poly(A) tails. Translation of the reading frame is directed by an internal ribosome entry site, located as part of the 5Ј untranslated region (14). The consequent polyproteins undergo a progression of cis and trans proteolytic cleavages, generating a cascade of polyprotein intermediates and individual, mature proteins. The P1 region proteins (1A, 1B, 1C, and 1D) become the structural units for new virions. The P2 (2A, 2B, and 2C) and P3 (3A, 3BVPg , 3C pro , and 3D pol ) proteins are nonstructural. During infection, P2 and P3 region precursors and mature proteins interact with each other, with cellular proteins, and with particular cis-acting genome elements to direct the synthesis of new viral RNA.Much of our current understanding of the processes involved in picornavirus RNA replication is based on studies with poliovirus (reviewed in reference 23). Among the described steps are a discrete series of protein-RNA interactions that help regulate genome conversion from translation to replication templates. For example, cellular poly(C)-binding protein and viral polymerase precursor 3CD are known to bind an RNA cloverleaf motif near the 5Ј end of the poliovirus...