A course-based undergraduate research experience examining neurodegeneration in Drosophila melanogaster teaches students to think, communicate, and perform like scientists

Abstract

As educators strive to incorporate more active learning and inquiry-driven exercises into STEM curricula, Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) are becoming more common in undergraduate laboratory courses. Here we detail a CURE developed in an upper-level undergraduate genetics course at Yeshiva University, centered on the Drosophila melanogaster ortholog of the human neurodegeneration locus PLA2G6/PARK14. Drosophila PLA2G6 mutants exhibit symptoms of neurodegeneration, such as attenuated lifespan and decreased climbing ability with age, which can be replicated by neuron-specific knockdown of PLA2G6. To ask whether the neurodegeneration phenotype could be caused by loss of PLA2G6 in specific neuronal subtypes, students used GAL4-UAS to perform RNAi knockdown of PLA2G6 in subsets of neurons in the Drosophila central nervous system and measured age-dependent climbing ability. We organized our learning objectives for the CURE into three broad goals of having students think, communicate, and perform like scientists. To assess how well students achieved these goals, we developed a detailed rubric to analyze written lab reports, administered pre-and post-course surveys, and solicited written feedback. We observed striking gains related to all three learning goals, and students reported a high degree of satisfaction. We also observed significantly improved understanding of the scientific method by students in the CURE as compared to the prior year's non-CURE genetics lab students. Thus, this CURE can serve as a template to successfully engage students in novel research, improve understanding of the scientific process, and expose students to the use of Drosophila as a model for human neurodegenerative disease.

Drosophila Melanogaster Utilization in Genetics Lectures: Innovations that Need to be Optimized

“…The reason is, Drosophila melanogaster has been considered as the optimal medium in teaching science (Pasini et al, 2010). The use of Drosophila melanogaster is also reported to encourage students' research skills (Delventhal & Steinhauer, 2020). Not only that, the presence of Drosophila melanogaster in class can also facilitate students in learning various concepts in Biology (Banerjee et al, 2020;Heil et al, 2013;Rothhaas et al, 2020).…”

iPLA2-VIA is required for healthy aging in neurons, muscle, and female germline in Drosophila melanogaster

“…Climbing tests were performed as in (70). Groups of 6-13 male or female flies were tapped to the bottom of a fresh food vial and given 20 s to climb 6 cm, into a new empty vial placed on top of the old one.…”

Active Learning Module for Protein Structure Analysis Using Novel Enzymes

“…Our active learning module was motivated by the success of Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs), which have numerous benefits for students, including making research experiences more equitably available to all students (26), increasing scientific affect (27), improving scientific skills (28), and increasing student retention (29). Furthermore, participation in CUREs early in their university experience improved the odds of students graduating with a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics degree and improved student GPAs when they graduated (30).…”