Students enroll in biochemistry courses for many reasons, whether it be to build a strong foundation in biochemistry content for health science-related careers or to better understand the world around them. Learning is enriched when students can identify the relevance of the content, such as through connecting course content to authentic applications. One way that students can make these connections is by practicing science communication, an increasingly important skill for students to master. Drawing upon the advantages of writing, we designed an assignment that tasked students with writing a summary of a biochemistryrelated seminar in which they explained the research and related biochemistry content in the form of a scientific news article targeted for a general audience. In this article, we discuss the design of the assignment and its implementation into an introductory biochemistry course. Results from a feedback survey and our evaluation of student writing assignments suggest that students saw value in communicating science to the general public and reported being able to connect the course content to authentic applications. This assignment is applicable in other chemistry or biology courses as a means to help students develop their skills in science communication and cultivate their appreciation of science content.

With the highly interdisciplinary nature of biochemistry, and the diverse range of students taking introductory biochemistry courses, it can be difficult to incorporate authentic applications of course content that appeal broadly to students. However, it is important to engage students‘ learning at the affective level. One mode to achieve this goal is by incorporating assignments that support students in identifying the relevance of course content and the skills they are learning. In this study we incorporated an assignment that placed students in the role of science communicators, where they attended a research seminar and then wrote a summary of the research, connecting it to course content. We interviewed students about their experiences with the assignment to identify the ways in which it appealed to them affectively and influenced their perceived learning. Our results indicate that both components supported students to identify the relevance of biochemistry on a personal and societal level, as well as supported students’ perceived understanding of biochemistry concepts. Thus, incorporating assignments that encourage students to build their own connections with biochemistry content can be beneficial to their affective learning.

Organic chemistry courses enroll students from many majors with diverse interests. Although instructors may strive to appeal to these interests by relating course content to real life, it is challenging to intrinsically appeal to students at the personal level, particularly in high enrollment courses like organic chemistry. When students identify personal connections with course content, they may be more interested or motivated to continue learning course content. To help students identify connections, we designed and implemented a writing assignment prompting students to select an organic compound that personally relates to them and write about this personal connection. Herein, we discuss the implementation and evaluation of the assignment. Student feedback survey responses and interviews indicate that the assignment allowed students to identify how organic chemistry is relevant to their lives. We believe the assignment could be effectively implemented at other institutions and in other chemistry courses.