Researching the Future

Isaac Asimov is credited with saying, “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ but ‘That’s funny…'”

If you had been around during a new Biochemistry Lab at ORU, you would probably have heard a lot of students saying, "That's funny…"

ORU professors hope it’s the class of the future. So does the National Science Foundation.

A couple dozen students were the beneficiaries of a $24,000 NSF grant called “Improving Undergraduate Stem Education” (IUSE). The goal of the project: to train undergraduate biochemistry students to be more effective scientists. Sounds like a good idea. Many of the students thought so.

“I feel like it’s given me a better, whole person education in the biological field," says Matthew Goelzer, a senior biology major, "because in biology you get so focused on one specific area it’s hard to expand. So I thought that was the exciting part.”

Chemistry professor Dr. Robert Stewart says the students were seeking to understand how enzymes work. Enzymes are proteins that control the rate at which processes occur in the body. The students also practiced their teamwork, collaborating with six other universities including the Rochester Institute of Technology and California Polytechnic.

Most of the students say they expected a typical lab with expected outcomes but that was not the case with this class. They say they gained an understanding of what it would be like to work in a research lab, and many who hope to become doctors someday say they discovered a new appreciation for research.

“It makes the students more marketable,” said biology major Julianna Sherman. She believes classes like this can be a draw for students to experience novel research and make them more attractive to graduate and medical schools.

Eureka? There's nothing funny about that.

###