Teaching Development Grants
Completed TDG Projects

IT in the Curriculum and E-learning

Breathing Life into the Concepts of Biochemistry – from Bedside to Benchside


Abstract

Undergraduate medical students in their specialty clerkships were invited to help recruiting suitable “trigger” cases to study concepts in biochemistry for the junior year students. It is the first time that the final year medical students become involved in the teaching content development. These student helpers were asked to identify cases, obtain written patient consents, and write a brief case summary to justify their collections.

261 patients were recruited by 25 student helpers. Data checks of their clinical details indicated that 206 of these cases (79%) could be considered relevant to different sub-theme and concept teaching in biochemistry. From this successful initiative, a lot of data mining can be drawn from this rich local resources for more effective contextualized learning.

This project initiates a fruitful cycle towards building a positive relationship between professional degree students and their basic science teachers. In turn, it should not only strengthen science learning, but boost up student’s own professional confidence.

Principal Investigator

Dr. J.W.Y. Ho, Department of Biochemistry, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine Contact

Project level

Programme-level project

Project Completion

March 2016

Deliverables

  1. The collection of authentic and local scenarios.
  2. Poster presentation at the International Conference on “Frontiers in Medical and Health Sciences Education – HKU 2015” Conference: Learner Wellbeing Across the Continuum, Nov 2015. Download
  3. Abstract submission (accepted by AMEE conference “Innovation in Education, Aug 2016)
  4. Case illustration 1
    • This is an exemplar application in the Moodle platform used in a Year II MBBS Biochemistry Lab Session.
  5. Case illustration 2
    • This is a case story written for an integrated delivery across several system blocks in the Year I and II MBBS Biochemistry Teaching Sessions.

Please contact Dr. J.W.Y. Ho, Department of Biochemistry, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine (joannaho@hku.hk) if you are interested in obtaining more information on this project.