Choose Your Own Adventure: Mini Journal Club for Undergrad Molecular Biology

Students must engage the primary literature as individuals with confidence and reliability to pursue post-graduate careers in research and medicine. To help address this issue in a junior- and senior-level molecular biology lecture, an active-learning based Mini Journal Club is implemented for the duration of the course. After a viewing and discussion of a typical large-format journal club on video, the students each choose their own literature review “adventure” within set parameters. Class time is given to select and provide justification for choosing two original research articles that are interpreted and presented, after which the students analyze and organize their content. After analysis assignments and isolation of the section(s) that are presented, the students create a 10- minute video of their delivery of the content. After submission, each student receives short follow-up questions that they must answer in written format. Mechanisms, Techniques, Disease Phenotypes, and Cell Signaling are some of the general areas “adventures” can fall under. The course assignments alternate weeks between journal club preparation assignments and the typical content assessments. This gives students the opportunity to have some agency in the topic they choose as well as confidence in the delivery of the material, as well as engaging students in other assessment types beyond typical examinations.