NEW ACTIVE METHODOLOGIES FOR CRITICAL LEARNING IN THE FIELD OF BIOCHEMISTRY OF HUMAN NUTRITION

Abstract

Background: The teaching of the subject “Biochemical Basis of Human Nutrition” of the Degree in Biochemistry is based on the premise that students apply the knowledge acquired in previous courses concerning biochemistry and metabolism. However, for many topics covered in this subject, not rigorously application of this knowledge has been detected, existing influences derived from non-expert information available in the media. To a large extent, this problem lies in the fact that nutrition is a topic widely covered in the media, although often in a generalized, incomplete and not very rigorous way. Methodologies: In this project we proposed students to apply a critical view on nutrition-related information available in the media, with special emphasis on the hottest topics, such as transgenic foods and Mediterranean diet. For this purpose, we designed two strategies: (1) a mini-workshop activity in connection with the subject “Food Biotechnology” focused on the use of transgenic foods; (2) involving students in the creation and management of a web page aimed at dealing with topics related to nutrition, worked from two approaches (informative and scientific). For the development of these activities, students were assigned to different working groups and information about the knowledge of the students in the topics was collected in pre- and post-activity tests. In this way, we involved students in real activities of expert search and screening of information, in order to communicate it in different environments. Results: The project was developed during two academic years, involving students from two successive promotions (30 students in the first year and 39 in the second year). The activities proposed within the project were voluntary, and the percentage of adherence to them was 100% in both cases, indicating the high degree of acceptance among the students. We created a website (www.lawebnatural.com) in the context of this project. In the activities aimed at researching and writing articles on specific topics within the web page environment, questionnaires were carried out prior to the development of the activities to evaluate the degree of knowledge that the students had about the topics to be worked on in the activities. The implementation of post-activities questionnaires showed an improvement percentage of 85% in the knowledge of the topics. The elaboration of graphic material on transgenic foods for the mini-workshop activity, was another profitable activity contributing to a better understanding of the topics. Conclusions and implications: The use of these dynamics concerning the active participation of students in creative tasks based on information search improves the quality of learning. The choice of current topics in nutrition awakens the students' critical spirit, as they confront their pre-established ideas about these topics with the new knowledge acquired. Findings: This communication is derived from the Educative Innovation Project PIE19-068, funded by University of Malaga. Websites were supported by funds from My Scientific.