A DIDATIC EXPERIENCE IN BIOCHEMISTRY LABWORKS: THEORETICALVERSUS EXPERIMENTAL MODEL

• Main Authors: B.C Rossi-Rodrigues, E.A Oliveira, E. Galembeck
• Format: Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Bioquímica e Biologia Molecular, SBBq 2008-05-01
• Series: Journal of Biochemistry Education
• Subjects: biochemical practical class, buffer, titration.
• Online Access: http://bioquimica.org.br/revista/ojs/index.php/REB/article/view/85

Biochemistry labworks are fundamental to both the instrumentation and  for  the  establishment of important concepts. The labworks of Basic  Biochemistry  (BB280) for Biology students at UNICAMP have gone through several  improvements. The labworks are  now  structured  from simple  activities to more complex ones, and aimed  to  the student’s  autonomy  development  in the experiments planning and execution  over  the teaching  semester. The first practical activity is on buffer systems, and   it is based  on  the confrontation of a theoretical model with the  lab experiments results.  First of all, the students  simulate  a Titration  in  a computational environment, where students lay a theoretical model from their knowledge. In the theoretical model the buffer parameters are set according to the teacher instructions, and the experiment conditions are also set and tested.  The simulation results are used for planning  the experiment and to compare with the experimental ones.  After having the simulations concluded and having the experiment planned the students  perform  the  in lab  Titration with the parameters established in the simulation. The results obtained by students are presented in a report. We analyzed the reports from 76 BB280’s students in 2007(night class and day class). The students identified as the main causes of the discrepancy between theoretical and experimental data: 1) experimental errors, related to the lack of technical skill 2) limitation of equipment used 3) unexpected behavior of the substances  used. In addition to the theoretical content related to  labwork, the confrontation between the  simulation and experimentation provided the students with ability  to identify the main aspects of which can influence the quality of the data obtained.