Problem-based Learning: Research Project

By Maxime Denis , McGill University

At a Glance

Discipline

STEM
Biochemistry

Instructional Level

University

Course

ANAT/BIOC 458

Tasks in Workflow

Social Plane(s)

Individual
Group
Whole Class

Type of Tasks

Collecting & seeking information
Creating & designing
Presenting
Experimenting & conducting inquiry
Taking a quiz & test

Technical Details

Useful Technologies

Powerpoint, Prezi, Keynote

Class size

Small (20-49)

Time

Semester long

Instructional Purpose

Application & knowledge building
Exploration & inquiry

Overview

This activity, using Problem-Based Learning, benefits students as it gives them an opportunity to read and engage with literature in their field and to formulate good research questions and design methods to solve a problem. This competency-based approach allows students to acquire content and develop higher skills by looking into literature, creating a project, and communicating the information with a presentation

It is a semester long project that is linked to other activities in the course, which are all aimed to prepare them for the presentation component. In this activity, each team of students chooses a topic related to the course material and reads literature in order to identify a disease related to their protein. Once they have done so they pose a research question and design a method to possibly find a solution to the problem. They also provide three questions and answers, one of which will be selected by the instructor and will appear on the final exam. Each team presents their findings to the class.

Instructional Objectives

This is a competency based project, which focuses more on the process of coming up with a good research question and teaching students to engage with literature in their field
Students learn how to communicate their research in a format that will foster peer-learning through coming up with complex questions related to their topics

Workflow & Materials

Activity Workflow

View on CourseFlow

Contributor's Notes

Benefits

Students are supported through the process and little of the weight of the grade is placed on the presentation portion of the project, this decreases anxiety
Students are exposed to literature in their field and are given the opportunity to propose novel solutions to problems
The continual assessment structure of this assignment allows the instructor to revise any misconceptions and correct it early on so that students are more confident while presenting to their peers

Tips

Provide students with a rubric that is clear at the beginning of the project
Meeting with each team gives them confidence and you can prepare teams for the questions you will ask them in class

For Inclusivity & Accessibility:

In order to accommodate OSD students the instructor gives the option to students to use a video format in place of the oral presentation. In order to help students feel more comfortable with presenting, the instructor provides support, practice, and continual assessment throughout the research process (Meeting with each group individually)

Feedback Cancel reply

Published: 25/09/2021

Copyright: © 2025 Denis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication on this website is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.