Technology Report pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Instructional Resources for the New MCAT Exam Available at the Open-Access, Pre-Health Collection within MedEdPORTAL’s iCollaborative Stephanie Brouet,*,† Melissa Cichowicz,‡ Henry V. Jakubowski,§ and Laura S. Zapanta∥ †
Department Department § Department ∥ Department ‡
of of of of
Chemistry, Saginaw Valley State University, University Center, Michigan 48710, United States Chemistry, West Chester University of Pennsylvania, West Chester, Pennsylvania 19383, United States Chemistry, College of Saint Benedict/Saint John’s University, Saint Joseph, Minnesota 56374, United States Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260, United States
ABSTRACT: The Pre-Health Collection within MedEdPORTAL’s iCollaborative, supported by the Association of American Medical Colleges, is an open-access repository of curriculum resources available to instructors. The goal of the collection is to help instructors develop high-quality lessons from resources developed by other instructors. Resources are acquired by submissions from faculty, and are then reviewed by editors before addition to the collection. The editors highly encourage submissions from this Journal’s readership. KEYWORDS: First-Year Undergraduate/General, Chemoinformatics, Multimedia-Based Learning, Professional Development
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INTRODUCTION The eagerly anticipated changes to the MCAT2015 exam are nearly upon us. Chemistry instructors are well aware that proper preparation for the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) developed by the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) is important for the success of our premedical students.1 Students currently enrolled in our courses will be the first population to take the new version of this important exam. As academics, we need to understand the rationale for the MCAT changes. In response, adjustments from a teaching perspective could range from radical to minor, depending on the institution and goals of the programs. These changes have potential to cause significant waves in chemical education, because so many students we teach have aspirations toward medical school. It is reasonable to suppose that students will demand changes if the current curriculum is not properly preparing them for success.
should be erased, as evidenced by the interdisciplinary descriptors (bioorganic, organometallic, etc.) we use to characterize ourselves and our specialties. This is also true across physics, biology, and chemistry. As a result, several organizations, including the American Chemical Society (ACS)2 and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB),3 have begun tailoring their recommendation toward “competencies” and away from curriculum recommendations such as a suggested course list. Student outcomes, and not a checklist of prerequisite courses in which material has been covered, are what is important. This could lead to a significant change to the recommendations medical schools give to students who would like to attend their institutions. Additionally, the MCAT exam has been targeted to reflect this shift in thinking, and will determine student “competency” in an interdisciplinary fashion.4,5 This raises the question of how academia could best approach this change. To help institutions move toward a competencies-based approach in a concrete manner, the AAMC has listed specific foundational concepts for which students are expected to demonstrate competency. The shift toward the inter-relationship of concepts across disciplines could, and perhaps should, influence some aspects of educators’ approaches to teaching material to prehealth students. Large schools with high populations of “premedical” students could tailor some of their courses to address the changes or even create new courses. Smaller schools could then be put at a disadvantage, because they may not have the population demand to create entirely new courses to tailor delivery of material toward preparation for the MCAT exam, and ultimately, medical school. Remember, these programs will have chemistry majors, engineering majors, and other disciplines that require attention to the fundamental core
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MCAT2015 AND POTENTIAL IMPACTS The potential impact of the MCAT changes on chemistry needs to be examined closely. Some changes directly relate to chemistry, as biochemistry will now be specifically included in the exam. This could change a program’s placement of biochemistry in their sequence. Students typically take the MCAT exam at the end of their third year, which means they would need to complete biochemistry by that time to be fully prepared. If the current placement of biochemistry is in the fourth or final year, the program should probably be altered. In any case, the inclusion of biochemistry on the MCAT exam will lead to changes in enrollment pressures. A more sweeping change has also been communicated. Knowledge across disciplines will be explored, as students will be tested on their ability to interconnect concepts learned in different courses. It has been widely recognized in chemistry that the boundaries between subdisciplines are artificial and © 2013 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
Published: November 4, 2013 1697
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Journal of Chemical Education
Technology Report
5. The principles that govern chemical interactions and reactions form the basis for a broader understanding of the molecular dynamics of living systems. The foundational concepts are broken down into content categories and then further into specific topics. The iCollaborative portal is searchable by keywords, foundational concept, or discipline. Materials are organized by instructional technique (independent student, lecture, assessment, and simulation) and format (animation, lab guide, multimedia, reference, video, and tutorial). Resources can be ranked and commented on by users, creating a community consensus with respect to the quality of a particular material. Ultimately, the users of the Prehealth Collection will greatly influence its content as they will conceivably be submitting and reviewing materials themselves. This is anticipated to be a successful avenue to increase the number of quality resources available to instructors and to enhance their programs.
material that needs to be covered. The traditional general or organic chemistry course is already jam-packed with specific content, which leave many feeling that they have very little room for flexibility to address some of the special concerns a prehealth student may have for MCAT preparation. So what is the instructor to do?
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PRE-HEALTH COLLECTION WITHIN MedEdPORTAL’s iCollaborative The AAMC recognizes this challenge facing instructors, particularly at smaller institutions, and has put together resources aimed to enhance the ability of instructors to address their critical material and make sure that “competencies” are also being met. One is the Prehealth Collection within MedEdPORTAL’s iCollaborative.6 The Prehealth Collection is a repository of resources available freely through the Internet to instructors, categorized by foundational concepts and competencies. As a result, instructors can ensure that they are covering necessary material, and if not, come to the repository to find materials to enhance their own courses. The nature of the material is not specific to prehealth students. Students who are chemistry majors can also benefit from the provided material. It would not be surprising if many instructors find some of the resources are ones that they are already using in their courses.
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CONCLUSION The editors would like to invite you to submit your own original resources or open access materials for inclusion in the MedEdPORTAL’s iCollaborative Pre-Health Collection. Contributions are important for the collection to become a valuable resource to our community and we would be grateful for your participation.
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CONTRIBUTION OF RESOURCES TO THE COLLECTION The major task as editors of the prehealth collection for chemistry and biochemistry is to request that instructors of general, organic, and biochemistry submit teaching resources to the repository that they have found valuable in their own course. Your submissions are welcome!7 These materials can be original works by the instructor, or openly available resources on the Web that have not already been included. They can range from slide presentations that instructors use in their course, to a Web site that the instructor found valuable for prepping a lecture, or a better way to explain a topic. Animations, videos, and audio files are also welcome in the repository.8 While not peer reviewed in the traditional sense, each submission to the iCollaborative of the MedEdPortal is reviewed by editors who establish accuracy and categorize the resource according to pre-health competency and MCAT2015 Foundational Concept. For chemistry and biochemistry, the following five foundational concepts apply: 1. Biomolecules have unique properties that determine how they contribute to the structure and function of cells and how they participate in the processes necessary to maintain life. 2. Highly organized assemblies of molecules, cells, and organs interact to carry out the functions of living organisms. 3. Complex systems of tissues and organs sense the internal and external environments of multicellular organisms and, through integrated functioning, maintain a stable internal environment within an ever-changing external environment. 4. Complex living organisms transport materials, sense their environment, process signals, and respond to changes using processes understood in terms of physical principles.
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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REFERENCES
(1) MCAT2015 Exam for Administrators at Medical Schools and Undergraduate Programs. https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/ mcat/mcat2015/admins/ (accessed Oct 2013). (2) Undergraduate Professional Education in Chemistry: ACS Guidelines and Evaluation Procedures for Bachelor’s Degree Programs (Spring 2008). http://portal.acs.org/portal/fileFetch/C/WPCP_ 008491/pdf/WPCP_008491.pdf (accessed Oct 2013). (3) Curriculum Recommended by ASBMB. http://www.asbmb.org/ CareersAndEducation.aspx?id=432 (accessed Oct 2013). (4) The Course-Mapping Tool for the MCAT2015 Exam. https:// www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/mcat2015/admins/ resources/313190/thecourse-mappingtoolforthemcat2015exam.html (accessed Oct 2013). (5) Arnaud, C. H. National Experiment in Undergraduate Science Education for Premed and Medical Education. Chem. Eng. News 2011, 89 (47), 38. (6) MedEdPORTAL Publications home page. https://www. mededportal.org/ (accessed Oct 2013). (7) iCollaborative Submission Form Web page. https://surveys.aamc. org/se.ashx?s=7C7E87CB28AF392C (accessed Oct 2013). (8) MedEdPORTAL Web page for frequently asked questions about submissions. https://www.mededportal.org/icollaborative/about/faq/ (accessed Oct 2013).
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