Integration of Technology in the Chemistry Classroom and Laboratory

The role of technology in the chemistry classroom and laboratory continues to evolve, with mainstream applications such as pre-lecture/laboratory resources being supplemented by technological innovations such as immersive reality. Although the range is vast, care must be taken to select appropriate and pedagogically aligned technologies to enable learning. In this chapter a model for the appropriate selection and application of technology enabled learning in chemistry is developed and explored in the context of two case-studies. This model, LEAPTech, is based on ten years of personal experience, informed by evidence and underpinned by the scholarly literature. This model will serve as a starting point for new educators and a useful checkpoint for more experienced educators. Although the chapter is written from a chemistry education stance; the technologies, case studies and model examined are applicable to all practical STEM subjects. The LEAPTech model is central to the two case-studies detailed and provides context and capacity for readers to adopt a tried and tested framework and set of technologies from two chemistry education settings: The use of augmented reality learning supports in the lab. Collaborative online peer instruction in lectures. Technology is ubiquitous; however, support is needed for educators around how to select appropriate technologies for their students. The LEAPTech Framework provides a sensible tool to map learning activity to an aligned and supportive technology, and to measure the impact of technology integration in a chemistry/science classroom or laboratory. An easy adoption of the LEAPTech Framework is enabled by the noted recommendations

IMPACT Project Report

The TU Dublin IMPACT project was a National Forum and HEA-funded project under the Strategic Alignment of Teaching and Learning Enhancement (SATLE)) fund which materialised over/during the 2020/21 Academic Year. The aim of the SATLE fund was to develop a strong foundation for future enhancement of teaching and learning (T&L) within an institution and in line with local and national priorities. TU Dublin received the largest funding allocation of any Irish HEI; a total of €602,000. This significant funding was used to develop strategically aligned, sustainable processes and infrastructure to maximise the impact of TU Dublin’s T&L practices on the student and staff experience. The SATLE funding, with the support of the IMPACT project team, empowered and enabled cultural, community and capacity change in TU Dublin. The whole-of-university approach to pedagogical change adopted in the IMPACT project maximised the impact of the project and resulted in sustainable supports for student success. The project was divided into five work packages, each with its own workstream, that developed a digital repository, structured staff and programme-team development, supported the development of cross-disciplinary programmes of the future and empowered innovative T&L practices. The entire project was undertaken in the shadow of Covid-19; however, through adversity the IMPACT project forged opportunity. A strong community of enthusiastic stakeholders – staff, students and external colleagues – engaged with, and shaped, the IMPACT project. Full details of the project, the work packages and the workstreams are available on the TU Dublin IMPACT website (www.tudublinimpact.wordpress.com); regular and real-time project updates were posted to the Twitter account (@TUDublinIMPACT) and shared via mailing lists across the university. The core values of the project were community, capacity and culture; these are underpinned by a sustainable ethos and a positive mindset. Ní neart go cur le chéile – there is no strength without unity! The IMPACT project was our project and it will inform and shape our future through our repositories, our professional development, our innovation, our creativity and the success of our students through consolidating and extending the outputs. Over time, our community of staff, students and the wider TU Dublin stakeholders will be the benefactors of their extensive commitment to the IMPACT project. Together, as a supported T&L community, we will continue to enhance, celebrate and promote a culture of excellence in T&L, which will sustainably support student success. Our new university is in its important formative years and I believe the impact of IMPACT will continue to be felt into the future. We are starting on a long journey of pedagogical development, building on our collective past strengths. In doing this, it is critical to have a solid base from which to develop our model of education; a distinctive educational experience for all at TU Dublin. It was an honour to lead such a dynamic, agile and (pardon the pun!) impactful project that will be part of this journey

Introduction to the IMPACT Special Issue

In this Introduction, an overview of the IMPACT Special Issue is presented. The context of the IMPACT project is described and explained. A short summary is given for each of the papers that follow. Readers are invited to read the Special Issue, access the IMPACT project website, and connect with authors and project leads

Arginine-to-lysine substitutions influence recombinant horseradish peroxidase stability and immobilisation effectiveness

Background: Horseradish Peroxidase (HRP) plays important roles in many biotechnological fields, including diagnostics, biosensors and biocatalysis. Often, it is used in immobilised form. With conventional immobilisation techniques, the enzyme adheres in random orientation: the active site may face the solid phase rather than bulk medium, impeding substrate access and leading to sub-optimal catalytic performance. The ability to immobilise HRP in a directional manner, such that the active site would always face outwards from the insoluble matrix, would maximise the immobilised enzyme’s catalytic potential and could increase HRP’s range of actual and potential applications. Results: We have replaced arginine residues on the face of glycan-free recombinant HRP opposite to the active site by lysines. Our strategy differs from previous reports of specific HRP immobilisation via an engineered affinity tag or single reactive residue. These conservative Arg-to-Lys substitutions provide a means of multipoint covalent immobilisation such that the active site will always face away from the immobilisation matrix. One triple and one pentuple mutant were generated by substitution of solvent-exposed arginines on the “back” of the polypeptide (R118, R159 and R283) and of residues known to influence stability (K232 and K241). Orientated HRP immobilisation was demonstrated using a modified polyethersulfone (PES) membrane; the protein was forced to orientate its active site away from the membrane and towards the bulk solution phase. Mutant properties and bioinformatic analysis suggested the reversion of K283R to improve stability, thus generating two additional mutants (K118/R159K and R118K/K232N/K241F/R283K). While most mutants were less stable in free solution than wild type rHRP, the quadruple revertant regained some stability over its mutant counterparts. A greater degree of immobilisation on CNBr-activated SepharoseTM was noted with increased lysine content; however, only marginal gains in solvent stability resulted from immobilisation on this latter matrix. Conclusions: Directional, orientated, immobilisation of rHRP mutants onto an activated, modified polyethersulfone membrane has been achieved with excellent retention of catalytic activity; however, re-engineering of acceptable stability characteristics into the “immobilisation mutants” will determine their applicability in diagnosis and biosensor development

An Explorative Case-Study of the use of PeerWise to Foster Student Centred, and Peer Supported, Learning in a First-Year Business Module

Peer based learning is not a new concept in business studies in higher education; however, the integration of technology enabled and asynchronous peer learning has limited reported use and even less evidence based evaluation. In this explorative case study, the online tool PeerWise was used to scaffold and support an asynchronous peer-learning environment for a group of 212 first year business studies students. Students were required to create, answer and rate multiple choice questions on topics aligned to their curriculum within the peer constructed PeerWise question database. While there was no statistically significant correlation between PeerWise engagement and final module exam performance, conversely, considerable positive changes in student motivation, self-understanding and reflective learning were observed, informed by thematic analysis. With these key findings in mind, a set of themed recommendations for practice are offered to support staff seeking to integrate PeerWise, or technology enhanced peer learning more generally, into their teaching and learning practice

Avoiding Proteolysis During Protein Purification

All cells contain proteases which hydrolyze the peptide bonds between amino acids in a protein backbone. Typically, proteases are prevented from nonspecific proteolysis by regulation and by their physical separation into different subcellular compartments; however, this segregation is not retained during cell lysis, which is the initial step in any protein isolation procedure. Prevention of proteolysis during protein purification often takes the form of a two-pronged approach; firstly inhibition of proteolysis in situ, followed by the early separation of the protease from the protein of interest via chromatographical purification. Protease inhibitors are routinely used to limit the effect of the proteases before they are physically separated from the protein of interest via column chromatography. Here, commonly used approaches to reducing or avoiding proteolysis during protein purification and subsequent chromatography are reviewed

Differential Precipitation and Solubilisation of Proteins

Differential protein precipitation is a rapid and economical step in protein purification and is based on exploiting the inherent physicochemical properties of the polypeptide. Precipitation of recombinant proteins, lysed from the host cell, is commonly used to concentrate the protein of choice before further polishing steps with more selective purification columns (e.g., His-Tag, Size Exclusion, etc.). Recombinant proteins can also precipitate naturally as inclusion bodies due to various influences during overexpression in the host cell. Although this phenomenon permits easier initial separation from native proteins, these inclusion bodies must carefully be differentially solubilized so as to reform functional, correctly folded proteins. Here, appropriate bioinformatics tools to aid in understanding a protein’s propensity to aggregate and solubilize are explored as a backdrop for a typical protein extraction, precipitation, and selective resolubilization procedure, based on a recombinantly expressed protein

Maritime security:The uncharted politics of the global sea

In this introduction to a special section of the September 2019 issue of International Affairs, we revisit the main themes and arguments of our article ‘Beyond seablindness: a new agenda for maritime security studies’, published in this journal in November 2017. We reiterate our call for more scholarly attention to be paid to the maritime environment in international relations and security studies. We argue that the contemporary maritime security agenda should be understood as an interlinked set of challenges of growing global, regional and national significance, and comprising issues of national, environmental, economic and human security. We suggest that maritime security is characterized by four main characteristics, including its interconnected nature, its transnationality, its liminality—in the sense of implicating both land and sea—and its national and institutional cross-jurisdictionality. Each of the five articles in the special section explores aspects of the contemporary maritime security agenda, including themes of geopolitics, international law, interconnectivity, maritime security governance and the changing spatial order at sea

Evaluating a Peer Assisted Learning Programme for Mature Access Foundation Students Undertaking Computer Programming at an Irish University

Access Foundation Programmes are a widening-participation initiative designed to encourage engagement in higher education among under-represented groups. This includes socioeconomic and educational disadvantage. Mature students in particular enrolled on these programmes experience greater difficulties making the transition to tertiary education, especially when they opt to study disciplines traditionally considered difficult. Computer programming is perceived as a traditionally difficult subject with lower pass rates and progression rates typically than other subjects. This paper describes the first of a three-cycle action research study examining the perceived effects of a structured Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) Programme for mature students enrolled on a computer science programming module on an Access Foundation Program in an Irish University. The focus of this qualitative study was to evaluate the perceived effect a PAL program on learning and whether it offered a positive learning support structure. Findings from our study suggest that PAL programmes have an overall positive effect on subject comprehension as well as enhanced learner confidence for mature Access Foundation students. PAL sessions also offered students a support structure that helped with their transition and acculturation to tertiary education. This study also highlights the importance the role the PAL Leader has on the perceived effectiveness of the PAL sessions and the impact the student\u27s shared history has on the near-peer bond. The study concludes that the implementation of PAL programmes for Access Foundation Programmes has the potential to offer mature students a supportive learning environment and to improve their learning experience

Asynchronous Assistance: a Social Network Analysis of Influencing Peer Interactions in PeerWise

This mixed methods, investigative case study explored student patterns of use within the online PeerWise platform to identify the most influencing activities and to build a model capable of predicting performance based on these influencing activities. Peerwise is designed to facilitate student peer-to-peer engagement through creating, answering and ranking multiple choice questions; this study sought to understand the relationship between student engagement in Peerwise and learning performance. To address the research question, various usage metrics were explored, visualized and modelled, using social network analysis with Gephi, Tableau and Python. These findings were subsequently analyzed in light of the qualitative survey data gathered. The most significant activity metrics were evaluated leading to rich data visualisations and identified the activities that influenced academic performance in this study. The alignment of the key qualitative and quantitative findings converged on answering questions as having the greatest positive impact on learner performance. Furthermore, from a quantitative perspective the Average Comment Length and Average Explanation Length correlated positively with superior academic performance. Qualitatively, the motivating nature of PeerWise community also engaged learners. The key limitation of the size of the data set within the investigative case study suggests further research, with additional student cohorts as part of an action research paradigm, to broaden these findings