Experiencing research through creative design and ownership of

This case study has been developed from data gathered through observations of the teaching component, interviews with the tutor, and a student focus group. Background This case study reports on a practical module designed to give students freedom to design and execute their own research in small groups within a guided framework. Part of a six-week final-year neurobiology course for 35 undergraduate Biochemists, the module aims to gives students ownership of their practical and the chance to experience something of what it is like to be a bioscientist. The cornerstone of the module is an interactive experimental design phase that precedes laboratory work. Following briefing lectures on experimental methodologies (cell culture and immunocytochemistry), students form into groups of three for five guided planning sessions over two and a half days. The first session outlines the research scenario, and sets its parameters (e.g. reagents, equipment available) and framework (what’s available when). Groups work next through stylised research problems devised to allow discovery of fundamental experimental design elements (e.g. essential controls) and learning of essential skills (e.g. achieving complex dilutions), before deciding on their research questions and experimental design in the third session. In the penultimate session, groups present their plans to the class for peer questioning an