Presenting Biochemistry Topics through a Systems Thinking Approach

The 21st century presents global challenges that require interdisciplinary approaches. The emerging area of Systems Thinking in Chemistry Education (STICE) encourages reform in chemistry education and practice using different cognitive frameworks, tools, and strategies to visualize the interconnectivity of how chemistry knowledge relates not only among branches within the discipline but also connections to the domains within and beyond the natural sciences. Changes in the pedagogical approach of a biochemistry course are suggested herein to address some of these challenges. Based on some of these changes, the reductionist approach is replaced by a systems thinking approach that stimulates the students to think beyond the basic concepts introduced in order to see the connections and applications to areas other than the specific discipline. In this manuscript, examples of metabolism and metabolites are used to exemplify the application of systems thinking in presenting different areas of knowledge related to topics in a biochemistry course. The specific topic of “ketone bodies” is used as the core subsystem. The connections among different subsystems including biochemistry/metabolism, physiology/medicine, nutrition/diet, and environment/society are discussed in detail.