Exploring Miracle Fruit: An Undergraduate Laboratory Exercise on Experimental Design

In recent years, undergraduate biology and biochemistry curricula have seen an increase in the use of course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs). CUREs maximize potential student gains when students take an active role in experimental design. Here we propose an activity that can either complement CUREs or function as a stand-alone activity that develops students’ abilities to design an experiment. While most active-learning interventions are designed for the purpose of teaching content, with experimental design skills as a secondary concern, this activity was created primarily to develop experimental design skills, while concurrently teaching important biochemistry concepts. The activity, designed to occur during a single three-hour lab meeting, allows students to experimentally explore the mechanisms of the taste-altering miraculin protein, found in the fruit of Richadella dulcifica, commonly known as miracle fruit. Students in an advanced biology class reported increased understanding of important experimental design concepts and increased knowledge of receptor binding and structural dynamism of proteins. Students also reported learning the importance of identifying nested variables that are difficult to tease apart, particularly when resources, time, or subjects are limited. While intended to develop experimental design skills in an upper-level undergraduate biology course, instructors can adapt the activity to suit biochemistry and introductory biology courses. Citation: Ganser SJ, Hines JK, Butler MW. 2021. Exploring Miracle Fruit: An Undergraduate Laboratory Exercise on Experimental Design. CourseSource. https://doi.org/10.24918/cs.2021.29 Editor: Neena Grover, Colorado College Received: 8/14/2020; Accepted: 4/12/2021; Published: 10/20/2021 Copyright: © 2021 Ganser, Hines, and Butler. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Conflict of Interest and Funding Statement: None of the authors has a financial, personal, or professional conflict of interest related to this work. Supporting Materials: Supporting Files S1. Miracle Fruit Presentation Slides; S2. Miracle Fruit Probing Questions to Uncover Experimental Design Issues; S3. Miracle Fruit Exit Survey; S4. Miracle Fruit Pre-lab Questions; and S5. Miracle Fruit Laboratory Protocol. *Correspondence to: Mike Butler, Department of Biology, Lafayette College, 746 High Street, 326 RockwellEaston, PA, USA 18042; butlermw@lafayette.edu. CourseSource | www.coursesource.org 2021 | Volume 08 1 Lesson