A new hub-and-spoke biology curriculum designed around interdisciplinary laboratory practical sessions to enhance student employability

Abstract

A new hub-and-spoke (H&S) model for restructuring the traditional biological science curriculum is presented here. The H&S model emphasises the integration of sub-disciplines of biology and the integration of biology with other scientific disciplines. In this model, traditional undergraduate courses that include both theory and a stand-alone laboratory component are replaced with discovery-based research courses that act as the hub, servicing discipline-specific theory-only courses, which act as the spoke. The hub course includes an immersive laboratory experience, aimed to integrate all the spoke components that the hub unit serves. The H&S model also offers an opportunity to develop a new framework that will support active pedagogies such as inquiry-based and open-ended problem-based learning, where students work in groups to solve challenging problems and build their capacity to design and implement approaches to undertake their own investigation, thus enhancing students critical thinking as well as generic skills. Overall, this model offers higher interdisciplinary biological laboratory skills, and an integrative understanding of scientific projects thus enhancing the graduate’s employability. This curriculum model may be easily adapted for other branches of science, given the interdisciplinary nature of all sciences and the R&D innovation sector.