Abstract

RIERA, M.A. et al. Utilization of the molecular visualization program RasMol as a didactic strategy for the integration of the curricular content "proteins". Educ. méd. [online]. 2010, vol.13, n.3, pp.157-162. ISSN 1575-1813.

Introduction. Visualizations programs allow to analyze deeply theoretical knowledge of protein structure. The aim of this work was to familiarize the students with the molecular visualization program RasMol v. 2.7.2 for protein analysis, integrating previous concepts and pursuing other general objectives of university formation. Materials and methods. The work was contextualized considering the integrative axis of the subjects, articulating it with conceptual and procedural contents of the topic "Protein Structure Levels". Activities were selected in order to evaluate different aspects of the general formation pretended at this level of teaching, like oral and written expression, interpretation of scientific papers in English, and bibliographic database search. Results and conclusions. 80% of the students were able to do the proposed activities with acceptable quality. Most of the students equally emphasized both the theoretical and practical procedures. 30% of the students have shown problems with oral or written expression. We noticed some difficulties in the interpretation of the proposed theoretical models and interpretation of the scientific papers in English. Additionally students did not show previous knowledge of the topics and did not look up for complementary bibliography. We propose to include some reviews in native language and simpler examples to serve as an introduction to the visualization program, with gradual incorporation of more complex models that require complementary bibliography reading.

Keywords : Didactic resources; Molecular and cellular biology; Proteins; Visualization programs.

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