Impact of an In-Class Biochemistry Mini-conference on Students' Perception of Science

The work presented here is the summary of a 3 year study that aimed to uncover how students' perception of science changes with the chance to participate in a mini conference that is incorporated into the biochemistry lecture course. Students were asked to work in groups of 2 or 3 and research a topic that is related to the material covered in class. Their research was presented during the last lecture of the course, and the presentation was conducted similar to a conference poster session. The students' grades on this assignment were entirely based on peer evaluation and not on evaluation by the instructor. A survey was conducted before and after this assignment to gauge how the experience changed students' perception of science. The study was conducted with both STEM majors and non-STEM majors to allow comparison of how these two groups of students were affected by the experience.