As part of the initiative (ZTC – Zero Textbook Cost) at TRU to produce more open educational resources to replace traditional print textbooks to support student learning, this new resource has been developed specifically to support the course – BIOL 3130/CHEM 3730 – Introduction to Biochemistry. Furthermore, this resource has been produced utilizing students as partners in the process. Some students who enroll in this course may struggle with certain concepts, one of the main ones being the ability to understand, describe and predict the organic reactions involved in the mechanisms of enzyme catalyzed biochemical reactions. To this end, an assignment is given to the class as follows:

“Each student will be randomly assigned an enzyme, on the first day of class. Each student is to do a deep-dive into the literature and research the enzyme, its substrates and most importantly, the mechanism of how the enzyme works (as in the flow of electrons which facilitate bond breaking and bond formation from substrates to products).

I would like each student to be creative and come up with an innovative way to describe the mechanism of catalysis of your selected enzyme for either:
(i) a specific substrate
(ii) a group of substrates or,
(iii) a substrate and an inhibitor.

This is going to be your attempt to describe enzyme mechanisms outside of just the typical chemical mechanism diagrams we are accustomed to. Note that you will still need to use chemical reactions to describe the mechanism, but integrating a story and adding in layers of information through your own research will lead to a heightened level of understanding and presentation. I would like you to prepare an animated video and be limited only by your imagination!”

This new resource displays the work of each student in this course who have thus far agreed to have their work openly licensed. Each student’s work has been turned into a Chapter in this book, and each chapter includes Background information on the selected Enzyme as well as a YouTube video which was created by the student. Chapters are named after the students who contributed their work to that section, so as to highlight them and their generosity in the production of this resource. It is expected that this resource will grow each year, as student work is added, and can be used by students in this course as a study guide and example of amazing creativity, integrating art in science. Biochemistry is fun!