From Memorisation to Mechanistic Reasoning in Biochemistry with METAL: An Integrated Framework for Course Design
Abstract
Content-heavy biochemistry courses can reward memorisation without supporting students in constructing chemical explanations of biomolecular phenomena. This Perspective presents METAL (Mechanistic Explanation and Transfer through Aligned Learning), an integrated framework for redesigning content-heavy courses around explanation and transfer. We illustrate the framework through a fourth-semester biochemistry course organised around three recurring explanatory resources: intermolecular interactions and bonding, thermodynamic driving forces, and electron density. Examples from enzyme kinetics, structural modelling, weekly tasks, and an oral examination show how these resources were reused across increasingly demanding contexts. METAL offers instructors a practical route from topic coverage to courses in which students repeatedly build, test, and transfer mechanistic chemical explanations.
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BibTeX
@misc{haraldsrud2026from,
title = {{From Memorisation to Mechanistic Reasoning in Biochemistry with METAL: An Integrated Framework for Course Design}},
author = {Andreas Haraldsrud and Steven Wilson},
howpublished = {ChemRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.26434/chemrxiv.15008073/v1},
url = {https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15008073/v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - From Memorisation to Mechanistic Reasoning in Biochemistry with METAL: An Integrated Framework for Course Design
AU - Andreas Haraldsrud
AU - Steven Wilson
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/31
PB - ChemRxiv
DO - 10.26434/chemrxiv.15008073/v1
UR - https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15008073/v1
AB - Content-heavy biochemistry courses can reward memorisation without supporting students in constructing chemical explanations of biomolecular phenomena. This Perspective presents METAL (Mechanistic Explanation and Transfer through Aligned Learning), an integrated framework for redesigning content-heavy courses around explanation and transfer. We illustrate the framework through a fourth-semester biochemistry course organised around three recurring explanatory resources: intermolecular interactions and bonding, thermodynamic driving forces, and electron density. Examples from enzyme kinetics, structural modelling, weekly tasks, and an oral examination show how these resources were reused across increasingly demanding contexts. METAL offers instructors a practical route from topic coverage to courses in which students repeatedly build, test, and transfer mechanistic chemical explanations.
ER -