Evaluation of motivation, compromise and knowledge, implementing an educational material printed in 3D in bioengineering

A key issue in molecular biology courses is to keep the compromise and motivation in students when molecular mechanisms are explained in class. In this work we developed an innovative way to teach these items based on experiential learning through the incorporation of 3D printed molecules involved in DNA replication. We evaluated students at college and high school level in current study programs at Tecnológico de Monterrey. To know the motivation and compromise of the students with their learning, they realized a video explaining DNA replication and they answered three surveys. The results showed that the most part of the students was motivated to learn when the 3D models are incorporated into their class activities but in compromise just a group showed significant results. The incorporation of 3D printing biomolecules allowed to improve the learning-teaching method to create biological models touchable and useful to analyze and understand molecular interactions, mechanisms, and structures in bioengineering.