Digital learning material for student-directed model building in molecular biologyS

The building of models to explain data and make predictions constitutes an important goal in molecular biology research. To give students the opportunity to practice such model building, two digital cases had previously been developed in which students are guided to build a model step by step. In this article, the development and initial evaluation of a third digital case is described. It concerns the selection of bristles during Drosophila development. To mimic a real research situation in a more realistic way, students are given much more freedom while building their models and can thus follow their own model-building approach. At the same time, however, students are provided with a sufficient amount of support to ensure that they can build their models without the requirement of intensive supervision.