What does it look like to bring cutting-edge biotechnology into an introductory classroom—and do it in a way that’s affordable, sustainable, and hands-on for every student? This month, our faculty spotlight features Dr. April Wynn and Dr. Ginny Morriss, who used a Center for Teaching Small Teaching Grant last summer to design and pilot a gene-editing lab for General Genetics. They shared this work at the fall Faculty Pedagogy Colloquium, and in this Q&A, they talk about how the project came to life, what students are learning from it, and where they hope to take it next. Along the way, they also reflect on the teachers who shaped them, the joy of “productive failure,” and a few fun questions we couldn’t resist asking.
Last summer, you all had a CfT Small Teaching Grant and presented about it during a Faculty Pedagogy Colloquium—can you tell us a little about this project?
One of the major draws for students to come to UMW is our emphasis on providing high-impact education and authentic laboratory experiences for our students that will better position them to be competitive in both their job searches and in admissions into graduate school and professional schools. Gene editing is becoming a standard technique in labs across the country. Since gene editing technologies are still relatively new, it is cost-prohibitive for large universities to allow students experience using these tools in their labs and this has previously been no different at UMW. Only students taking one of the two research-intensive courses that involve gene editing or working on independent research projects were able to utilize gene editing tools. We wanted to provide a way in which all students who major in biological sciences can gain experience using these tools, so our project was to design a low-cost, sustainable gene editing lab. This lab is integrated within one of our introductory courses, General Genetics, and taken by all biology students, all biochem students, and all pre-med students. We used the bacteria, E. coli, which is a standard model organism used in genetics labs and some other molecular biology tools to have students target and cut the E. coli DNA. Once cut, they repaired that DNA in a way that would create a non-functional enzyme whose function, or lack thereof, could be assessed using colorful indicators. Using these indicators, the students would be able to tell whether their gene editing was successful because the color of the indicator differs when the functional enzyme is present versus when the non-functional (edited) enzyme is present. We rolled out the gene editing lab during the Spring 2025 semester, with positive comments from students about the exercise. While we were piloting the lab with the students, we were also making small changes to the protocol and optimizing it so that we could make the lab even more resource-efficient than the pilot.
How has the incorporation of this work enhanced your classroom setting?
Students can learn complex technologies more effectively when they work with the technologies in a hands-on way. This lab enhances not only the ability to learn this emerging technology, but it also served to reinforce concepts learned in the prior labs, review new concepts learned in lecture, and connected the material to other biotechnologies we covered later in the semester in both lecture and lab. Additionally, this investment in staying on the cutting edge of emerging technologies, gives our curriculum relevance for our students.
Do you have any further plans to continue?
Yes. When we started this project, we purchased the original bacteria and DNAs used and prepared them in a way that we could continue long-term use of these biological materials. This included freezing the bacteria in a way that it could be thawed and grown when more was needed and inserting the DNA into a different strain of bacteria that we could also freeze and grow more when needed, rather than re-purchasing. We also amplified the amount of the DNA for long-term storage and isolated the DNA from the special strain of bacteria we obtained from the project. We will have all of these DNA samples sequenced so we can use the system to edit other DNA targets. We will be first using the obtained sequences to have a URES student create a gene-edited strain of bacteria for use in another genetics laboratory exercise and to modify our current CRISPR lab. We will also use the sequenced plasmid DNA to design projects in BIOL 431 (Research in RNA Technology) that explore the function of other E. coli genes using gene editing.
Is there anything that stands out to you that has prepared you or continues to prepare you most for effective teaching?
AW: Talking to students about their experience before coming here, what they are doing in internships and external research and working with dedicated colleagues that take effective teaching seriously. Additionally, the availability of funding for trying new projects that will make the classroom more engaging allows for the space to try new things within the classroom.
GM: I would say that comparing notes with other faculty, whether within department or at professional development sessions, to get new ideas on how to approach certain topics or fun ways to teach any topic helps rethink the way I do things.
Who was your favorite teacher?
AW: Dr. Pilcher – he taught biology classes and in his last year teaching taught a course on the History of Darwin. It was a great liberal-arts class combining biology, history and sociology. He had taught college for 40 years and cared about promoting learning from the first to the last day he taught.
GM: There are too many to choose from, but if I could only choose 1, I’d say Dr. Staub, who showed me not only how much fun genetics could be, but also how showing compassion to the students when something seems off can change how they view interactions with faculty and higher education as a whole.
8:00 a.m. class or 4:00 p.m. class?
AW: 4 pm – no brainer!
GM: I have to disagree with April, 8 am, hands down, is the only way to go when these are the only two options!
What is your dream class to teach?
AW: A seminar on GMO plants – what worked and what didn’t!
GM: I already get to teach mine – RNA Technology. But, really anything that has to do with genetic engineering sounds like a fun time, even if it is with plants!
What is one piece of advice you’d give a brand-new faculty member?
AW: Trust yourself! Remember that what you are teaching is new to the students it will be a challenge, and that is where the learning happens.
GM: You are going to have some ideas that will fall flat with the students. Take the risk and learn the lesson. We become better when we can embrace productive failure.
What podcast, book, or show would you currently recommend?
AW: The Anxious Generation (book)
GM: Braiding Sweetgrass (book)
If you could take any class in the UMW catalog, what would it be?
AW: Pretty much all the FSEM classes! Or psychopathology.
GM: Historic Preservation courses…so many of them!
What were you like as a student in college?
AW: Overscheduled and overinvolved – loved every minute of it! That is why I never left the college atmosphere.
GM: I was also overscheduled and overinvolved. That has not really changed much.