Democratizing Bioinformatics Research in a High School Biology Classroom

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Democratizing Bioinformatics Research in a High
School Biology Classroom

• Bertram C. Bruce, Umesh Thakkar, Eric G.
  Jakobsson, Jo Williamson, Paul R. Lock
• U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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How can education reflect new ways of doing
science?
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Bioinformatics

• Just as astronomy was transformed through the
  invention of the optical telescope, and later,
  the radio telescope, biology is becoming a new
  science, one which links studies of biochemistry,
  genetics, cellular processes, anatomy,
  physiology, and evolution through the structure
  and properties of macromolecules (Gibas
  Jambeck, 2001)
• A major tool in this transformation is Biology
  Workbench (Subramaniam, 1998)

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Biology Workbench

• Sequence alignment
• Visualization
• Digital library
• New knowledge potassium channels compare
  sequences from various cells, tissues,
  organisms insights into the structural
  correlates of ionic selectivity, permeability
  regulation, toxin sensitivity
• Available since June 1996
• 11,000 registered users 150,000 computing
  sessions a month

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Single Site Mutation in Hemoglobin
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Mutated Residue in the Structure of Hemoglobin
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Alignment of Sequences from Horse, Chicken, Cow,
Vulture, Dogfish, Tuna, Mole
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Phylogenetic Tree from the Alignment
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Open-World Learning

• open data and problems
• open computational environment
• open community

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Mr. Locks information Ecology

• University connections
• Projects in which students have to find
  things that really arent covered in the book.
• Students have access to technologies that
  professional scientists use everyday in their
  work.
• Collaborative learning
• Articulation of learning

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Inquiry-Based Learning

• learning tools that are "open-ended,
  inquiry-based, group/teamwork-oriented, and
  relevant to professional career requirements
• National Science Foundation (1998). Information
  Technology Its impact on undergraduate education
  in science, mathematics, engineering, and
  technology. Arlington, VA National Science
  Foundation.

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Inquiry Page
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Inquiry Unit

• Ask How are different organisms related? How can
  we show their evolutionary history?
• Investigate Identify the evolutionary history of
  a group of organisms through protein sequence
  analysis.
• Create Show how similar organisms are related
  using phylogenic trees (cladistic diagrams) .
• Discuss Present findings in a poster session.
• Reflect Examine the learning process.

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Rooted/Unrooted Trees
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Presentation
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Cetacean Relatedness
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Chain of Use

• The teacher educator needs to understand and
  value the technology
• Education students need to be able to use and
  learn from the technology
• The education student/teacher needs to take it
  from the college classroom to the school
• High school biology students need to be able to
  use and learn from the technology

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Conclusion

• challenge of integrating into educational system
• students part of a larger community of inquiry
• eliding distinctions between
• practice/research
• student/teacher
• learner/researcher
• learning/research