Democratizing Bioinformatics Research in a High School Biology Classroom

1
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

2
How can education reflect new ways of doing
science?
3
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)

4
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

5
Single Site Mutation in Hemoglobin
6
Mutated Residue in the Structure of Hemoglobin
7
Alignment of Sequences from Horse, Chicken, Cow,
Vulture, Dogfish, Tuna, Mole
8
Phylogenetic Tree from the Alignment
9
Open-World Learning

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

10
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

11
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.

12
Inquiry Page
13
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.

14
Rooted/Unrooted Trees
15
Presentation
16
Cetacean Relatedness
17
Chain of Use

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

18
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