Improving the Computer Science in Bioinformatics Through Open Source Pedagogy

Bioinformatics relies more than ever on information technologies. This pressures scientists to keep up with software development best practices. However, traditional computer science curricula do not necessarily expose students to collaborative and long-lived software development. Using open source principles, practices, and tools forms an effective pedagogy for software development best practices. This paper reports on a bioinformatics teaching framework implemented through courses introducing computer science students to the field. The courses led to an initial product release consisting of software and an Escherichia coli K12 GenMAPP Gene Database, within a total incubation time of six months

Improving the Computer Science in Bioinformatics Through Open Source Pedagogy

Bioinformatics relies more than ever on information technologies. This pressures scientists to keep up with software development best practices. However, traditional computer science curricula do not necessarily expose students to collaborative and long-lived software development. Using open source principles, practices, and tools forms an effective pedagogy for software development best practices. This paper reports on a bioinformatics teaching framework implemented through courses introducing computer science students to the field. The courses led to an initial product release consisting of software and an Escherichia coli K12 GenMAPP Gene Database, within a total incubation time of six months

Breaking Boundaries in Computing in Undergraduate Courses

An important question in undergraduate curricula is that of incorporating computing into STEM courses for majors and non-majors alike. What does it mean to teach “computing” in this context? What are some of the benefits and challenges for students and instructors in such courses? This paper contributes to this important dialog by describing three undergraduate courses that have been developed and taught at Harvey Mudd College and Loyola Marymount University. Each case study describes the course objectives, implementation challenges, and assessments

Responsible research and innovation in science education: insights from evaluating the impact of using digital media and arts-based methods on RRI values

The European Commission policy approach of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is gaining momentum in European research planning and development as a strategy to align scientific and technological progress with socially desirable and acceptable ends. One of the RRI agendas is science education, aiming to foster future generations' acquisition of skills and values needed to engage in society responsibly. To this end, it is argued that RRI-based science education can benefit from more interdisciplinary methods such as those based on arts and digital technologies. However, the evidence existing on the impact of science education activities using digital media and arts-based methods on RRI values remains underexplored. This article comparatively reviews previous evidence on the evaluation of these activities, from primary to higher education, to examine whether and how RRI-related learning outcomes are evaluated and how these activities impact on students' learning. Forty academic publications were selected and its content analysed according to five RRI values: creative and critical thinking, engagement, inclusiveness, gender equality and integration of ethical issues. When evaluating the impact of digital and arts-based methods in science education activities, creative and critical thinking, engagement and partly inclusiveness are the RRI values mainly addressed. In contrast, gender equality and ethics integration are neglected. Digital-based methods seem to be more focused on students' questioning and inquiry skills, whereas those using arts often examine imagination, curiosity and autonomy. Differences in the evaluation focus between studies on digital media and those on arts partly explain differences in their impact on RRI values, but also result in non-documented outcomes and undermine their potential. Further developments in interdisciplinary approaches to science education following the RRI policy agenda should reinforce the design of the activities as well as procedural aspects of the evaluation research

A Study of Secondary School Students’ Participation in a Novel Course on Genomic Principles and Practices

Since the inception of the Human Genome Project (HGP) there has, and continues to be, rapid changes in genomics, STEM, and human health. Advances, specifically in genomics, continue to be increasingly important as new knowledge in this field has led the trajectory for significant advancements in all biological disciplines. Throughout the scientific community there is an emphasis on increasing and improving genomic concepts and literacy for grades K-12. Numerous research studies report that there is generally a low level of genetic/genomic knowledge among the general public. The purpose of this research is to analyze and document evidence of secondary school students’ participation, and educational outcomes, in a novel course on genomic principles and practices. A mixed methods approach, using qualitative and quantitative methods was used to address three research questions. 1) Based on affective evidence, how did secondary school students perceive and critically judge, content topics learned in a course on modern genomic principles and practices? 2) Based on cognitive evidence, how much of the content did secondary school students learn when they participated in a course on modern genomic principles and practices? 3) Using individual interview evidence, what are the major perceptions that the secondary school students expressed throughout the duration of the course? The results for Research Question 1 demonstrated that the students gained a significant level of new knowledge pertaining to genomics after attending the course sessions, based on their pre-and post-test Likert survey data. More particularly, they expressed more interest in, and understanding of genomic principles and practices. Concurrently, they became much more critically reflective and evaluative about some of the societal and medical implications of its applications. With respect to Research Question 2, the secondary school students’ content knowledge as measured by a 25-question multiple-choice pre-and-post test administered before and after the course demonstrated a significant increase. Lastly, the participants were provided an opportunity to comment on the course through individual and collaborative interviews, in order to find out to what extent they perceived the course to be interesting and challenging. Future inquiry expanding from this research would help to establish the foundational pathway for designing a more inclusive genomics curriculum

“Beyond BIO2010: Celebration and Opportunities” at the Intersection of Mathematics and Biology

With this special edition of CBE-LSE, which focuses on connections between and integration of the biological and mathematical sciences, it is especially fitting that we report on an important symposium, Beyond BIO2010: Celebration and Opportunities,1 which was held at the National Acad- emy of Sciences (NAS) in Washington, D.C. on May 21–22, 2010. This symposium was organized to assess what progress has been made in addressing the challenges and recommendations in the National Research Council’s (NRC) report: BIO2010: Transforming Undergraduate Education for Future Research Biologists (NRC, 2003a). Most of the presen- tations and posters at this event emphasized the increasing connections of the life and mathematical sciences in under- graduate education. The symposium was initiated by the U.S. National Committee to the International Union of Bio- logical Sciences and was hosted by the National Academies’ Board on Life Sciences.

The why, when, and how of computing in biology classrooms [version 1; peer review: 2 approved]

Many biologists are interested in teaching computing skills or using computing in the classroom, despite not being formally trained in these skills themselves. Thus biologists may find themselves researching how to teach these skills, and therefore many individuals are individually attempting to discover resources and methods to do so. Recent years have seen an expansion of new technologies to assist in delivering course content interactively. Educational research provides insights into how learners absorb and process information during interactive learning. In this review, we discuss the value of teaching foundational computing skills to biologists, and strategies and tools to do so. Additionally, we review the literature on teaching practices to support the development of these skills. We pay special attention to meeting the needs of diverse learners, and consider how different ways of delivering course content can be leveraged to provide a more inclusive classroom experience. Our goal is to enable biologists to teach computational skills and use computing in the classroom successfully