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Bioinformatics in Secondary Education

It is feasible to teach bioinformatics in the high school classroom, with the availability of free, online genomic databases and biological data analysis tools. There is a need for updated, computational biology approaches to be integrated into secondary school biology classrooms, as these computational skills are necessary for the contemporary fields of biology. As the Bioinformatics field matures, it is being integrated into school biology curriculum earlier and earlier, resulting in a new focus on teaching bioinformatics in secondary schools. This has been recognized by The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB) initiatives, literature such as PLoS Computational Biology creating a new collection titled “Bioinformatics: Starting Early,” and the availability of outreaches and research.

The International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB)has identified the need to incorporate bioinformatics into secondary school biology classes. They also recognized researcher interests in building and participating in secondary school level outreach programs. At the 2010 ISCB international conference, Intelligent Systems in Molecular Biology (ISMB), a half-day tutorial was organized by the ISCB Education Committee in order to teach secondary school biology and chemistry teachers about bioinformatics and how to incorporate it into their curriculum. An ongoing project of the ISCB Education Committee is building resources of information for secondary school teachers to incorporate bioinformatics into their curriculum. The research and push for the inclusion of bioinformatics in United States Advanced Placement courses and exams led to bioinformatics being incorporated into a lab within A.P. Biology . Form and Lewitter (2011) also developed model curriculum, an example “Models of Disease” term project, and tips for developing curriculum for secondary teachers.

Gallagher, Coon, Donley, Scott, and Goldberg (2011) have researched the integration of Computational Biology into Advanced High school Biology Classes. The goal of the research was to show students how computation is used in biology and why it is necessary for biology research through specially designed curriculum (For teachers, they have released the “Ecsite” curriculum from this research, with units that incorporate computer science in not only biology, but art, theater, & culture; Computing, health, Civics and Social studies; mathematics, music, and physical science.) It was found that high school students might not understand the importance of computer science or understanding how algorithms work. Students also may not be as concerned with learning these principles, as currently, Bioinformatics is not on Advanced Placement tests. However, curriculum can be tied to the local curriculum and broader AP/IB curriculum so that students can gain experience with computational tools used by modern biologists.

To meet the growing demand of Bioinformatics in secondary school biology programs, there are a number of online resources and outreach programs for secondary school teachers . These provide curriculum, lesson plans, field trips, and ideas for incorporating Bioinformatics. Outreaches/Resources include: the Center for Computational Research at SUNY Buffalo, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Dolan Learning Center, CusMiBio from the University of Milan (Italy), Harvard University Life Sciences/HHMI (see Microbiology-> Lesson Plans-> Recreating the Tree of Life Using Bioinformatics), International Society for Computational Biology, Netherlands Bioinformatics Centre, Northwest Association for Biomedical Research, University of British Columbia: The Educational Facilities of the Michael Smith Labs, Washington University Saint Louis Science Outreach, and Whitehead Institute Bioinformatics Education Page.