Bioinformatics Projects Supporting Life-Sciences Learning in High Schools

Marques, Maria Isabel; Almeida, Paulo; Alves, Renato; Dias, Maria João; Godinho, Ana; Pereira-Leal, José B.

doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003404

Cited by 16 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…This complements other research, involving successful bioinformatics activities developed specifically for school level (e.g. Marques et al 2014). Gallagher et al (2011) also reported a successful experience bringing bioinformatics to high school level, but with three challenges.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

“…Software for bioinformatics research is usually free, for example the very widely used sequence database search software, BLAST (Altschul et al 1997). Free resources are also available for bioinformatics teaching and learning, for example 4273π (Barker et al 2013), Bioinformática na escola (Marques et al 2014), GOBLET (Corpas et al 2015), Bioinformatics@school (http://www.nbic.nl/nl/education/ high-school-programmes/bioinformaticsschool) and the EvoEd Digital Library (http://evoed.evolutionsociety.org). These publicly available data, software and materials present excellent opportunities for relatively low-cost teaching.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Gallagher et al 2011;Lewitter and Bourne 2011;McQueen et al 2012;Kovarik et al 2013;Machluf and Yarden 2013;Wood and Gebhardt 2013;Marques et al 2014;Toby and Pope 2014). Genomics and associated topics have started to appear in many official school curricula, for example in Scotland (see "Discussion", below), the Netherlands (College voor Examens 2014, p. 17) and the USA (Wefer and Sheppard 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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University-level practical activities in bioinformatics benefit voluntary groups of pupils in the last 2 years of school

et al. 2015

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Background: Bioinformatics-the use of computers in biology-is of major and increasing importance to biological sciences and medicine. We conducted a preliminary investigation of the value of bringing practical, university-level bioinformatics education to the school level. We conducted voluntary activities for pupils at two schools in Scotland (years S5 and S6; pupils aged 15-17). We used material originally developed for an optional final-year undergraduate module and now incorporated into 4273π, a resource for teaching and learning bioinformatics on the low-cost Raspberry Pi computer.Results: Pupils' feedback forms suggested our activities were beneficial. During the course of the activity, they provide strong evidence of increase in the following: pupils' perception of the value of computers within biology; their knowledge of the Linux operating system and the Raspberry Pi; their willingness to use computers rather than phones or tablets; their ability to program a computer and their ability to analyse DNA sequences with a computer. We found no strong evidence of negative effects.Conclusions: Our preliminary study supports the feasibility of bringing university-level, practical bioinformatics activities to school pupils.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 76%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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University-level practical activities in bioinformatics benefit voluntary groups of pupils in the last 2 years of school

et al. 2015

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“…It was first identified by individual educators who developed bioinformatics teaching materials, which were integrated into their lessons [19, 20]. Today, diverse bioinformatics-based online resources, such as educational tools [21], educational games [22], outreach programs [23–25], collaborations with researchers [26, 27], lessons and teaching modules ([28–32, 33]; e.g.) are being offered to high-school students.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making authentic science accessible—the benefits and challenges of integrating bioinformatics into a high-school science curriculum

et al. 2016

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Despite the central place held by bioinformatics in modern life sciences and related areas, it has only recently been integrated to a limited extent into high-school teaching and learning programs. Here we describe the assessment of a learning environment entitled ‘Bioinformatics in the Service of Biotechnology’. Students’ learning outcomes and attitudes toward the bioinformatics learning environment were measured by analyzing their answers to questions embedded within the activities, questionnaires, interviews and observations. Students’ difficulties and knowledge acquisition were characterized based on four categories: the required domain-specific knowledge (declarative, procedural, strategic or situational), the scientific field that each question stems from (biology, bioinformatics or their combination), the associated cognitive-process dimension (remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create) and the type of question (open-ended or multiple choice). Analysis of students’ cognitive outcomes revealed learning gains in bioinformatics and related scientific fields, as well as appropriation of the bioinformatics approach as part of the students’ scientific ‘toolbox’. For students, questions stemming from the ‘old world’ biology field and requiring declarative or strategic knowledge were harder to deal with. This stands in contrast to their teachers’ prediction. Analysis of students’ affective outcomes revealed positive attitudes toward bioinformatics and the learning environment, as well as their perception of the teacher’s role. Insights from this analysis yielded implications and recommendations for curriculum design, classroom enactment, teacher education and research. For example, we recommend teaching bioinformatics in an integrative and comprehensive manner, through an inquiry process, and linking it to the wider science curriculum.

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“…Several successful cases of PBL in bioinformatics education had been reported in the literature. 8,9 Therefore, it is worth a try.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Problem-Based Learning (PBL), an Important Paradigm for Bioinformatics Education

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Bioinformatics Projects Supporting Life-Sciences Learning in High Schools

Cited by 16 publications

References 9 publications

University-level practical activities in bioinformatics benefit voluntary groups of pupils in the last 2 years of school

University-level practical activities in bioinformatics benefit voluntary groups of pupils in the last 2 years of school

Making authentic science accessible—the benefits and challenges of integrating bioinformatics into a high-school science curriculum

Problem-Based Learning (PBL), an Important Paradigm for Bioinformatics Education

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