Problem solving in biology and biotechnology: The use of bioinformatics tools and databases
Leading team:
- Prof. Anat Yarden
Project team:
- Dr. Ohad Levkovich
- Dr. Orna Dahan
- Carmit Avidan-Shpalter
- Dr. Yossy Machluf
- Dr. Amir Mitchell
- Dr. Hadas Gelbart
Brief
The Information Revolution has brought on the emergence of bioinformatics: an emerging interdisciplinary field which encompasses the research, development, or application of computational tools and approaches for expanding the use of bio-medical data, including tools meant to acquire, store, organize, archive, analyze, or visualize such data. Bioinformatics is now an integral part of modern life sciences. It has revolutionized and redefined how research is carried out, and has had an enormous impact on biotechnology, medicine, agriculture and related areas. Despite of this, like many other exciting new fields of science, it is only rarely integrated into high school teaching and learning programs, playing almost no part in grooming the next generation of information-oriented citizens.
Our team have developed a web-based learning environment aimed at introducing bioinformatics into the curriculum of high school biotechnology majors. This is done by engaging learners in scientifically authentic inquiry activities. Through the use of first-hand active learning processes, the students approach real-world problems and employ diverse bioinformatics tools and databases, while acquiring and applying modern scientific practices integrating skill, knowledge and scientific reasoning.
This current study is aimed at examining the students’ acquisition of various types of domain-specific knowledge, their ability to coordinate between these types of knowledge, and their adoption of a bioinformatics approach while participating in authentic research activities provided by the bioinformatics learning environment. We also try to characterize the ways in which students’ learning outcomes are related to teaching strategies and to the teachers’ beliefs. This research will hopefully shed light on the means by which high school students perceive and deal with scientifically authentic inquiry activities in bioinformatics, as well as on the means used for instruction of such materials.
Further reading:
- Levkovich, O., and Yarden, A. (2021). Conceptualizing learning about proteins with a molecular viewer in high school based on the integration of two theoretical frameworks, Biochem. Mol. Bio. Educ., Published online. doi: 10.1002/bmb.21576
- Machluf, Y., Gelbart, H., Ben-Dor, S., and Yarden, A. (2017). Making authentic science accessible—the benefits and challenges of integrating bioinformatics into a high-school science curriculum, Brief. Bioinform. doi:10.1093/bib/bbv113.
- Machluf, Y., and Yarden, A. (2013). Integrating bioinformatics into senior high-school: Design principles and implications. Briefings in Bioinformatics, 14(5): 648-660, doi: 10.1093/bib/bbt030.
- Machluf, Y., Gelbart, H., and Yarden Y. (2013). High-school teachers’ appropriation of an innovative curriculum in bioinformatics, in Kruger D., Ekborg M. (Eds.). Proceedings of the 9th Conference of European Researchers in Didactics of Biology, Berlin, Germany, 18-22 September 2012.
- Machluf, Y., Avraham, E., and Yarden, A. (2013). Integrating bioinformatics into a high-school biotechnology curriculum. The National Teachers’ Center for the Scientific and Technological Topics Journal, 8, 22-34 (In Hebrew).