Teaching Bioinformatics Through Developing Case Studies: Elementary School Through College

Joann Mudge, Anitha Sundararajan, Ingrid Lindquist, Madeline Kwicklis, Gabriella DeFrancesco, Drew Lighthall, Natasha Farmer, Meghan Hill, Katelynn James, Alicia White, Krista D Glazewski, Michele Shuster

Next generation sequencing technologies have revolutionized biology, becoming a ubiquitous tool. Today’s biologists, regardless of expertise, need to be able to convert large sequence datasets into meaningful biological data using bioinformatics. Yet many biology students have had little or no exposure to bioinformatics.

We address this by developing, presenting, and distributing computer-based bioinformatics teaching case studies in the form of engaging scientific stories or puzzles, tailored and implemented from 3rd grade through college. Many have been developed or expanded in collaboration with high school students or elementary and middle school teachers.

Most are self-contained activities for a single class period, but many have scaffolding activities that allow them to serve as more extensive science units in a classroom. Implementation requires only web access and a browser, and they have been successfully completed on desktop and laptop computers, chromebooks, ipads, tablets and smartphones. All case studies use DNA sequences retrieved from Genbank and several are based on scientific papers.

Case study development is itself a teaching tool, immersing the student and/or  instructor) in the nuances of sequencing and bioinformatics, teaching them how to troubleshoot, and allowing them to dig deeply into a topic of their choosing. The experience ultimately provides  a classroom case study that brings bioinformatics to a much broader audience. By engaging students and teachers in the earliest grade levels, we are providing a solid scientific foundation for students to build on, as well as providing an interesting framework that may spark an enduring interest in STEM fields.