Computing in Life Sciences Through Hands-on Experience and Case Studies at Tuskegee University

生物学已经从一个孤立的实体变成了一门依赖于跨学科和跨学科方法的科学。在塔斯基吉大学（TU）和许多高等教育机构，将生物信息学和计算技能整合到生物学本科课程中是一项仍处于起步阶段的事业。该项目通过开发关于生物信息学和计算的两门课程和五个模块来推进这项事业。这些强调计算思维和技能，为学生提供实践经验和基于案例研究和团队项目的协作学习环境，并依赖于专门为此项目开发的新的学习增强软件工具，教学材料和实验室手册。案例研究示例包括鉴定甘薯基因组中抗病基因的等位基因和旁系同源基因以及酵母老化过程中的突变可能性和频率。智力优点：该项目的智力价值在于它主动开发材料和方法，用于向生命科学学生教授计算思维，它努力开发全面的计算机实验室练习，为目标学生提供实践学习经验，和案例研究课程设计，挑战学生在协作学习环境中解决有趣的问题。该项目旨在：促进生命科学学生对计算的兴趣;通过跨学科和跨学科的经验引导学生成长;鼓励学生在个人研究项目中应用计算;以及培养学生从事研究事业的兴趣。 更广泛的影响：新开发的模块，教学材料和教育软件工具每年影响TU的100多名学生，TU是一所历史悠久的黑人大学。 开发的课程正在提供作为科学选修课的学生在计算机科学系和生物信息学集中在化学系。这个项目的更广泛的影响包括学生的经验，课程的改进，教师的发展，以及其他机构采用和改编材料的可能性，以及将其纳入课程的方式。这些活动也增加了生物学，计算机科学，化学，农业和环境科学部门之间的教师合作。此外，开发的教学材料的模块化的性质是促进他们的TU以外的传播，从而加强在其他机构的课程。对开源跨平台计算环境R和其他开源软件的依赖有助于该项目产生更广泛的影响。由PI开发和维护的专门网站http://bioinformatics.org/ctls/（生命科学中的计算思维）正在促进所生成的教学材料的传播。

Biology has changed from an insular entity into a science dependant upon interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary approaches. At the Tuskegee University (TU) and many institutions of higher education integration of bioinformatics and computational skills into the biology undergraduate curricula is an enterprise still in its infancy. This project advances that enterprise through development of a two-course sequence and five modules on bioinformatics and computing. These emphasize computational thinking and skills, provide students with hands-on experiences and a collaborative learning environment based on case studies and team projects, and rely on new learning enhancement software tools, instructional materials and lab manuals developed specifically for this project. Case study examples include identifying the alleles and paralogs of disease resistance genes in the sweet potato genome and mutation probablility and frequency during aging in the yeast.Intellectual Merit: The intellectual merit of this project lies in its initiative to develop materials and methods for teaching computational thinking to students in life sciences, its effort to develop comprehensive computer laboratory exercises that offer hands-on learning experience for the targeted student pool, and a case-study course design that challenges students to solve interesting problems in a collaborative learning environment. The project is designed to: promote excitement about computing in the minds of students in the life sciences; lead to student growth through interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary experiences; encourage students to apply computation in their individual research projects; and cultivate student interest in pursuing research careers. Broader Impacts: The newly developed modules, instructional materials and educational software tools are impacting more than 100 students per year at TU, a historically black college. The courses developed are being offered as science electives to students in the Department of Computer Science and to bioinformatics concentrators in the Department of Chemistry. The broader impacts of this project include student experiences, curricula improvement, faculty development, and the potential for adoption and adaptation by other institutions of the material and the way it is being integrated into courses. The activities are also increasing faculty collaboration among the departments of Biology, Computer Science, Chemistry, and Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. In addition, the modular nature of the developed teaching materials is facilitating their dissemination outside of TU, thus enhancing the curricula at other institutions. The reliance on R, an open-source cross-platform computing environment, and other open-source software is contributing to the broader impacts of this project. Dissemination of the generated teaching materials is being facilitated by a dedicated website http://bioinformatics.org/ctls/ (Computational Thinking in Life Sciences), developed and maintained by the PI.