Since biomedical science has become increasingly data-intensive, acquisition of computational and quantitative skills by science students has become more important. For non-science students, an introduction to biomedical databases and their applications promotes the development of a scientifically literate population. Because typical college introductory biology laboratories do not include experiences of this type, we present a bioinformatics module that can easily be included in a 90-minute session of a biology course for both majors and non-majors. Students completing this computational, inquiry-based module observed the value of computer-assisted analysis. The module gave students an understanding of how to read files in a biological database (GenBank) and how to use a software tool (BLAST) to mine the database.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Research Article|
May 01 2012
A Bioinformatics Module for Use in an Introductory Biology Laboratory
Adrienne Alaie,
Adrienne Alaie
1ADRIENNE ALAIE ([email protected]) is Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at Hunter College of the City University of New York, 695 Park Ave., Room 818N, New York, NY 10065, where VIRGINIA TELLER is Professor and Chair of Computer Sciences and WEI-GANG QIU is Associate Professor of Biological Sciences.
Search for other works by this author on:
Virginia Teller,
Virginia Teller
1ADRIENNE ALAIE ([email protected]) is Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at Hunter College of the City University of New York, 695 Park Ave., Room 818N, New York, NY 10065, where VIRGINIA TELLER is Professor and Chair of Computer Sciences and WEI-GANG QIU is Associate Professor of Biological Sciences.
Search for other works by this author on:
Wei-gang Qiu
Wei-gang Qiu
1ADRIENNE ALAIE ([email protected]) is Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at Hunter College of the City University of New York, 695 Park Ave., Room 818N, New York, NY 10065, where VIRGINIA TELLER is Professor and Chair of Computer Sciences and WEI-GANG QIU is Associate Professor of Biological Sciences.
Search for other works by this author on:
The American Biology Teacher (2012) 74 (5): 318–322.
Citation
Adrienne Alaie, Virginia Teller, Wei-gang Qiu; A Bioinformatics Module for Use in an Introductory Biology Laboratory. The American Biology Teacher 1 May 2012; 74 (5): 318–322. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/abt.2012.74.5.6
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Client Account
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.
Could not validate captcha. Please try again.