Bioinformatics@school

Bringing bioinformatics to the classroom

Even though bioinformatics touches upon many aspects of everyday life – health, nutrition, environmental care, forensics – and is a major element of modern research in the life sciences, to most high school pupils the topic is completely unknown. But as these youngsters are potentially tomorrow's scientists, NBIC and the Centre for Molecular and Biomolecular Informatics (CMBI) are actively bringing bioinformatics to the classroom using a hands-on workshop 'Bioinformatics: a bit of life' centred on a forensic puzzle. The pupils have to discover the cause of death of an American tourist in Amsterdam through database searching and analysing drug design data. Since the start of the Bioinformatics@school project in 2006, almost 7800 pupils (more than 300 high school classes) participated in the workshop.

Course material freely available

The course material for the bioinformatics workshop is freely available online.

www.bioinformatics-at-school.eu (English)
www.bioinformatica-in-de-klas.nl (Dutch)

The material includes several practical exercises on sequence retrieval, BLAST and protein structures as well as a theoretical introduction to bioinformatics and some basic information on proteins. Both sites also offer additional tools and features to help students with school assignments like essays and presentations. The course material and the workshop are designed for the final years of high school (4th, 5th and 6th grade) and can be incorporated in biology, chemistry or other science lessons. Recently, also education material for 2th grade and 3th grade has been developed.

DNA Labs on the Road

The Bioinformatics@school project is one of five high school practicals that are collectively known as the 'DNA Labs on the Road' – workshops that visit high schools upon request and each focus on a different topic within the 'omics' field. Next to NBIC's bioinformatics workshop, there are workshops on tumour profiling, industrial fermentation, plant research and protein folding related to disease. For more information on the DNA Labs, please visit www.dnalabs.eu (English) or http://www.dnalabs.nl (Dutch).