[BioEdu] Suggestions for a bioinformatics course

[Bruno Gaëta]

>
I have been teaching a course with a mixed audience for a couple of  
years. Students are a mixture of computer science graduates and  
biology graduates. Fortunately in the last few years I have had  
roughly equal numbers of each in the class, so I've been able to  
harness this and put the students to work in mixed teams where they  
can learn the "other" field from other teammates.

I give them fairly broad exercises that require them to identify and  
use software to solve a biological problem. Students work in mixed  
team and assist each other but have to submit individual reports (to  
avoid situations where the CS students just leave the bio students to  
do the bio work and vice versa and they don't learn from each other).  
This mirrors the workplace situation where bioinformatics is often an  
interdisciplinary team effort.

I also use a series of readings coupled with short online quizzes  
over the length of the course that check the students' grasp of basic  
biology required to understand the bioinformatics. This helps the CS  
students to get to terms with the biology fairly quickly.

Bruno

> Message: 5
> Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 13:53:43 -0400
> From: Sudhindra.Gadagkar at notes.udayton.edu
> Subject: [BioEdu] Suggestions for a bioinformatics course
> To: bioedu at bioinformatics.org
> Message-ID:
> 	<OF9188489A.66327853- 
> ON852571C5.00610939-852571C5.00627ECE at notes.udayton.edu>
> 	
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>
> Hello all,
>
> First, thanks to Jeff for this group.  Very timely, for me at  
> least. I am
> a biologist and am teaching an intro bioinformatics course this  
> fall.  The
> students will be a mix of biology, premed and Computer Science  
> students. I
> have a number of textbooks with me but am really not happy with any of
> them, and so am planning on just giving handouts.  I would like to  
> hear of
> experiences of people who have used any particular book, and also  
> of those
> who have not used any one in particular.  Also (this concept is still
> evolving), to deal with heterogeneity in the backgrounds of my  
> students, I
> am thinking of separate projects that will exploit their respective
> training and keep them interested.  Any suggestions for project topics
> and/or alternative ways of dealing with the heterogeneity?  These  
> would be
> upper-class students (typically seniors).  It is a dual-listed  
> course, and
> so I have grad students as well!
>
> Actually, I hope this email will start a thread of fruitful  
> discussion.
> Views of students are also most welcome!
>
> Sudhindra Gadagkar
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
> ------
> Sudhindra R. Gadagkar, Ph.D.
> Department of Biology
> University of Dayton
> 300 College Park
> Dayton, OH 45469-2320
>
> Ph: (937) 229-2410
> Fax: (937) 229-2021
> Email: gadagkar at notes.udayton.edu
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
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> ------------------------------
-- 
Bruno Gaeta, PhD, Senior Lecturer and Program Director, BE  
Bioinformatics

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