The BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium

Reform in Undergraduate Biology Education

The BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium

is funded by:

• Howard Hughes Medical Institute

• National Science Foundation

• Education Outreach and Training - Partnership for Advanced Computing Infrastructure (EOT-PACI)

CollaboratorsJohn Jungck

Editor, The BioQUEST Library

Virginia Vaughan

Managing Editor, The BioQUEST Library

Robin Greenler

Biocomplexity Project

Tia Johnson

Coordinator of Outreach-BEDROCK

Deb Lynch, Sue Risseeuw

Project Assistants,

BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium

Ethel Stanley

Director, BioQUEST Curriculum

Consortium

Sam DonovanBEDROCK Project

John GreenlerBiocomplexity Project

Amanda EverseBioQUEST Website

BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium’s

3 P’s:

Problem Posing

Problem Solving

Persuading Peers

The BioQUEST LibraryContains over 75 software simulations, tools, data sets, and other supporting materials from many areas of biology including ecology, evolution, genetics, molecular biology, physiology, developmental biology, botany, and neurobiology.

BioQUEST Projects

LifeLines OnLine

Investigative Case-Based Learning

Bioinformatics Education

BEDROCKEvolution Education

Biocomplexity Education

Microbiology Education

Microbes Count!

The BioQUEST Library

Biocomplexity EducationDevelop develop teaching strategies for integrating biocomplexity and its multidisciplinary approaches to problem solving in undergraduate education.

BioQUEST’s Biocomplexity Project

BiocomplexityTools of the trade:

• Geographic Information Systems (GIS) • Computer-aided visualization• Mathematical and statistical models• Simulation models• Real-time data acquisition • Data mining• Evolutionary bioinformatics• Investigative case based learning• Others?

Biocomplexityin Education

Biocomplexityin Education

• Addresses significant contemporary issues

Biocomplexityin Education

• Addresses significant contemporary issues

• Requires collaboration, integration and an interdisciplinary approach

Biocomplexityin Education

• Addresses significant contemporary issues

• Requires collaboration, integration and an interdisciplinary approach• Employs multiple modes of understanding and learning

Biocomplexityin Education

• Addresses significant contemporary issues

• Requires collaboration, integration and an interdisciplinary approach• Employs multiple modes of understanding and learning• Engages students in a diversity of techniques and hands-on inquiry

Biocomplexityin Education

• Addresses significant contemporary issues

• Requires collaboration, integration and an interdisciplinary approach• Employs multiple modes of understanding and learning• Engages students in a diversity of techniques and hands-on inquiry• Allows for participation in contemporary scientific research (questions and results)

So what are the lessons from BioQUEST’s 18 year history that are relevant to biocomplexity?

Need to provide opportunity for students to pose real questions, access and grapple with real data, using real computational tools

Biocomplexity Education

Need to provide opportunity for students to pose real questions, access and grapple with real data, using real computational tools

Direct, “real time” access of contemporary research into the classroom is critical

Biocomplexity Education

Need to provide opportunity for students to pose real questions, access and grapple with real data, using real computational tools

Direct, “real time” access of contemporary research into the classroom is critical

Technology can be an enabler to inquiry oriented, constructivist, student directed learning

Biocomplexity Education

Need to provide opportunity for students to pose real questions, access and grapple with real data, using real computational tools

Direct, “real time” access of contemporary research into the classroom is critical

Technology can be an enabler to inquiry oriented, constructivist, student directed learning

Case based approach can provide a good entree into a problem space

Biocomplexity Education