Bioinformatics Education atNorth Central College

Caroline St.Clair

Professor of Computer Science

North Central College

Small Comprehensive Liberal Arts College• 2800 undergraduate students• 250 graduate students• 146 biology majors, 57 computer science majors• 6 biology and 4 computer science full-time faculty

Bioinformatics• Interest sparked in 2004• First course taught in 2005• Little growth since

Bioinformatics at North Central College

Minor in bioinformatics

Three years old

Few minors

No graduates yet

Bioinformatics course

Requirement in the minor

Offered every other year

Very low enrollment

Bioinformatics topics infused in a number of biology courses and some computer science courses

Bioinformatics Minor (19.75 credit hours)

CSC 160 Computer Science I

BIO/CSC 242 Introduction to Bioinformatics

BIO 151 Biological Principles I

BIO 152 Biological Principles II

One course outside the student’s major from:CSC 161 Computer Science II, CSC 230 Discrete Structures, BIO 200 Cellular Biology, BIO 260 Genetics

One course from the following:CSC 240 Algorithms, CSC 460 Database Systems, BIO 340 Microbiology, BIO 360 Molecular Bio of Cancer, BCM 365 Biochemistry, MTH 341 Prob and Stats, PSY 370 Biological Psychology

Bioinformatics Course

BIO/CSC 242 Introduction to Bioinformatics

• Elective for biology and computer science majors• Required course for bioinformatics minor• Team taught course by CS and BIO faculty• Rigorous course • Project based – web exploration, guided

programming project, on-your-own programming project

• Great feedback from students who have taken the course

Infusing Bioinformatics into Courses

CSC 160/161 Computer Science I and II

Perform transcription/translation

Identify Shine-Dalgarno, promoter sequences

BIO 151/152 Biological Principles I and II

Phylogenetics – HIV/Texas Case

Blast – DNA fingerprinting

Other BIO courses use Blast and Phylogenetic tools

Assessing Our Minor

• Learning Outcomes– Students will be able to develop and evaluate

algorithmic and computational solutions to problems in genetics and molecular biology.

– Students will be able to apply the scientific method to complex problems in genetics and molecular biology.

• Problems– Few minors– Lack of common upper-level course for the minor

Our Goals

• Grow the bioinformatics minor • Educate science faculty on how bioinformatics

can be used in existing courses• Create a set of modules that can be used in a

variety of courses