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<div style="float: left; margin: 0.5em 0.9em 0.4em 0em;">[[File:Fig1 Barker IntJourSTEMEd2015 2.jpg|220px]]</div>
<div style="float: left; margin: 0.5em 0.9em 0.4em 0em;">[[File:Fig1 Barker BMCBio2013 14.jpg|220px]]</div>
'''"[[Journal:University-level practical activities in bioinformatics benefit voluntary groups of pupils in the last 2 years of school|University-level practical activities in bioinformatics benefit voluntary groups of pupils in the last 2 years of school]]"'''
'''"[[Journal:4273π: Bioinformatics education on low cost ARM hardware|4273π: Bioinformatics education on low cost ARM hardware]]"'''


[[Bioinformatics]] — the use of computers in biology — is of major and increasing importance to biological sciences and medicine. We conducted a preliminary investigation of the value of bringing practical, university-level bioinformatics education to the school level. We conducted voluntary activities for pupils at two schools in Scotland (years S5 and S6; pupils aged 15–17). We used material originally developed for an optional final-year undergraduate module and now incorporated into 4273''π'', a resource for teaching and learning bioinformatics on the low-cost Raspberry Pi computer.
Teaching [[bioinformatics]] at universities is complicated by typical computer classroom settings. As well as running software locally and online, students should gain experience of systems administration. For a future career in biology or bioinformatics, the installation of software is a useful skill. We propose that this may be taught by running the course on GNU/Linux running on inexpensive Raspberry Pi computer hardware, for which students may be granted full administrator access.


Pupils’ feedback forms suggested our activities were beneficial. During the course of the activity, they provide strong evidence of increase in the following: pupils’ perception of the value of computers within biology; their knowledge of the Linux operating system and the Raspberry Pi; their willingness to use computers rather than phones or tablets; their ability to program a computer and their ability to analyse DNA sequences with a computer. We found no strong evidence of negative effects. ('''[[Journal:University-level practical activities in bioinformatics benefit voluntary groups of pupils in the last 2 years of school|Full article...]]''')<br />
We release 4273''π'', an operating system image for Raspberry Pi based on Raspbian Linux. This includes minor customisations for classroom use and includes our Open Access bioinformatics course, ''4273π Bioinformatics for Biologists''. This is based on the final-year undergraduate module BL4273, run on Raspberry Pi computers at the University of St Andrews, Semester 1, academic year 2012–2013. 4273''π'' is a means to teach bioinformatics, including systems administration tasks, to undergraduates at low cost. ('''[[Journal:4273π: Bioinformatics education on low cost ARM hardware|Full article...]]''')<br />


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''Recently featured'': [[Journal:Support patient search on pathology reports with interactive online learning based data extraction|Support patient search on pathology reports with interactive online learning based data extraction]], [[Journal:Factors associated with adoption of health information technology: A conceptual model based on a systematic review|Factors associated with adoption of health information technology: A conceptual model based on a systematic review]], [[Journal:Generalized procedure for screening free software and open-source software applications|Generalized procedure for screening free software and open-source software applications]]
''Recently featured'': [[Journal:University-level practical activities in bioinformatics benefit voluntary groups of pupils in the last 2 years of school|University-level practical activities in bioinformatics benefit voluntary groups of pupils in the last 2 years of school]], [[Journal:Support patient search on pathology reports with interactive online learning based data extraction|Support patient search on pathology reports with interactive online learning based data extraction]], [[Journal:Factors associated with adoption of health information technology: A conceptual model based on a systematic review|Factors associated with adoption of health information technology: A conceptual model based on a systematic review]]

Revision as of 16:51, 8 December 2015

Fig1 Barker BMCBio2013 14.jpg

"4273π: Bioinformatics education on low cost ARM hardware"

Teaching bioinformatics at universities is complicated by typical computer classroom settings. As well as running software locally and online, students should gain experience of systems administration. For a future career in biology or bioinformatics, the installation of software is a useful skill. We propose that this may be taught by running the course on GNU/Linux running on inexpensive Raspberry Pi computer hardware, for which students may be granted full administrator access.

We release 4273π, an operating system image for Raspberry Pi based on Raspbian Linux. This includes minor customisations for classroom use and includes our Open Access bioinformatics course, 4273π Bioinformatics for Biologists. This is based on the final-year undergraduate module BL4273, run on Raspberry Pi computers at the University of St Andrews, Semester 1, academic year 2012–2013. 4273π is a means to teach bioinformatics, including systems administration tasks, to undergraduates at low cost. (Full article...)


Recently featured: University-level practical activities in bioinformatics benefit voluntary groups of pupils in the last 2 years of school, Support patient search on pathology reports with interactive online learning based data extraction, Factors associated with adoption of health information technology: A conceptual model based on a systematic review