This editorial entitled, “Moving Education Forward” was featured in January 2007 issue of the open access journal, PLoS Computational Biology. The education column (also called the “Feature Tutorial”) of PLoS Comp Biol offers a unique venue for publishing and distributing bioinformatics educational resources.
If you have prepared and presented a tutorial for an oral presentation, consider submitting it to PLoS Computational Biology.
“Jubilation: One of the reasons that we do Science”
- Peter Agre, Nobel Laureate, quoted from his talk at UBC on Nov 2nd, 2006
Each year, the announcements of the Nobel prizes brings us a moment where everybody stops and thinks about Science. It’s an exciting moment – where the wonder of science captures many minds. Every Nobel laureate that I’ve known, from Dr. Michael Smith, Dr. Sulston, Dr. Wieman, to Dr. Agre, have been committed to science education. These and other influential scientists have spent careers engaging bright minds with their science. When I’ve heard these men speak they all understand the value of connecting their science with people and real life in efforts that I’ll call, “Science Education”.
Listening to Dr. Agre speak last November sparked me to think about my own personal history with Science Education.
As a student, I have distinct memories about not being satisified with textbooks. We all wanted to know, “How does it really work?” I can remember having a conversation with a professor about how excited I was about research and science. We talked about how lucky we were to, “know all these things.” He knew exactly what I was talking about. I was a keen undergraduate and he was a great scientist. How thankful I am, to have had Dr. Frank Jirik as one of my early mentors. He was a wonderful PhD supervisor, who taught me about sharing knowledge, the importance of learning, and how to foster good scientists.
As a graduate student at the CMMT, I had many unique chances to share my flare for Science. The CMMT is led by Dr. Michael Hayden, a visionary, who is passionate about connecting his world leading science with real people’s lives. I started by volunteering for tours given to patient groups, donors, and the press. Then, I started getting calls from the flourishing movie industry in Vancouver. One of my favorite experiences was sharing expertise and late night pizza with the talented team from the, “The 6th Day.” Back at the CMMT, Michael connected me (and other scientists) with the Electric Company. These talented artists created, “The Score,” a play (and then film) that fuses science and theatre in an experiment of exploration. The results were outstanding on so many levels.
Science education is a two way street for me. The more I talk with people about Science, the more I learn. I learn about my own creativity. I explore deep aspects of science seen from many different perspectives. I share with people the enthusiasm and hope that my current research projects bring into my daily life. These conversations are wonderful ones that I hope to keep having my whole life through.
I watched the UBC Annual General Meeting via webcast at lunch today. Mainly, I wanted to hear Carl Weiman talk about this new Science Education Iniative. The last time I heard Dr. Weiman talk it was awesome. I have high for hopes for this initiative and what it will enable at UBC.
I was recently pointed to this article that makes a few interesting points. The article presents a case study of teaching portfolios developed by new instructors in the Geography department at Keele University in the UK. The first point is that developing an e-portfolio is a chance for critical reflection in an effort to become a better educator – a point, that from my own experiences, I can whole-heartedly agree with. The second point is that e-portfolios can be used as a tool to validate the teaching experience. In my opinion, e-portfolios are not the best way to convince academics that teaching their discipline is an experience “not to be undervalued”. As I reflect on this point, I find myself fortunate to work in an environment that values academic and teaching excellence.
The Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth at UBC (affectionately known as TAG) ran a teaching portfolio competition this summer. I entered the competition as a way to get myself motivated to work on this portfolio. Needless to say, it was a pleasant surprise to get this message about being a finalist in the contest. The prize was a book from the bookstore – I chose Al Gore’s most recent publication, “An Inconvenient Truth.”
We wish to heartily congratulate the three finalists in the Teaching Portfolio Competition. They are (in alphabetical order): Shona Ellis, Instructor, Botany Department; Joanne Fox, UBC Bioinformatics Centre; and Beth Snow, Doctoral Student.
These individuals took on the portfolio-creation challenge, devoted many hours to this endeavour and, of course, submitted their portfolios for feedback. They have created portfolios that very nicely represent who they are as instructors and the work they do.
With permission of the portfolio owners (thank-you!), we invite you to view these portfolios:
Shona: http://www.cfkeep.org/html/stitch.php?s=77561976460332&id=94286895165487
Joanne: http://bioinformatics.ubc.ca/fox/portfolio/about/
Beth: http://www.cfkeep.org/html/stitch.php?s=87714004039498&id=72993655198248Congratulations! We will be presenting them with their prizes shortly.
http://www.tltgroup.org/programs/seven.html
I just read this article and it’s interesting to consider how well we deliver in MICB405: Bioinformatics for each of these points:
BioEdu is a new mailing list created for discussions about bioinformatics education in general as well as the educational resources at Bioinformatics.Org (bioedu.org or edu.bioinformatics.org).
You can subscribe to the BioEdu mailing list through its website:
https://bioinformatics.org/mailman/listinfo/bioedu
The July issue of the Journal of Medical Library Association has a special focus on, “Building the role of medical libraries in bioinformatics”. There’s a number of good articles in this issue that describe how University libraries can become more involved in bioinformatics educational initiatives.
From 2004-2006,I obtained two years of funding from the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund (TLEF) at the University of British Columbia to embark on a bioinformatics curricula development pilot project. Through the delivery of hands-on computer based workshops this project entitled, “Applied Workshops in Bioinformatics – Enabling Students to Use Bioinformatics” developed a set of teaching materials that can be adapted for use in the undergraduate classroom.
Here is a screen shot from the website that we put together for this project:
http://bioinformatics.ubc.ca/education/workshops/
This image is from an article that I wrote for the bioteach project at UBC called, What is Bioinformatics?
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| Figure 1. The Wheel of Biological Understanding. System biology strives to understand all aspects of an organism and its environment through the combination of a variety of scientific fields. |