Cell Biol Educ 1(4): 115-116 2002
DOI: 10.1187/cbe.02-09-0037
© 2002 American Society for Cell Biology
WWW.Cell Biology Education
Bob Blystone
Department of Biology, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas 78212
Submitted September 1, 2002;
Accepted September 3, 2002
Cell Biology Education (CBE) calls attention each quarter
to several web sites of educational interest to the cell biology community.
CBE does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of the information at
any of the listed sites. If you want to comment on the selections or suggest
future inclusions, please send a message to
rblyston{at}trinity.edu.
The sites listed below were last accessed on September 1, 2002.
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VIRTUAL STUDENT FELLOWSHIP
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http://mama.uchsc.edu/vc/cancer/welcome.cfm
This site is focused on presenting the fundamentals of cancer biology to a
high school and college audience. Ms. Brenda Dempsey, an Advanced Placement
(AP) biology teacher from the Denver public schools, teamed with Richard
Bakemeier and Michael Glodé, both on faculty at the University of
Colorado School of Medicine, to produce this educational resource sponsored by
the National Cancer Institute. Many other individuals also contributed to this
well-designed project. The first screen describes the site as follows:
"This course consists of diagnosing a cancer patient, learning about the
molecular events that caused his cancer, and understanding the treatment
options. Each of the 12 modules requires about 30 minutes and will acquaint
the student with the science, clinical, and laboratory techniques used by
physicians and cancer researchers to diagnose, treat, and to develop new
therapies for cancer."
Animations run under the Flash protocol, and a link is provided for
obtaining a free browser-specific download. Information about proteins, DNA,
transcription, translation, the cell cycle, and cell signaling are presented
in an engaging way. Both high school and college students would benefit from a
review of these topics, each of which ends with a quiz. The Properties of
Cancer and the Cancer Genes sections are more specialized in their content. Of
greatest interest to students may be the Emergency Room section. The site user
is placed in the role of emergency room physician and must triage three
patients. The user must choose lab tests and read results about each of the
three patients. Conclusions are drawn and justifications are given. It is a
very interesting segment. This site is useful at many educational levels.
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INVESTIGATION STATION
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http://hi-ce.eecs.umich.edu/index.html
The Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education, or hi-ce, was
established at the University of Michigan. Various colleges and schools there
contributed the talents of faculty and staff to this project aimed at
improving science for middle school and high school students. The home page
opens on the Investigation Station which sends students to the Science
Laboratory and teachers to the Teacher Workroom. The Laboratory provides
access to concepts and software with catchy titles such as Artemis, Bubble
Blasters, and Cooties. Much of the newer software is designed to work with
Pilot handheld computers. Well-known software programs for PCs, including
Model-It, are available on the site. Each piece of software is accompanied by
a tutorial explaining how to use the resource.
The Teacher Workroom divides its content into Middle School Curriculum,
High School Curriculum, and Professional Development. The Middle School
section has teaching units on water quality and communicable diseases. The
longer teaching segments are in Adobe Acrobat format. The Software subsection
contains movies in Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) format (up to 80 Mb in
size) showing the educational units being used in the classroom. The Cooties
software package is designed for use with the infrared beaming feature on
Pilot computers to spread Cooties among middle school friends as a
demonstration of how disease spreads in humans. Concept mapping and computer
graphics allow the students to put the Cooties experience into a scientific
context.
Teachers will find excellent tested technology applications for the
classroom delivery of scientific method experiences and problem posing. Some
of the material will require log-on privileges. College instructors will find
that entering college students already versed in this type of science learning
technology in high school are better prepared for rigorous college
instruction.
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BIOINFORMATICS RESOURCES ON THE INTERNET
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http://orion.ramapo.edu/~pbagga/binf/binf_int_res.htm
Dr. P.S. Bagga of Ramapo College (Mahwah, NJ) has produced a meta-list of
Internet bioinformatics resources. Divided into 14 categories, this list
provides a gateway to a wide variety of useful resources. The categories
include the following topics: database searching tools, sequence retrieval
systems, sequence analysis tools, and bioinformatics software. A section on
genomic databases groups these resources by organism type, including bacteria,
fungi, and protists. Of particular interest is the section on education and
research in bioinformatics. Links are given to 20 educational programs and
courses in bioinformatics, which offer an excellent overview of what is being
done with bioinformatics curricula worldwide. By reviewing the several hundred
uniform resource locators (URLs) presented at this site, students and teachers
will be well served by myriad resources for bioinformatics.
Corresponding author. E-mail address:
rblyston{at}trinity.edu.
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VIRTUAL STUDENT FELLOWSHIP
INVESTIGATION STATION
