Now on ScienceBlogs: "Investigative science journalism" and books I like to read [All of My Faults Are Stress Related]

Seed Media Group

The Week In ScienceBlogs: Sign up for our newsletter.

Discovering Biology in a Digital World

My thoughts on biology, teaching, life, and exploring the living world via the digital one. Only my opinions are represented by these postings, they do not represent the viewpoints of any funding agency or Geospiza, Inc.

Profile

Sandra Porter I am a microbiologist and molecular biologist turned tenured biotech faculty turned bioinformatics scientist turned entrepreneur. My passion is developing instructional materials for 21st century biology (Digital World Biology).

Search

Digital World Biology

Discover Biology with Bioinformatics

Subscribe to our newsletter


e-mail digitalbio at scienceblogs.com

use 'Digital World Biology' news as the subject

DigitalBio Favorites

Science Blogs School Fundraiser


link_donorschoose_small.gif


Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Categories

Blogroll

Science Education Groups

Keep up to date

Awards

Red Orbit

Digital Bio at Blogged

Wikio - Top Blogs - Sciences
Add Digital Bio to your Technorati Favorites!





Follow me on Twitter

When you need to laugh

Interesting places

The Tangled Bank
MicrobeWorld Radio

Locations of visitors to this page

Archives

Welcome to Discovering Biology in a Digital World!

Digital Bio FAQs


What is digital biology?

Digital biology is biological research that involves computers.

Who can do digital biology?

Anyone can do it; amateurs, professionals, students. Doing digital biology mostly requires an internet connection, a willingness to explore, and a passion for discovering new things.

What is the hardest thing about digital biology?

There's a lot of reading involved and many strange new words. It can also take quite a bit of time if you plan to thoroughly investigate a story and publish your results.

What kinds of topics will I find here?

    Bioinformatics and computational biology
  • Bioinformatics activities for students, teachers, and anyone who's interested
  • My experiences (and occasional frustrations) with digital biology research
  • Examples of ways that people use digital biology to discover new things
    Biology and biology-related topics, such as:
  • Biotechnology
  • Chemistry
  • Evolution
  • Genetics
  • Immunology
  • Microbiology
  • Macrosopic things: Animals, Birds, Insects, Reptiles, Plants, etc.
  • Microscopic things: archea, bacteria, single-celled eucaryotes, viruses, etc.
    Education
  • Cool science resources on the web
  • Cool science articles or books that I've read, or movies that I've seen
  • Science education
    • Bio-Link
    • biotechnology education
    Weird Science
  • Science-related topics that are weird, fun, or just plain silly

Where do I find past writings?

Check out the DBDW archives

How can I find out about updates, new teaching materials, and workshops?

Sign up for the Geospiza Education newsletter: send an e-mail to digitalbio at gmail dot com and put Geospiza Education News in either the message or subject.

Where can I learn about the teaching materials that were developed through your NSF-funded projects?

Many of our teaching materials are freely available from the Teaching Materials page at www.GeospizaEducation.com. Learn about our student and instructor guides for Exploring DNA Structure and the Exploring DNA Structure CD-ROM from our product section and about Molecular Momentos from the ordering section.

You can also download selected publications.

I want to take (or arrange for) a professional development workshop. Where can I find out about your classes?

The best way is to subscribe to the Geospiza Education Newsletter. I also announce courses in the Digital Bio blog from time to time.

Where have you worked and what are your credentials?

I have a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Washington and spent some time as a post-doc research, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. In 1991, I left my post-doc position to run a biotechnology training program at Seattle Central Community College. SCCC was (and still is) a wonderful place. I got to design and teach lots of fun courses, like Immunology, Genetics, Microbiology, Biotechnology and Society, Bioinformatics, and of course, lots of lab classes like Media and Solution Preparation, Recombination DNA Technology, Protein Purification, Immunochemistry, and Tissue Culture.

SCCC left me with a lasting respect for community college students and some insights into teaching, student learning, and biotechnology education.

One of the most important things that I learned was that certain concepts were really hard for students to pick up. Reflecting back on my own experiences as an undergraduate and graduate student, I realized that there were a lot of things about molecular biology that didn't gel in my mind until I started sequencing DNA and working with the sequences. I reasoned that if working with sequences helped me understand molecular biology, maybe working with sequences would help my students, too.

It dawned on me that the bioinformatics programs and databases coming on-line might supply the missing link that would help a greater number of students really start to grasp molecular biology.

I quit my tenured position at the community college, joined a bioinformatics company (Geospiza, Inc.), and got funding from the National Science Foundation to work on developing activities and labs that would help students learn about biology by using bioinformatics programs and public databases.

Now I wear multiple hats. I write instructional materials that incorporate bioinformatics into biology learning activities, do a bit of research, test out software, and teach classes for college instructors, high school teachers, and college students in using bioinformatics tools for doing biology.

Disclaimer:

The opinions I post are my own. I cite references when I can. If you want more information on the purpose of the site and how I choose links, etc., feel free to check out my earlier post on Evaluating website information.

ScienceBlogs

Search ScienceBlogs:

Go to:

Advertisement
Advertisement

© 2006-2009 Seed Media Group LLC. ScienceBlogs is a registered trademark of Seed Media Group. All rights reserved.

Sites by Seed Media Group: Seed Media Group | ScienceBlogs | SEEDMAGAZINE.COM