Design, Development, and Evaluation of a Teacher Workshop Enhanced with DNA Instructional Cases to Impact Content Knowledge and Confidence.

In an effort to address K-8 teacher confidence in STEM and increase basic genetics knowledge to a level consistent with its importance in society, we have developed, implemented, and evaluated a 7-day teacher professional development workshop. The overarching goal of our workshop is to facilitate the implementation of innovative DNA-based classroom activities in K-8 classrooms by (i) increasing teacher content knowledge, (ii) increasing teacher confidence in teaching STEM, and (iii) developing teacher interest in using engaging activities, so they are empowered to teach new content in compelling ways. We relied on case-based learning to provide relevance and context to scientific content that was not initially familiar to many of the teachers.

BIOINFORMATICS IN THE K-8 CLASSROOM: DESIGNING INNOVATIVE ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHER IMPLEMENTATION.

At the intersection of biology and computer science is the growing field of bioinformatics-the analysis of complex datasets of biological relevance. Despite the increasing importance of bioinformatics and associated practical applications, these are not standard topics in elementary and middle school classrooms. We report on a pilot project and its evolution to support implementation of bioinformatics-based activities in elementary and middle school classrooms.