Introductory Biology Lab Mission Activity #1

As you are aware, part of the mission of University Laboratory High School is to play a role in development, piloting and dissemination of new teaching materials. For the past year, I have served a Collaborating Teacher in a biology initiative based at the Beckman Institute and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. This project, called Biology Workbench Education Enhancements, is still in its early stages of development. Today, and possibly tomorrow, we will be working with a particular component of this project developed by a former Uni student. Below you will find some basic information regarding the two different versions of Biology Workbench:

Biology Workbench (Professional Version) Background

Biology Workbench, a molecular biology software tool developed in 1996 by the Computational Biology Group at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, allows scientists rapid access to protein and genetic sequence databases and sequence analysis tools residing on numerous remote machines located throughout the world, via a web browser such as Netscape or Microsoft Explorer. Used by researchers in areas ranging from genomic analysis and taxonomy to the physical sciences, its potential applications extend well beyond its current use. Developed to facilitate the work of scientists well familiar with the myriad of established protein and databases which often differ significantly in communication syntax, Biology Workbench possesses a fairly high learning curve and appears quite foreign to anyone unacquainted with the databases or analysis tools made accessible through the Biology Workbench interface.

Biology Workbench Education Enhancements Background

In December, 1997, as part of its charge and in response to recent reports on the need for expansion of technological efforts to achieve the goals of current education reform, the Education Division of NCSA began efforts toward development of an Education Version of Biology Workbench, presently known as Biology Workbench Education Enhancements. Targeted initially toward high school audiences, current efforts are the result of the combined contributions of University of Illinois scientists, undergraduate and graduate students and a cadre of Collaborating Educators. The team is currently developing an underlying set of tutorials and activities which provide additional support and background for teachers and students using Biology Workbench Education Enhancements. Scaled-down from the full professional version, Biology Workbench Education Enhancements provides a more limited menu of databases and fewer options for database query, effectively leading the new user to more successful, early use experiences.

Today's Assignment

Working either individually or with a partner, go to the Biology Workbench Education Enhancements Home Page (http://bioweb.ncsa.uiuc.edu/educwb/). Read that page and jot down any impressions you'd like to share with the developers.

Read the section entitled Introduction to the Biology Workbench (http://glycine.ncsa.uiuc.edu/educwb/introtobwb.html). Read that page and jot down any impressions you'd like to share with the developers.

Press the "Home" button in the bottom left corner of that page, which will return you to the Biology Workbench Education Enhancements Home Page. Select the "Tutorials" option and click to bring you to our project of major focus, Ajit Chary's "Myoglobin as a Probe for Understanding Molecular Evolution" (http://glycine.ncsa.uiuc.edu/educwb/tutorials/myoglobin/myoglobinintro.html).

Examine the page, jotting down any comments you deem appropriate for the developers of the page.

Move to the next page (http://glycine.ncsa.uiuc.edu/educwb/tutorials/myoglobin/myoglobin01.html ) by clicking the "Next" button. Jot down any comments you deem appropriate.

Continue this effort for each of the pages in the tutorial. Follow the directions, being certain to jot down your thoughts as they occur for each of the pages with URLs ranging from myoglobin01.html through myoglobin14.html. If you attempt an action which causes difficulties or is unclear, be certain to state that on your evaluation sheet.

Created November 8, 1998. Last modified November 11, 1998.