The products from this project include: 1) the Biology Student Workbench, an educational front-end to the powerful suite of bioinformatics tools comprising the Biology Workbench,; and 2) a set of inquiry-based curricular materials based on use of the workbench. The Biology Student Workbench brings the advanced computational infrastructure used by today's scientists to any student desktop machine with a web browser. The basis of this new tool for undergraduate students and faculty, the Biology Workbench (http://bioweb.ncsa.uiuc.edu/), provides researchers a suite of interactive tools based on a number of biology databases including: sequence bioinformatics; computational studies of biological membranes; a database of neuronal pattern analysis; and a computational environment for studying ion movement in biological systems. The site has been used to: compare molecular sequences; visualize and manipulate molecular structures; and generate phylogenetic hypotheses (Kaiser, 1998). This access to a multiplicity of research analysis tools and data sources provides a rich environment for promoting student inquiry as exemplified by the eight curricular modules developed for student use: biodiversity/conservation, genology/phylogeny, molecular basis for disease, drug design, phylogenetic probes, environmental remediation, developmental biology, and agricultural applications.
