Since 2012, high school Advanced Placement Biology exam includes molecular evolution and suggests using open-access NCBI BLAST engine for sequence database search to illustrate principles of gene evolution and its applications in biotechnology. BLAST has many other uses in school curriculum. The goal of the proposed workshop is to give teachers, including those working at schools serving high numbers of students from categories underrepresented in STEM, an understanding of the functionality of the sequence databases and methods of their search.
Pairing the proposed workshop with ISMB 2014 will provide teachers with an opportunity to interact with researchers to discuss the science, techniques, and posters from the Bioinformatics Education Special Interest Group, which will be displayed at the conference on the day of the workshop.
