This project is developing a sustainable infrastructure and training program to assist undergraduate faculty in using RNA-Seq technology for research investigations with their students. The DNA Learning Center staff are developing appropriate biochemical and bioinformatics materials to be utilized, reviewed, and revised by a set of faculty who are representative of the audience for the regional and virtual workshops. These workshops enable 80 faculty, selected on the basis of proposals for tractable projects examining differential gene expression or transcriptome sequencing, to develop good data sets and curriculum plans. Data analysis utilizesboth the student-oriented Green Line of the DNA Subway (www.dnasubway.org) and the research-grade tools available at the iPlant Collaborative (www.iplantcollaborative.org), which use high performance computing resources of NSF's Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (www.xsede.org). The training is designed to transition from in-person workshops to online webinars and self-paced learning in year three. Development of a multi-faceted assessment of impacts on students and faculty is in process.
Intellectual Merit: Bringing next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology and data analysis into the undergraduate classroom has the potential to transform biology teaching nation-wide. This project specifically enables one such approach, RNA-seq, which makes possible dynamic experiments to assess utilization of genomes. The goal is to enable faculty at small and/or primarily undergraduate institutions - those that do not have access to a DNA sequencer, a supercomputer, or an experienced bioinformatician - to generate and/or utilize NGS datasets in the college classroom and to invite students [to be] co-investigators in the exploration of eukaryotic genomes.
Broader Impact: Attention is being paid to including faculty from a variety of institutions; about 25% of the faculty are being recruited from minority-serving institutions. The aim of the proposal is to further extend the egalitarian nature of genome research. All curriculum materials are being made freely available; primary sequence data will be archived in the NCBI-SRA (National Center for Biotechnology Information-Sequence Read Archive) and in the iPlant Data Store. A dedicated website is being designed to include faculty support in the form of protocols, how-to videos, lesson plans, workshops and webinars.
This project is being funded jointly by the Directorate for Biological Sciences and the Directorate of Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to support Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education.
