Educational Outreach in the Vision lab

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Educational Outreach in the Vision lab
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What is educational outreach?

• Educational outreach...
• ...supports formal or classroom-based education
• ...supports informal education outside the
  classroom
• ...increases understanding and appreciation of
  science
• ...increases the involvement in science

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Educational Outreach in our lab

1. Genomics Media Book
2. DESTINY Bus Module

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Genomics MediaBook

• interactive multimedia environment that contains
  realistic 3D Flash animations, bioinformatics
  tools, video and audio files, and an electronic
  reference almanac
• can be a stand-alone content delivery system or a
  way to supplement science courses that cover
  genomic related materials.
• primary audiences science instructors and
  students in upper division natural science
  courses with knowledge of genetics.
• collaboration of Institute for Science
  Learning, UNC
• Malcolm Campbell, Davidson College, NC
• Center Line Productions, Raleigh, NC

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Genomics MediaBook 3 themes, 7 topics
pairwise sequence alignment, multiple sequence
alignment, phylogenetic reconstruction BLAST genom
e annotation ...
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Sequence Analysis topic content

• pairwise sequence alignment
• EVOLUTION
• introduction
• global vs. local
• scoring matrices
• dynamic programming
• BLAST

• phylogenetic reconstruction
• EVOLUTION,
• DISEASE
• introduction
• anatomy of a phylogeny
• distance-based,
• character-based
• methods
• NJ example
• MP and ML (overview)
• bootstrap

• multiple sequence alignment
• EVOLUTION,
• DISEASE
• introduction
• why DP wont work
• progressive methods
• iterative methods

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storyboard - example slide
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storyboard - example slide
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GMB beta
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GMB opportunities and challenges

• great opportunity to be involved in the
  development of a new kind of textbook!
• templates for different stages have yet to be
  worked out.
• animations are not a natural way of thinking
  about lecture material for us - yet.
• we have to write out the narration for the book.

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DESTINY
PMABS (Partnership for Minority Advancement in
the Biomolecular Sciences) DESTINY promotes
equity of access to quality science learning
opportunities in order to increase interest,
ensure understanding, and demonstrate the
relevance of science to all students' lives.
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Typical DESTINY module

• Pre-lab (in class)
• activities to set up a story/question and to
  cover background necessary to carry out the
  wet-lab
• Wet-lab (aboard DESTINY)
• discovery/answer protein or gel electrophoresis
• Post-lab (in class)
• discuss wet-lab, optional follow-up topics

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The basis for our DESTINY module

• In 1905 Constantin Mereschkowsky was the first to
  argue that chloroplasts are (derived from)
  reduced cyanobacteria.
• His errors (that students are going to find and
  correct)
• he missed the dichotomy of life into prokaryotes
  and eukaryotes he inferred that life arose twice
  independently
• he did not recognize that mitochondria also are
  descendants of endosymbiotic bacteria
• he thought that the different colored plastids of
  different algal groups arose from different
  free-living cyanobacteria

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Our DESTINY module

• Pre-lab
• students will learn about an almost correct
  hypothesis of endosymbiosis from 1905 and will
  come up with a strategy to test this hypothesis
  using 2004 tools
• Computer-lab
• students will do sequence alignment and phylogeny
  reconstruction of mitochondrial, chloroplast,
  nuclear, and bacterial sequences to confirm
  mitochondrial and plastid endosymbiosis
• Post-lab
• discuss wet-lab, optional follow-up topics

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Our DESTINY module pre-lab
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Our DESTINY module computer lab
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Our DESTINY module post-lab

• some ideas
• primary vs. secondary endosymbiosis
• organellar gene loss and gene transfer to the
  nucleus
• origin of the nucleus
• more on phylogenetic reconstruction

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DESTINY opportunities and challenges

• DESTINY is great for high school kids who
  wouldnt be able to use new technology otherwise
• this will be a module for high school students!