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Going Green: Using GFP to Investigate Bioinformatics. “It’s not easy being green!” Kermit the Frog. Jon Connolly Susan Cronin Mary Elizabeth “M.E.” Jones Luci Levesque. Goal. Develop a teaching strategy utilizing GFP for the purpose of investigating the realm of bioinformatics.
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Going Green: Using GFP to Investigate Bioinformatics “It’s not easy being green!” Kermit the Frog Jon Connolly Susan Cronin Mary Elizabeth “M.E.” Jones Luci Levesque
Goal • Develop a teaching strategy utilizing GFP for the purpose of investigating the realm of bioinformatics
Research Questions for Investigation • What is GFP? • Where does GFP come from? • What does GFP look like? • How does GFP compare to BFP? • Structurally and sequentially • What are the DNA/protein sequences of GFP? • What is the structure of GFP? • How might a scientist use GFP to study cells? • What is the effect of mutation on GFP? • What is the interaction between aquorin and GFP? • What is the mathematical representation(s) of GFP and how does a mathematical view support biological functions?
Rationale • Science in the 21st Century transcends the boundaries of traditional science disciplines • Therefore, science curricula must: • Cultivate the integrated use of scientific concepts • Develop individuals who can collaborate and interact as a diverse yet holistic team • Provide opportunities for using inquiry, creative problem solving, and life long learning skills
Proposed Areas of Study • Structural biology • Sequential Analysis: • DNA • Protein • Evolutionary Relationships/Biological Phylogeny • Mutation Research • Nature of Fluorescence • Regulation • Construction of vectors
GFP Strengths • Using GFP will act as an unifying organism/molecule that is currently used in • Secondary science as well undergraduate and graduate research • GFP is an appropriate tool for: • Analyzing structure • Determining function • Understanding chemical activity • Identifying relationships of variants & mutants • Using GFP in designing constructs to investigate cellular structures and metabolism
Target Audiences • Secondary education class in biotechnology • High school teacher education programs • Undergraduate study: • Majors & Non-Majors • Student investigations and research • Application of math and software for: • Data analysis • Algorithms
Operational Aspects – Elements that Facilitate Learning (1 of 2) • Introduction to GFP including ‘what it is’ as well as its importance & relevance to biology • Background • Curricular Materials: • Examples of handouts and assignments • Examples of student work: • Project Examples
Operational Aspects – Elements that Facilitate Learning (2 of 2) • Open research questions • Resources: • References and links to background information: • NCBI • Biology Workbench • Protein Explorer • Swiss PDB Viewer • GFP data sets and sources • Bibliography
Operational Aspects - Strategies to Engage Students in Problem Spaces • No demonstrations
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