Biology is quickly becoming an "information-driven" science.Thus, biological research frequently involves addressing new questions using existing data that has been compiled from past experiments in the laboratory and observations in the field. In one striking example of this shift, the integration of computer science and molecular biology has created a new discipline engaged in the collection, integration and analysis of biological data - bioinformatics.

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The availability of vast amounts of molecular sequence and structure data is changing both the ways biological research is done and the types of questions that are being asked. Molecular data is being used to study biological systems, from biochemical pathways to ecological interactions, based on our understanding of the relationships of sequence, structure and function, and the mechanisms of molecular evolutionary change. Given the impact of this new lens on biological understanding and the availability of public domain data resources, undergraduate students can, and should, experience the new research strategies made possible by this information revolution. 

The goals of this workshop therefore include: 

Bringing together faculty interested in using molecular data resources to engage students in biological and biochemical problem solving, and

Supporting the development of activities that participants can use in their own teaching. 

The workshop sessions will involve sharing existing teaching materials, learning about bioinformatics tools and techniques, and developing new resources for teaching at the undergraduate level. The exercises and activities will take advantage of the Biology Workbench, a web-based environment for accessing and analyzing molecular data. Because the Biology Workbench is a fully functional research tool that can be used by educators and students at no cost it presents an important opportunity to engage students in meaningful investigations into biological questions.

The workshop is organized by BioQUEST, Beloit College, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in collaboration with faculty and students from the NPACI EdCenter on Computer Science & Engineering at San Diego State University, and CSUPERB. NPACI is the National Partnership for Advanced Computational InfrastructureEdCenter. The workshop will address both teaching about the tools and techniques of bioinformatics and the application of these ideas to questions in different areas of biology (e.g., conservation, evolution, genetics).