The Bioinformatics Project aims to help undergraduate and high school students gain a better understanding of genetics and molecular biology through the use of an intelligent tutoring system that will allow students to use bioinformatics tools. Bioinformatics is the scientific field that integrates biology, computer science, and information technology to answer biological questions. Bioinformatics includes the use of computational tools to study biological data, such as genetic sequences. By providing students with the opportunity to use these tools while they are also learning about the domain, we hope they will gain a deeper understanding of the underlying genetics concepts.

Here at LSRI, we have been studying students’ understanding of critical genetics concepts prior to and following traditional instruction in college-level courses. Our emphasis has been on determining those areas that students fail to understand in the ways intended by instructors and where the bioinformatics tutor could be used to scaffold student learning and improve student understanding. As prototypes of the tutor are becoming available to us, we are preparing to pilot test the tutor with undergraduate students to gain further knowledge of their understanding of genetics and to examine how the tutor might best allow students to gain deeper knowledge of key domain concepts.