Education, Outreach and Training

1. Tree visualization for use in displaying phylogeny, traits, etc. Using the improved tree visualization methods developed as part of iPTOL, we propose to develop teaching/outreach tools to convey the evolutionary history of plants. We envision the development of multiple trees with varying levels of detail designed for different audiences: K12, citizen scientists, undergraduate biology students, professional scientists. For EOT, trees of varying complexity would show plant phylogeny and have applications to permit overlaying traits on clades, distributions on maps (perhaps using Google Earth?), functional/ecological attributes, etc. Such a holistic view of plant evolutionary history would provide an excellent base from which to develop teaching units on evolution.
2. "DNA-to-tree" module to permit students to explore the relationship between molecular biology (DNA variation) and biodiversity through their common link -- phylogeny. Designed as a pedagogical tool rather than a research tool, this module would contain some elements of MacClade and software for sequence visualization and manipulation for alignment, tree construction, and tree manipulation, thus making use of research methods and illustrating the link between biology and computer science.
3. Social networking opportunities for students to interact with other students elsewhere or with scientists. This approach and the resulting tools could also be developed for multiple audiences: K12, undergraduates, graduate students. Faculty could use these tools to share course materials and course content and develop novel ways methods of instruction. This proposal resonated very positively with the teachers who attended the EOT breakout session at our workshop.
4. Develop video clips on plant evolutionary history for public outreach (for dissemination via YouTube, for example). These might be created de novo, or from existing programs such as Nova or Discovery. Surprisingly, existing entries under searches for "tree of life" or "phylogeny" show virtually nothing about phylogenetic relationships among organisms but instead portray the "tree of life" clips from religious or creationist contexts. Inteviews with scientists could provide an entrez into the realm of interactions with scientists: these same scientists could be virtualmentors through the social networking system described in (3).
5. Teacher workshops for training in the use of CI; for example, how to implement the tools proposed above and how to integrate them into curricula. We propose to recruit and support both biology and computer science teachers for summer sessions to work with iPTOL and iPlant personnel to develop curricula and to lead the workshops for other teachers. Varying state curricular standards and requirements will be kept in mind to make the teaching materials as broadly useful as possible.
6. Cross-training of students in biology and computer science at both undergraduate and graduate levels. We propose to develop courses and other approaches to integrating biology and computer science, at both our home institutions and centralized through iPlant.