Bioinformatic Internship Program (BIP) for Biotech students

Students learn professional BioInformatics skills serving as interns for a public health agency.

Databases and Tools.  Students play the role of interns in a Bioinformatics Internship Program (BIP) designed to prepare them for work at their home University Health Centers.  This scenario-based task has them answer a research question by exploring the National Center for Biotechnology Information databases – and then present their findings.

Influenza--Building a Data Set.  The BIP interns focus on influenza and locate sequences in databases, prepare a  multi sequence data set, align multi-sequences, and prepare a phylogenetic tree.

Influenza Incidence and Analysis.  The interns obtain data from the CDC website about the incidence of different subtypes of influenza in the U.S. human population, graph the data and interpret results.

Avian Influenza.  The BIP interns work on a team aligning HA and NA genes and doing motif analysis.  Then they get an exciting opportunity to investigate a suspicious outbreak in Indonesia, present findings and make recommendations.

The Instructor Guide supports faculty in the successful implementation of a scenario-based task. Additional support is provided by the Community of Practice in Scenario-Based Learning hosted at www.tappedin.org.   To join, please email Jane Ostrander.  Include your institution, contact information and subjects taught.

>> download the BIP Instructor's Guide

For a copy of the BIP Answer Key, please send an email from your college email address to Jane Ostrander and include your institution, contact information and subjects taught. They are also available in our Tapped In group: Scenario Based Learning.

Assessing Biotech Students

Through the Databases and Tools, Building a Data Set, Influenza Incidence and Analysis, and Avian Influenza tasks, students are expected to develop their professional skills of research and analysis, collaboration, and presentation. These skills are assessed as students use online databases and computer tools in two mini-tasks (Building a Data Set; Influenza Incidence and Analysis) and two main tasks (Avian Influenza; Databases and Tools) to organize their research, work in teams on different research tasks, and make presentations. Test items are under development at this time.

>> visit the BIP site