Proposal Title
Animated textbooks in biology education
Session Type
Presentation
Room
FNB 1220
Start Date
4-7-2019 11:30 AM
Keywords
Animation, Biology, Data integration, Interactivity
Primary Threads
Education Technologies and Innovative Resources
Abstract
In only the past 10 years, the number of molecular structures deposited into databanks has almost tripled to over 150,000, allowing for unprecedented visualizations of cell and molecular biology processes. However, this high rate of discovery makes it difficult to continually ensure that students are exposed to this new material and in an educationally impactful manner. Our focus has therefore been to integrate this structural data with all available functional data from throughout the literature to produce high quality, scientifically accurate 3D visualizations that function as the main pillar throughout a new genre of educational tools we refer to as animated textbooks. Animated textbooks allow students to visualize photosynthesis, understand how ATP hydrolysis powers conformational changes, and witness the propagation of action potentials along neuronal axons, in a manner that was previously not possible. These visualizations, in combination with associated interactive 3D structures, also dramatically improve the efficiency of communicating fundamental, introductory level concepts that in turn enable improved understanding of higher level biological processes. Finally, the holistic nature of this highly integrated data can for the first time allow students to visualize and thus gain a deeper understanding of the interconnection between atomic, molecular, macromolecular, and cellular processes.
Elements of Engagement
The animated textbook presented is able to act both as the resource used by professors during lecture as well as the textbook that students read/watch on their own time. Conference delegates will therefore assume the role of students as they engage with the learning material as a student would, specifically with the interactive 3D structures which they could manipulate on their own portable electronic devices. Meanwhile the presenter will show how the course instructor would use the same material to highlight and discuss only the key concepts without diving into the details.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Animated textbooks in biology education
FNB 1220
In only the past 10 years, the number of molecular structures deposited into databanks has almost tripled to over 150,000, allowing for unprecedented visualizations of cell and molecular biology processes. However, this high rate of discovery makes it difficult to continually ensure that students are exposed to this new material and in an educationally impactful manner. Our focus has therefore been to integrate this structural data with all available functional data from throughout the literature to produce high quality, scientifically accurate 3D visualizations that function as the main pillar throughout a new genre of educational tools we refer to as animated textbooks. Animated textbooks allow students to visualize photosynthesis, understand how ATP hydrolysis powers conformational changes, and witness the propagation of action potentials along neuronal axons, in a manner that was previously not possible. These visualizations, in combination with associated interactive 3D structures, also dramatically improve the efficiency of communicating fundamental, introductory level concepts that in turn enable improved understanding of higher level biological processes. Finally, the holistic nature of this highly integrated data can for the first time allow students to visualize and thus gain a deeper understanding of the interconnection between atomic, molecular, macromolecular, and cellular processes.