Today is Digital Learning Day, a day for education leaders to showcase innovative teachers, leaders and instructional technology programs that are improving student outcomes. Under the leadership of Neil Lamb, Ph.D., the Educational Outreach team at HudsonAlpha offers a number of digital educational resources to students including HudsonAlpha iCell®, the Progress of Science Timeline, the GenomeCache® and the newest program, Touching Triton®.
HudsonAlpha iCell® is a free application available online or on portable devices through the Android Marketplace, Apple iTunes and the Windows Store. This interactive simulation allows students and teachers to explore the inner workings of a typical animal, plant or bacterial cell. The app offers an alternative to the flat images presented in textbooks, giving a 3-D representation of cellular components and students better context in learning the fundamental cell structure and function. iCell® reached 500,000 downloads shortly after its debut and was named an Apple App Store staff favorite for education. To date, iCell has surpassed 1,000,000 downloads.
The interactive timeline tool Progress of Science, available online at timeline.hudsonalpha.org, allows users to stroll through 10,000 years of biotechnology, linking biology, discovery, and human culture. Students can browse those discoveries on the timeline, connect them with world events by era, and trace the formation of new ideas and theories
GenomeCache® allows students to experience and learn more about their genomes through clues, fun facts and trivia questions as they go on a Genome Walk on the double helix path in HudsonAlpha’s McMillian park. The free app is available for Apple devices and on iTunes.
Touching Triton® is the latest digital education program from HudsonAlpha, which was featured on an educational media network, EdReach Network, on its August 30, 2014 podcast. This free online educational activity gives students and teachers the opportunity to have an engaging conversation about the common complex disease risk influenced by family history, environmental factors and genomic data. Students learn to synthesize data from these sources to inform lifestyle choices and medical intervention strategies in the setting of a long-duration space flight mission.
Education is essential to HudsonAlpha’s mission to broaden the horizons of tomorrow’s STEM workforce and educate society on genomics. With a dynamic Educational Outreach team and digital learning opportunities, HudsonAlpha is continuously sharing its vision, passion and knowledge to help the general public see the power of genomics to improve the quality of human, plant and animal life.
