With the explosion of genomic data and its promise to revolutionize personal and public health, today’s students can benefit from practical skills to effectively access, interpret and analyze real genetic data.
What if your students can learn genetics by investigating their own genome instead of reading a textbook? What would that entail?
Dr. David Matthes, Professor of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development from University of Minnesota, is giving his students the ability to learn directly from their own 23andMe genetic data and making genetics engaging and accessible to students in various majors and academic background.
David Matthes is a Professor (Teaching) in the Department of Biology Teaching and Learning and the Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development at University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
His courses include the award-winning Foundations of Biology course, a senior-level, team-based learning-format section of Cell Biology, a project-based bioinformatic analysis course in which students characterize human genes of unknown function, and a personal genome analysis course in which students analyze their own genome variations while learning about the connections between the genome and many aspects of the human condition.
He received the 2013/14 award for Most Engaging Professor from the students in the College of Biological Sciences and the Dagley-Kirkwood Undergraduate Education Award for 2014-15.
He has contributed to the scholarship of teaching and learning, particularly in the area of the use of SCALE-UP style active learning classrooms, and as related to teaching and learning of genetics, genomics, bioinformatic analysis, and cell biology. Professor Matthes is dedicated to being an effective, innovative, and transformative instructor at the University of Minnesota.