Integrating Biomedical Informatics Training into Existing High School Curricula

Growing demand for biomedical informaticists and expertise in areas related to this discipline has accentuated the need to integrate biomedical informatics training into high school curricula. The K-12 Bioinformatics professional development project educates high school teachers about data analysis, biomedical informatics and mobile learning, and partners with them to expose high school students to health and environment-related issues using biomedical informatics knowledge and current technologies. We designed low-cost pollution sensors and created interactive web applications that teachers from six Philadelphia public high schools used during the 2019-2020 school year to successfully implement a problem-based mobile learning unit that included collecting and interpreting air pollution data, as well as relating this data to asthma. Through this project, we sought to improve data and health literacy among the students and teachers, while inspiring student engagement by demonstrating how biomedical informatics can help address problems relevant to communities where students live.