Coding for Medicine for High School

Coding for Medicine is completing its tenth year in 2024. This time, we decided to build something that will help a large part of our audience.

Over the years, we are fortunate to meet many smart and curious students from around the world, who were all eager to learn this new science of genomics and bioinformatics. After the course every summer, many excited students (and their parents) ask us about continuing to explore this fascinating subject all year-long. Those learning to code from our introductory module like to practice coding skills with puzzles from biology, whereas those joining the intermediate module are often interested in research-type problems.

We finally have an answer for you. For all of our students and others, we built a year-long learning module.

Here is how it works

At the beginning of every month (depending on your starting date), you will receive problems in one of the two categories (i) single-concept, (ii) research-type.

We will post the problem in your feed in text and video formats in 30 day intervals depending on your starting date. You can work on the questions during the month, and if you need help, you can communicate with us using the classroom chat. Moreover, we will arrange two zoom meetings every month with all students together for discussion. We will post the solution at the end of the 30-day period or when you submit a correct solution.

Single-concept problems: The single-concept exercises are for those, who like to learn coding by solving puzzles related to biology. They are primarily intended for students taking our introductory summer module.

Research-type problems: The research-type problems are more complex and help you learn a topic in medicine/biology/genomics by writing code and analyzing data. This category is intended for those completing the intermediate summer module.

Synchronized with your starting month: We developed this module so that students can join any time and continue with the problems. Your starting date will be assigned as your joining time, and you will receive questions/solutions in 30 day intervals from that point. You have to solve these problems in order, because the problems for the later months will rely on the concepts covered in the prior months.

Who we built this for

We have several audiences in mind.

Students from our Introductory Module - many students learn coding for the first time through our introductory module, but they do not get much practice after those two short (and exciting) weeks of classes. This year-long program will help them sharpen their skills during the school year without being a big time burden. That way they will be better prepared, when they join the intermediate module the following summer.

Students from our Intermediate Module - students completing our intermediate module often request for research-type problems applying coding in biology. The second category of our yearlong program is designed with them in mind.

Coding for Medicine Clubs - Our awesome students started a number of Coding for Medicine clubs around the country, and they are looking for exciting puzzles to work on in a group. The problems posted here will inspire their discussions.

Biology Teachers - Over the years, we met many biology teachers from high-schools, who showed interest in learning about this emerging field of computational biology. They can use these problems and detailed solutions as complete modules to learn and guide their students.

College Students - These days, biology students in college need to learn coding to work on the genomic data from next-generation sequencing (NGS). Our modules provide detailed introduction to all related topics with hands-on exercises.

Starting Date

These two modules can be started any time. You will get your problems in monthly intervals after your payment date or a starting date that you request. Many students plan to start working on these problems after completing their introductory or intermediate modules.