Databases

Databases in biology tend to be big and full of lots of data. It is important to practice and teach the skills mentioned earlier in this book for students to be successful in database labs. It is also worth teaching database skills earlier in the course as this will enable students to feel confident carrying out a database lab.

Image: Gerd Altmann, Pixabay, 2018.

The databases below are a collection of curated labs that could be used for IAs or to teach IA skills.

Database	IB Topics	Internal Assessments	For Learning
GenBank	Genetics, evolution	Yes, common genes such as haemoglobin or Cytochrome C can be compared.	Yes, data from the GenBank can be used in Clustal Omega to construct cladograms.
Clustal Omega	Genetics, evolution	Yes, using data from GenBank.	Yes, this can be used to compare percent homology and construct cladograms.
North American Breeding Bird Survey data	Ecology	Yes, students will have to do a lot of sorting and manipulating of the data through.	Yes, there are possibilities for practice IA’s and data analysis questions.
DataNuggets	Various	Yes, various data sets can be downloaded and used in different ways.	Yes, the educator section has great walkthroughs for students to practice.
Cornell Lab Citizen Science	Ecology	Yes, a massive database of birds that could be queried.	Yes, could be a rich source of practice to analysing data.
Virtual Histology Lab	Human physiology	Yes, the images have scale bars that allow things to be measured. Comparisons of different types of cells could be done.	Yes, this is also excellent for use to help identify structures, such as villi, mitochondria, parts the cell, etc.
DataONE	Ecology	Yes, a large number of datasets on various habitats and studies.	Yes, data analysis questions could be created using the data sets and practise analysing data.
iNaturalist	Ecology	Yes, citizen science databases that could be queried.	Yes, data analysis questions could be created using the data sets and practise analysing data.
Kent State's Community Health Nursing	Various datasets on human physiology	Yes, this is a collection of data about health rather than a specific site. Take care to focus on biological topics.	Yes. Data analysis questions could be created using the data sets and practise analysing data.
Library Subject Guides	Various datasets on human physiology	Yes, this is a collection of data about health rather than a specific site. Take care to focus on biological topics.	Yes, data analysis questions could be created using the data sets and practise analysing data.
OSF	Various datasets	Yes, this is a collection of data about health rather than a specific site. Take care to focus on biological topics.	Yes, data analysis questions could be created using the data sets and practise analysing data.
DRYAD	Various datasets	Yes, this is a collection of data about health rather than a specific site. Take care to focus on biological topics.	Yes, data analysis questions could be created using the data sets and practise analysing data.
Bath University Library	A huge link to a variety of datasets	Yes, this is a collection of data about health rather than a specific site. Take care to focus on biological topics.	Yes, some of this data could be used to analyse epidemiological data related to vaccination programmes (Topic 11)