When Coding Meets Biology: The Tension Between Access and Authenticity in a Contextualized Coding Class

Abstract

As programming skills become more demanded in fields outside of computer science, we need to consider how we should be teaching these skills to our students. One option is to encourage students to pursue introductory computer science courses; however, these courses are often geared towards computer science (CS) majors and without important discipline-specific context. Other avenues include short coding modules within disciplinary courses or full courses that blend CS with another discipline. Guided by insights from an introductory CS course in the context of biology, we describe a key tension when coding meets biology: while contextualized programming classes are often perceived as more accessible, students may also view them as less authentic. Taken together, these observations point to specific recommendations for educators who choose to integrate coding and biology in this way. Ultimately, we conclude that discipline-specific programming education is essential to improve equity in computing education.