Programming STEAM Applications in Informatics Education and Their Use in Biology Education

In this paper, we present a proposal for a series of STEAM activities developing students’ computational thinking, improving their health literacy, and consequently taking care of their own well-being. The implementation of these activities in the classroom requires not only the knowledge and skills of informatics and biology, but also the collaboration of teachers of both subjects. These activities are implemented in phases, starting in biology lesson and continuing in informatics lesson. The first activity tests the level of sensitivity of people to colour differences. The second activity trains human adaptation to psychological stress. The third activity is focused on creation of compensatory aid that compensates for colour perception disorder. The design and programming of students’ STEAM applications is a meaningful way to use informatics in problem solving. Using and experimenting with these applications helps students to better understand the biological content. STEAM approach strengthens students’ orientation towards interdisciplinary studies (e.g. bioinformatics) at the higher education level and helps them to be more employable in the labour market.