The Geniverse software is being developed as part of a five-year research project funded by the National Science Foundation. Still in its early stages, a Beta version of the software is currently being piloted in six schools throughout New England. We invite you to try the current Beta version, keeping in mind that you may encounter errors or pages that are not fully functional. If you encounter any problem, it may help to refresh or reload the web page.

Students randomly select jelly beans (or other candy) that represent genes for several human traits such as tongue-rolling ability and eye color. Then, working in pairs (preferably of mixed gender), students randomly choose new pairs of jelly beans from those corresponding to their own genotypes. The new pairs are placed on toothpicks to represent the chromosomes of the couple's offspring. Finally, students compare genotypes and phenotypes of parents and offspring for all the "couples" in the class. In particular, they look to see if there are cases where parents and offspring share the exact same genotype and/or phenotype, and consider how the results would differ if they repeated the simulation using more than four traits.

How can we Design Cattle to Better Meet Human Needs?

In this high school Storyline unit on genetics and heredity, students are introduced to ‘SuperCows’. As they explore the vast variety of cattle breeds, students discover that cattle are specialized for different purposes and while similar, the ‘SuperCows’ are clearly unique. Students wonder what caused this diversity and specificity which leads to investigations about the role of inheritance, DNA and proteins.

Meiosis is the process by which gametes (eggs and sperm) are made. Gametes have only one set of chromosomes. Therefore, meiosis involves a reduction in the amount of genetic material. Each gamete has only half the chromosomes of the original germ cell. Explore meiosis with a computer model of dragons. Run meiosis, inspect the chromosomes, then choose gametes to fertilize. Predict the results of the dragon offspring and try to make a dragon without legs. Learn why all siblings do not look alike.

This initial module from the GENIQUEST project introduces the dragons and the inheritance of their traits, then delves into meiosis and its relationship to inherited traits. Students examine the effects of choosing different gametes on dragon offspring, and learn about genetic recombination by creating recombination events to generate specific offspring from two given parent dragons. Students learn about inbred strains and breed an inbred strain of dragons themselves.

Students will breed fruit flies through several generations and record their data using mathematical models in order to demonstrate the inheritance of trait variations.

This video segment from Kentucky Life describes how scientists control pollination of one of the few remaining American chestnut trees to develop blight resistant trees.

This performance assessment aligns with NGSS Performance Expectation 1.LS3.1 and is intended to be used as an interim assessment. These assessments can either be used summatively, as an end of learning activity, or formatively, utilizing student responses to identify next instructional steps.

Syllabus for course at Western Oregon University that outlines course goals and program outcomes and includes a schedule with weekly topics and reading. Included reading assignments come from the open access textbook "Introduction to Genetics" (Singh et al, 2023) available at https://opengenetics.pressbooks.tru.ca.

In a class discussion format, the teacher presents background information about basic human genetics. The number of chromosomes in both body cells and egg and sperm cells is covered, as well as the concept of dominant and recessive alleles. Students determine whether or not they possess the dominant allele for the tongue-rolling gene as an example.

Learn how to use Punnett squares to calculate probabilities of different phenotypes. Includes worked examples of dihybrid crosses. independent assortment, incomplete dominance, codominance, and multiple alleles.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"A fundamental law of genetics states that offspring do not inherit traits from their parents that were acquired in response to environmental conditions. Recent research in the field of epigenetics, however, is turning this principle on its head. Several recent studies have come to the remarkable conclusion that unhealthy diets in males can contribute to the development of metabolic diseases in their offspring. Even when those offspring are raised with healthy diets_._ Now, a study has identified small RNAs as the molecules responsible for the transmission of these disorders. For a long time scientists thought that inheritance of traits only occurred via DNA being passed from parent to offspring. It is now clear, however, that the experiences of one generation can have an effect on the next. When parents have a high-stress lifestyle or an unhealthy diet, for example, chemical modifications can occur on genes that are then passed to their children. This is termed ‘epigenetic inheritance..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.