Adding Simulations to Your Curriculum

This article describes a website generated by the Virtual Courseware Project. The website provides interactive, online simulations for the life science laboratory or for earth science fiel... See More

This article describes a website generated by the Virtual Courseware Project. The website provides interactive, online simulations for the life science laboratory or for earth science field studies. The activity described in this article is about fruit flies but online the activities supplement existing curriculum and include online assessments. This is for middle school students up to college. This is an interesting addition to any related curriculum.

Genetics inquiry without the mess

The authors provide information on an interactive website that simulates studying the genetics of fruit flies. They used the simulation at the conclusion of a genetics unit in middle school ... See More

The authors provide information on an interactive website that simulates studying the genetics of fruit flies. They used the simulation at the conclusion of a genetics unit in middle school but I could see introducing it on a limited basis at the beginning to see if students could derive the laws of inheritance on their own with teacher guidance - especially in high school or college if they had been introduced to genetics before. The website provided also has interactive simulations for other topics - some of which could be used as low as middle, many that are more advanced but contain sections which could be used as demonstrations at a lower level. Both the lesson in the article and the website itself could provide useful materials for middle thru undergraduate college students and could be used in class or as independent study.