SimpleGene

Introduces students to the basic concepts of life cycles, gametes and inheritance.

SimpleGene is an introductory program to the Hands On Genetics set. The student has to follow genes from parent to offspring and to put in phenotypes to match. The program starts with a screen diagram of a family, including gametes, which the student has to build into a life cycle diagram. The arrows and labels are supplied to complete the diagram:

Next, the program introduces genes and characters. Here is one example. The genes have to be inherited from parents to gametes to offspring, after which the appropriate character has to be put into place.

Segregation is introduced next. In this example the student has to make up two families that are different:

Now the form of the diagram is changed to the usual way of showing the two possible outcomes. This diagram introduces the ratio to be filled in:

The conventional 'Punnett square' representation of a heterozygote x heterozygote cross.

The SimpleGene program also contains two exercises on what happens in multiple-child families. These two are more advanced exercises, and the program can be set to drop these two exercises for elementary classes.