Animal Biology
Genetics Game Lab Project, Page 1
Learning Genetics...make your own game/model
OVERVIEW
The goal of this lab project is to design an interactive game or model that shows how the most complicated aspects of genetics occur. You can choose among the three main areas of genetics to make a game that illustrates the fundamentals of what is happening:
· Molecular Genetics—DNA replication game
· Mendelian/Classical Genetics—Punnet’s Square or Family Tree Game
· Population Genetics—Allele Frequency Distribution Game
You can be as creative as you like with your game, as long as it fills the following goals and restrictions:
1. Work with one partner or alone
2. No online games…use real physical objects
3. You must be able to show the game to the class in five minutes or less
4. The game must model the details of the following:
a. For Molecular Genetics—DNA replication or protein synthesis
b. For Mendelian Genetics—the role of egg and sperm from mother and father, different alleles and assortment of alleles to offspring in a Punnet’s Square
c. For Population Genetics: The way alleles are distributed among a population resulting in the percentage of traits that are found in that population.
5. Your game/model must include the following elements when you present to the class:
a. Game/model pieces that are interactive…can be moved around
b. Instructions for how to use the game
c. Labels of all the important pieces of the game, or a key to the pieces if they cannot be directly labeled
d. A written explanation of how your game/model explains the concept
I encourage you to be creative, to use whatever materials, 2- or 3-dimensional that you think are appropriate and that will work well. I hope that your game will be so good that we will want to use it to teach future generations of genetics students.
Have fun, work hard!