Fruit Fly Simulation: Drosophila

If you are a science teacher looking to teach your students about genetics then a great technological tool to use for learning in and out of the classroom is a Fruit Fly Simulation called Drosophila. This simulation will help teach your students the basics of genes and how the phenotype's of the parents will affect the offspring. Another reason the Fruit Fly Simulation would be a helpful learning tool is that it would be very engaging for students because it is very much like a game. Students design both the male and female fruit flies, picking the desirable traits for each and then have to follow the steps in the game to incubate the larvae. Students can save the outcomes of the gene crossings in their notebooks and cross them again. There are also questions available for the students to answer to support their learning on genes and a quiz they can take when they have accomplished their learning objectives. Due to its game like nature students will retain more from it then they would a traditional lesson because they are enjoying and engaged in what they are doing and because of this the Fruit Fly Simulation would be a great tool to support students learning about genetics.
http://www.sciencecourseware.org/vcise/drosophila/