VIRTUAL BIOLOGY EXERCISE FOR THE ACTIVE LEARNING

OF MENDELIAN GENETICS AND DEVELOPMENT OF KEY

COMPETENCES

Miro Puhek

Sinergise, laboratory for geographical information systems, Ltd., Teslova ulica 30, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Andrej Šorgo

Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Maribor, Koroška cesta 160, Maribor, Slovenia

Keywords: Mendelian Genetics, Virtual laboratory, Simulations, Competences, ICT.

Abstract: Over years of growing peas Gregor Mendel set the basis of modern genetics. When he was comparing

different peas he used problem based activities and practical work. All these methods can be described as

key activities for developing competences. With these activities students tend to gain more knowledge and

the teachers do not have to worry that students would be under challenged. While it is hard to expect that

teachers will turn classes into gardens to grow peas, the virtual experiments are far more reachable. The

cooperation between Sinergise and Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics results in developing

interactive virtual environment that will stimulate students to actively learn about science. With the exercise

Mendelian Genetics students have to solve problems that they are introduced to and consequently at the

same time learn new terms connected with Mendelian genetics. The virtual exercise was created to stimulate

the development of various competences, important in natural sciences. In the paper we presented the virtual

exercise, which was initially tested on 31 students in second grade of lower secondary school. Results show

that students did not come across extraordinary difficulties while working on it. When working on the

explanation of the problem, the exercise helped the students with less knowledge.

1 INTRODUCTION

The salvation of different challenges and active

student’s participation in the educational process

represent the foundation of encouragement of

critical thinking and problem based learning (Prince,

2004; Savery, 2006). With active work learning

changes from collecting facts and memorization to

increase of inquiry and development of

competences. Competences cannot be learned, but

students have to develop them through active

engagement (Špernjak and Šorgo, 2009). Practical

work, such as usually found in laboratory and field

work, is recognized as the method where students

can achieve subject through active participation.

The Slovenian curriculum for genetics in the

primary school defines genetics as the link of theory

and practice, based on the student’s experiential

learning and their personal activity (Verčkovnik,

2000). Under the key methods are defined:

laboratory and experimental work, individual and

guided observation, work on projects and cultivation

of organisms.

An example of that kind of work is Mendel’s

crossing thousands of peas in order to observe the

transmission of characteristics on the offspring

(Blumberg, 1997). With inquiry on growing peas,

Mendel set the basis of modern genetics. Because of

limited budget the school is unable to guarantee the

sources and time that are needed for development of

numerous generations of plants and animals. The

teachers can now substitute this lack by introducing

the information communication technology (ICT) in

the classrooms. In the concept of classical

experimental work as well as in the virtual work

there can be differentiated between completely

guided type of work (like cookbook) and work that

encourages students to inquire the world around

them (hands-on activities). Good examples of

390

Puhek M. and Šorgo A..

VIRTUAL BIOLOGY EXERCISE FOR THE ACTIVE LEARNING OF MENDELIAN GENETICS AND DEVELOPMENT OF KEY COMPETENCES.

DOI: 10.5220/0003336103900393

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU-2011), pages 390-393

ISBN: 978-989-8425-49-2

 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

didactical tools are attractive and encourage the

curiosity of students (Fancovicová, 2010). They do

not only demand dull clicking (Špernjak et al.,

2010), but are supposed to illustrate theoretical

concepts in practice (Huang, 2004).

The purpose of the paper is to present the virtual

exercise Mendelian Genetics and initial results of

testing in the classroom. The exercise could be used,

not only in the classrooms, but also as addition to the

field work. The main aim during the development

was the need to increase the students to get to the

knowledge with active work and solving little

problems to overcome an obstacle – to learn

Mendels’ laws. The exercise would be used in the

virtual environment that we are developing at

Sinergise.

2 METHODOLOGY

When developing the virtual exercises the main aim

represented the active inclusion of students and

achievement of higher cognitive skills. According to

Boerwinkel et al. (2008) we choose Labrador

retrievers as the object of experiment, because they

show importance for the students, society and

science. Through the case of Labradors the students

can become aware that science is not only learned in

school, but is present all the time in everyday life.

Exercise could be later expended with other objects,

especially when it will be used with outdoor

activities.

Pilot testing of the virtual exercise was made on

a small sample of students (N=31) in the second

grade of the lower secondary school. The teacher

used the exercise in the end of the class hour as a

tool to renew the gained knowledge. To increase the

debate between the students, the exercise was

purposely tested in the “classical” biology classroom

with one computer that was projecting material on

the wall. Additionally, the students were asked to fill

out the work sheets and the evaluation form to

validate the exercise.

3 VIRTUAL EXERCISE

MENDELIAN GENETICS

The basic view of the virtual exercise Mendelian

Genetics is presented in the Figure 1. The exercise

can be divided into five different parts (A, B, C, D

and E), where students learn about the basic

Mendelian principles of the first and second

Mendel’s law – Law of Segregation and Law of

Independent Assortment. When students finish one

chapter, they can continue with the next one. This

principle forces them to be active if they want to

gain feedback, which is presented through picture of

the parent or the offspring.

Figure 1: The basic view of the virtual exercise Mendelian

Genetics with the markings of different tasks: A) menu

with the explanations; B) selecting the genotypes and the

matching colour of parents; C) crossing; D) defining the

missing genotypes in the Punnett square; and E) matching

randomly selected genotype with appropriate phenotype.

Part A serves as an introduction to the problem

and as the basic menu to choose the type of crossing.

The students are introduced to the terms alleles,

monohybrid and dihybrid crossing. An explanation

of different alleles used in the exercise is described

in the legend. In the part B, students deal with the

terms genotype and phenotype. The problem that has

to be solved is to decode the genotype of each parent

and link it with the matched colour. Students can

observe the difference between the dominant alleles

that are usually seen on the outside and the recessive

alleles that are hidden behind them. If the answer

that the student selects is correct, the picture of

parent shows up. The progress to part C and the

possibility to cross the selected dogs is enabled,

when pictures of both parents are showed. During

the salvation of the problem students meet the terms

gametes and the Punnett square. Between the stage

C and D the teacher can ask the students to predict

the breeding results, where the right gametes in the

Punnett square have to be included. A similar

problem is presented in the part D, where some

genotypes in the Punnett square are hidden and

VIRTUAL BIOLOGY EXERCISE FOR THE ACTIVE LEARNING OF MENDELIAN GENETICS AND

DEVELOPMENT OF KEY COMPETENCES

391

students have to guess them. At this point it has to

be said that the answer is case sensitive and the

order of different gametes is also important. In the

final stage of the virtual exercise (part E), the

marked genotype should be connected with the right

phenotype from the drop-down list. The marked area

is selected randomly. If teacher wants to choose

another one, the problem can be launched again and

again with clicking on the button. Again, if the

answer is correct, the picture of the chosen Labrador

offspring is shown. With the help of pictures that

present the carriers of different pigments, the dogs

can be defined as homozygous and heterozygous

organisms. With this knowledge they can later

calculate the frequencies of different phenotypes to

support the Mendel’s hypothesis.

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In the virtual exercise Mendelian Genetics we put

the students into the shoes of modern Gregor Johann

Mendel, the Austrian priest and the “father” of

modern genetics. Instead of peas, students are

breeding virtual Labradors. The exercise is

developed interactively to support critical thinking

and active learning approach. Anderson and

Krathmohl’s taxonomy of the cognition (Anderson

et al., 2001) represented the core of the development

of the exercise. Through working on the exercise

the students are practicing different levels of

cognitive domains (Table 2). With the help of well

known breed of the dog, the science can be brought

into the classroom and the exploration of different

Mendelian principles can begin.

After the biology hour the students were asked to

support us with the answers when the work with

exercise was difficult and when attractive, to give us

the disadvantages and advantages of the exercise.

59 % students declared that working with exercise

was fun and enjoyable. 22% did not like working

with it and 19% were unable to decide. The students

were asked to give comments about the exercise and

it was interesting that they did not only

acknowledged the different learning approach but

also defined this kind of learning as easier to

understand a difficult learning material. Frequent

answer was also that they like “new” type of

learning, which has shown them the genetics from

different perspective. In next par they declared that

81 % did not face any difficulties with usage and 19

% were unable to decide.

Table 2: Anderson and Krathmohl’s taxonomy of the

cognition in context of the exercise Mendelian Genetics.

Anderson and

Krathwohl's

Taxonomy

Task in exercise

Mendelian

Genetics

Part of the

exercise

(A, B, C,

D and E)

1. remembering

to define an allele A

2. understanding

to differentiate

between mono- and

dihybrid crossing

3. applying

to connect the

genotype with true

colour

B, E

4. analyzing

to analyze the

Punnet square and

fill the missing gaps

5. evaluating

to predict the result

in Punnett Square

6. creating

to use the exercise

and create desired

colour of the breed

work sheet

Majority of students as advantage agreed that

virtual tools helped them to understand the problem

and provide answers. Based on the gained results we

can conclude that students with less knowledge tend

to express more interest than students with better

knowledge. Additional important answers were that

virtual tools are fun and as that more attractive to

use when learning. As disadvantages students

described the exercise as not understandable, which

includes the technical part of the exercise. With the

knowledge that students generally like working and

learning with the computers (Špernjak et al., 2010),

we were surprised that an answer suggested a lack of

interest towards computer work. Students with better

understanding of Mendelian genetics showed less

interest in the exercise as students to whom the

problem was harder to understand. An additional

problem occurred that some students were unable to

distinguish between learning and playing with

computers, which indicates that some students found

the exercise not interesting.

5 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE

WORK

The presented virtual exercise was primary

developed as a helping tool for understanding

Mendelian genetics. The field of genetics introduces

numerous new terms (alleles, phenotype,

monohybridous organisms, Punnett square etc.),

which are abstract to the students and therefore

CSEDU 2011 - 3rd International Conference on Computer Supported Education

392

present difficulties understanding this complex

structures.

The virtual exercise Mendelian Genetics can be

used as an independent laboratory exercise, which is

performed in virtual environment, or as addition to

classical laboratory or even field work. With the

exercise it is also possible to verify the hypothesis as

the preparation for a new class or to refresh

knowledge that was already gained. The exercise

Mendelian Genetics is designed like a self-running

program, which does not need internet access to

work. This makes it a good practicing tool for

students to refresh knowledge before the exam.

The initial testing, performed on students of

lower secondary school (subject Biology), showed

that majority of students did not have problems with

the work on the virtual exercise and like the new

way of learning. We also have to evaluate the pretest

and posttest results to measure the effect of

simulation on knowledge. The gained feedback will

enable improvements of the virtual environment that

we are developing at Sinergise.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We gratefully acknowledge the support for this

research through European social fund (grant # MR-

10/10). Exercise was tested with the help of the

project “Development of Science Competences”,

which was partly supported through the Ministry of

Education and Sport of Republic of Slovenia and the

European social fund.

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DEVELOPMENT OF KEY COMPETENCES

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