Supplemental Resources Related to the Genetic Analogies paper

To facilitate classroom use of the analogies described in the ABT paper we provide here two links to downloadable pdf files. The first presents the article as published in the November, 2013 edition of American Biology Teacher. Owing to issues related to placement of the article within the journal edition, all figures are in black and white. Coauthor Ed Himelblau was kind enough to create colorized renditions of his marvelous cartoons shown in Figures 1 and 4 and Scott Woody provided color prints of the FPsc albino and abnormal leaf mutant phenotypes. Those figures were combined with text from the final manuscript to create a second pdf version of the article that is likewise available for download. We also offer a powerpoint slide presentation including lecture notes that visitors are encouraged to make use of as you see fit. Finally, for those energetic enough to create their own powerpoint or other presentations, we provide links to individual colored figures included in the article.

• Understanding & Teaching Using Genetic Analogies article as originally published (Woody and Himelblau (2013), Amer. Biol. Teacher 75:664-669.) (PDF, 887KB)
• Understanding & Teaching Using Genetic Analogies, color figures (PDF, 653KB)
• Powerpoint and Lecture notes (PowerPoint, 2.5MB)
• Links to colored figures as seen in the ABT article
• Figure 1: Rustic and Desolation, fictional towns that illustrate the distinction between genes, loci, and alleles (PNG, 666KB)
• Figure 2: The FPsc albino mutant phenotype that results from a recessive, loss-of-function allele (TIF, 1.1MB)
• Figure 3: The FPsc abnormal leaf mutant phenotype that results from a dominant, gain-of-function allele (TIF, 1.6MB)
• Figure 4: Sketch panels illustrating a musical analogy useful to help students understand the molecular basis for the distinction between recessive and dominant alleles
  • Panel A: The wild type scenario (JPG, 222KB)
  • Panel B: The heterozygous condition (JPG, 225KB)
  • Panel C: The homozygous recessive condition (JPG, 222KB)
  • Panel D: Effects of a dominant allele (JPG, 305KB)

(Right click on link, select "save as" to save to disk)

We welcome feedback from teachers who opt to use these analogies and figures in their genetics curriculum. How did you present them? What was the reception among students? Did they work? Any such feedback — whether upon initial impressions or following classroom use — would be very welcome and should be forwarded via email to Scott Woody (swoody@wisc.edu) with subject line “genetic analogies”.