Welcome to Genetics!

Hi folks

I'm a Professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  I've taught for over twenty years and have become a huge advocate for self-paced learning.  Although I structure my lecture classes in a fairly traditional way (everyone has to be ready for class and already be familiar with the assigned chapter), I recognize that having out-of-class resources that you can tap on demand is a huge benefit to interested learners.

I've been using YouTube with greater frequency, but have had a hard time organizing the content.  I decided to give Blogger a whirl to allow me to organize my online lessons.  I'm a huge fan of how Sal Khan decided to share his love of teaching and his resources, and thought I'd try my hand at it myself!  Who knows, maybe I'll sign on as a coach with the Khan Academy some day.

I've not only used blogs to provide lessons, but also have developed an Online Open Resource called Online Open Genetics.  Several of the lessons I demonstrate here are available in interactive format over there.  Go to http://opengenetics.net to see it.  I've summarized skills at another site (which liberally links to Open Genetics) at http://tinyurl.com/MRUspecs (note that this site was done in the now-discontinued Adobe authoring system called Muse.  You might get some errors, but you can probably click through them.

Until then, here are my resources.  At this site you can expect to see lessons on:

• Mendelian inheritance
• Gene mapping
• Gene expression (e.g. Operon structure, RNA processing)
• Macromolecules (basically just nucleic acids and proteins)
• Humour
• anything else that seems appropriate!

Feel free to leave comments.  I can probably be talked into giving tutorials on different topics provided I feel I have the expertise.  The principles I cover should transfer over to genetics at most institutions.  I might teach things in a different way than you might otherwise learn it from your regular instructor, but you *should* come up with the same answers.  Be sure to check with your instructor about whether she or he wants you to conform to a particular method of solving genetics problems, or if any logical strategy will work.  It's their course and their rules!

The nature of blogs is to put the newest information at the top.  I want to control the order of the posts, so I had to think of a way to order the lessons.  To accomplish this, I created multiple blogs, each on a different topic.  That way, I can post the latest lessons first, and all the newer ones stack up upon each other.  As you scroll down the blog page, you'll see the lessons in the proper order! Check the links to the right for new units as I put them together!

I hope this site proves to be useful to you!

...Todd

Welcome to the Fall 2019 edition of BIOL2101!

Hi everyone

Welcome to the Fall 2019 genetics course (BIOL2101).

Classes should be interactive:  bring questions and ask me to clarify points you've read.  On occasion I'll have you work through exercises that should help you understand genetics concepts.

You'll also need to find that iClicker you used for BIOL 1202 because in-class activities will be worth points.  If you don't have one, you can buy one at the bookstore.

...Todd