Aipotu or VGLII First?

[Thomas Fleetwood]

I am curious  if you tend to introduce Aipotu or VGLII to students first - assuming you use them in the same class.  I have an introductory genetics & epidemiology class for high school students with 9th thru 12th grade students in the class and I would love to use both pieces of software.  I am just trying to figure out the best approach.  Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Tom

[Brian White]

Tom

I'm glad you like Aipotu & VGL. In my course, we do VGL then Aipotu, but I can see doing it either way. I do it my way to treat genetics as a strictly logical exercise and then aipotu shows what's going on "behind the scenes". But you could do it the other way - here's an example behind the scenes, then let's look at more complex examples. 

What're you thinking?

Brian

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[Thomas Fleetwood]

At first I was thinking the latter - to show them everything going on behind the scene with Aipotu and then running many examples with VGL.  But now I am thinking of running some of the simpler examples with VGL and then doing the 'behind the scene' with Aipotu and then running more complex examples with VGL.

I am a little confused though.  I am reading the VGLII manual and it refers to the Level01.pr2 thru Level13.pr2 problem files.  In my 3.2 version of VGLII I have 5 problem folders: interacting, one, two, threegenes, and VGL.  In the VGL folder I have Levels 01 to 10, so no 11, 12 or 13.  And, unless I am missing it, there is no reference to the onegene, twogenes, threegenes, or interactinggenes folders.  I have looked at all the Lab Manuals except the French one, since I don't read French :-)

Am I just supposed to assume the obvious and that these are additional problem sets to use or is there someplace that references them.  The way the manual is setup now it makes it look like there should be one folder with Level01 thru Level13.pr2 files in it.

Also, is there a way to quickly see the answers as the instructor for each randomly generated problem?  Besides 'solving' it by looking at the cages.  I did see information involving the 'instructor key' etc...  Is that the only way to just be 'told' the answer?

I suppose that deriving it from the cages isn't too bad, given that there is a limited set of possibilities in the 'model builder' for each problem.  But when working with many groups of students in limited time, it is just somewhat time-consuming for the instructor.  I'm not complaining, I'm just asking if I am missing something that would make my life a bit easier whilst keeping the students' live just as difficult :-)

Your assistance is much appreciated!

Tom

[Brian White]

Tom

Just a quick note. See below:

On Mar 4, 2013, at 6:49 PM, Thomas Fleetwood <docfle...@gmail.com> wrote:

At first I was thinking the latter - to show them everything going on behind the scene with Aipotu and then running many examples with VGL.  But now I am thinking of running some of the simpler examples with VGL and then doing the 'behind the scene' with Aipotu and then running more complex examples with VGL.

I am a little confused though.  I am reading the VGLII manual and it refers to the Level01.pr2 thru Level13.pr2 problem files.  In my 3.2 version of VGLII I have 5 problem folders: interacting, one, two, threegenes, and VGL.  In the VGL folder I have Levels 01 to 10, so no 11, 12 or 13.  And, unless I am missing it, there is no reference to the onegene, twogenes, threegenes, or interactinggenes folders.  I have looked at all the Lab Manuals except the French one, since I don't read French :-)

the manual is a little out of date

see the vgl.umb.edu DOCUMENTATION page and you'll see, for many problems, "Formerly Level 13" etc

you can use that to update as needed

Am I just supposed to assume the obvious and that these are additional problem sets to use or is there someplace that references them.  The way the manual is setup now it makes it look like there should be one folder with Level01 thru Level13.pr2 files in it.

Also, is there a way to quickly see the answers as the instructor for each randomly generated problem?  Besides 'solving' it by looking at the cages.  I did see information involving the 'instructor key' etc...  Is that the only way to just be 'told' the answer?

no, you cannot look at the answer

unless you work it in practice mode (see the documentation)

but, in practice mode, the students can peek also

Brian

[Elizabeth Forrester]

I've used both VGL and Aipotu for the last two years in my AP Biology course. I do VGL first but I also use this as an opportunity for my students to write formal lab reports which are then peer reviewed. It was so fun to hear, "how are they saying this is proof of their model?!?" from my students. Both pieces of software are excellent and my students LOVE these labs.