The Useful Genetics Project:
The Useful Genetics project grew out of the conviction that the first aim of any Introductory Genetics course should be to help all students understand the genetics principles and issues that affect their lives. The course materials provided here show that this can be done without compromising the other important goals of preparing students for advanced courses and for careers that use genetics.
The lecture videos and problem sets were initially developed for a pair of ‘Massive Open Online Courses’ (MOOCs) offered first on Coursera and later on edX. These courses have now been archived, but all the materials remain freely available here and on the Useful Genetics YouTube channel.
NEW! Animations and Guides for teaching mitosis and meiosis
The Useful Genetics course materials are organized in 11 modules, each with 10-16 short lecture videos and two problem sets.
- Module 1: How different are we?
- Module 2: How DNA molecules change
- Module 3: Gene functions and phenotypes
- Module 4: Gene interactions and phenotypes
- Module 5: Natural genetic variation
- Module 6: Personal genomics
- Module 7: Mechanisms of inheritance
- Module 8: Genetic analysis
- Module 9: Let’s breed!
- Module 10: How chromosomes change
- Module 11: Cool new concepts
Complete list of lecture titles (Module lecture topics list)
Articles I’ve written about Useful Genetics:
- “Why do we have to learn this stuff?” A new genetics for 21st century students
- Putting my money where my mouth is: the Useful Genetics project (Sorry this isn’t open access – please email me if you’d like a pdf.)
All the Useful Genetics problem sets, writing assignments and final exams:
Using Useful Genetics materials:
- All of the Useful Genetics materials are available under a Creative Commons Share-Alike license. This means you are free to use them for any non-commercial purpose, with or without modification, provided the source is credited and they remain freely available.
Obtaining the lecture Powerpoint files:
- If you would like access to a zipped folder containing all the PowerPoint files used for the lecture videos, please email me.
How to contact me:
- Email: redfield@zoology.ubc.ca.
- Twitter: @rosieredfield
Useful Genetics on FaceBook (We’re not very active…):
The UBC for-credit course:
This course (Genetics for Life, BIOL 233) uses the Useful Genetics videos and practice problem sets, but has its own graded problems, writing assignments and tutorials. It is open only to registered students at the University of British Columbia.