Welcome to Genscope side collage

GenScope is no longer maintained or supported.
Visit Teaching Genetics with Dragons for our latest software.

Welcome to the GenScope site. GenScope is a learning environment that uses the computer to provide an alternative to text-based science education. It provides teachers and learners with a new tool that enables students to investigate scientific and mathematical concepts through direct manipulation and experimentation.

Paying particular attention to student populations that are under-represented in science, our objective is to help students think like scientists - to grasp not only scientific explanations of phenomena, but also the nature of the scientific process itself.

What's New, Fall 1999

    GS disk image
  1. The final version of GenScope is on our Downloads page. Some of you may have noticed a bug in the earlier version of GenScope. The population level would not run after saving the evolution file and attempting to start it again. We have fixed that. You can now run the evolution file in the population level, save the file, start it again , and continue running the program.

  2. We have analyzed our research data from 43 high schools over 3 years and have presented our findings. Three broad themes emerged.
    • After using GenScope, student ability to reason about genetics improved.
    • GenScope helped bring about a fundamental, qualitative change in student thinking.
    • In later test-taking situations, GenScope students took risks in solving problems that non-GenScope users simply passed by.
    For more information go to Research.

  3. This is our last update. GenScope is officially over. Our efforts are now channeled into a successor program, BioLogica, where our research will focus on embedding into the software those curricular activities that were most successful in GenScope. It will be available on both Macintosh and Windows platforms. For more information about BioLogica, write info@concord.org.

This site offers:
NSF logo This work is funded by two grants from the Applications of Advanced Technology Program of the National Science Foundation, most recently grant number REC-9553438. The support of the Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.

About | In the Classroom | Research | Downloads | Getting Involved

GenScope, A project of The Concord Consortium.
Copyright © 1998, All rights reserved. Inquiries regarding GenScope can be sent to info@concord.org