Normal Distributions and the Scientific Method
Read the sad story of Edgar, the fish that didn't get very big, and the hapless intern who was stiffed for the fish food bill. Then find out how to make Edgar's owners pay by looking at the mean and standard deviation of fish size. Find Edgar's place in the normal distribution, learn the hidden meaning of 68-95-99, and find out what happens when two normal distributions overlap. Death, murder, and mayhem guaranteed! Fun for everyone!
Bar Graphs and Standard Error
Further adventures of Edgar... Can a fancier graph save the day? Can a really big experiment save the day? And what is the difference between a raggedy population and a raggedy experimental result? Learn to group your data appropriately, draw error bars, and use those error bars to make a quick-and-dirty call on the data. Plus, meet and SD and SE: delve into the difference that one little letter can make.
BLAST and (Im)probability
Girl Detective Nancy Drew solves the case of the Amazing Sleuthing Gene. Go from combining tops and bottoms for the greatest number of business casual outfits to combining the four letters of the DNA alphabet to determine the number of peptide sequences. Find out how four letters turn into nearly a google of possible sequences, and use scientific notation to simplify the investigation. Bonus: Boggle your mind while challenging BLAST mano a mano.
Basic Rules of Probability
Know when to add, when to multiply, and when to do both. Then practice, practice, practice...
Mice with Fangs: Intro to Punnett Squares
Stalk the elusive Punnett Square slowly and carefully ... build the Chez Punnett menu first, then the Punnett Insult Machine. With the Punnett Square squarely in your sights, you can predict what the kids will look like (a/k/a phenotypic outcomes). Build up to the famous double hybrid square and the 9:3:3:1 ratio -- the most famous ratio that never existed.
More Mice with Fangs: Intermediate Punnett Squares
Zip right past the double hybrid Punnett Square and onto better (and sometimes bigger) things. Try your hand at predicting phenotypic outcomes (a/k/a what the kids will look like), and follow along while we calculate phenotypic outcomes using probabilities only (Look Ma, no Punnett Squares!) Finish up with the mother of all Punnett Squares -- a 5-loci combination that will knock your socks off! Don't delay, get started today!
Linked Genes and Recombination: Advanced Punnett Squares
Double hybrid Punnett Squares are so yesterday! Move on to exploring what happens when two genes are on the same chromosome. First the easy case -- when genes stay put. And then we'll talk about real life -- when genes don't stay put, a/k/a crossovers (and I don't mean figure skating). Learn the logic behind marginal probabilities and how to construct a distance map. Then show off your new skills by testing whether pointy ears and psionic powers are linked in major extraterrestrial lineages -- but beware the wily chi-square tests, they are tricky!