I am planning to use EteRNA with my genetics students again next year and have written a brief Introduction to EteRNA for my undergrad bio majors. I’ve also written the guidelines for a tRNA puzzle activity that I want to try with them. I’d be happy to share either with high school students or anybody else who might find it useful.
I’ve put up the materials for our course here, along with an evaluation of how folks did. For this pilot round, the experiment-based scores were used for extra credit, but it might be interesting to tie actual grades to the score…
Note that the course is for Ph.d. students, so the lectures assume some degree of mathematical sophistication and chemistry/physics knowledge.
@macclark52 – would you mind sharing guidelines for your tRNA activity on the educational resources page on the wiki?
Perhaps we could then set up an actual experimental module for your course next year – let me know [rhiju (at) stanford (dot) edu] the timing.
One possibility for next year is to have eterna in several undergrad courses worldwide, culminating in a final ‘contest’ with real experimental scoring. We could probably do it 3-4 times a year to accommodate the different course schedules.
I have posted both the intro document and the tRNA puzzle activity on the Wiki.
Hi Rhiju et al.–
I am teaching upper-level, undergraduate Genetics this fall and my lab manager recently sent me the link to the Wired article. I’m now checking out eteRNA and strongly considering using it for a lab or out of class exercise. I would love to keep up with ongoing developments for college teaching!
Check out initial materials from us and other educators at the wiki here, and we’re developing some beautiful educational content in collaboration with NovaLabs over the next year. If you come up with useful worksheets tutorials, please also return the factor by posting to the wiki! Thanks!