(c) Josep M. Llort Planchadell 1999, 2010.

A microworld of mendelian genetics under Windows. The program gives genetics problems in which the statement has not all the data: students must planify and make crosses to obtain new data.

A problem's statement of "El Joc dels Gens"

The problems are stated in a real context. So, students are contracted by some farmers, by a petshop, or similar, and must identify the genotypes of some animals or determine how a trait is inherited. Common species are used: mice, cats, dogs, horses, pigs, hens...

Two auxiliar forms are designed to understand how a character is inherited. The genetic modification form allows to modify the genotype of an animal and see how his phenotype changes. The detailled cross form shows the main biological processes (meiosis, fertilization) that take place during the reproduction of individuals.

The form of genetic modification	The form of detailled cross

It is possible to open problems about 10 patterns of inheritance, including autosomical dominance, codominance, multiple alleles, sex-linking or inheritance of two independent traits. Also, an auxiliary program, the generator of problems, allows the users to create his own problems easily and to use them freely.

Choosing a genotypes problem...

The genotypes of the initial population are randomly stated every time you start a problem. So, although you have solved the problem in advance, neither students nor the teacher will know the answer.

A cross of el Joc dels Gens

The genotype and the fenotype of every descendant is randomly stated, according to the possible gametes combinations. So, like in the real world, the rate of the offspring can differ of the expected rate, specially if the number of descendants is small.

It is possible to write a little text with hypothesis, deductions, predictions or conclusions for every animal. This text is always shown beside the animal.

Deducing the genotypes and justifiing the deductions

"El Joc dels Gens" was edited by the "PIE", an organism of the Catalonian government. The program is written in Catalan, but it is possible to use it without knowing this language, specially if you know Italian, French, Spanish or any other Latin language.

The program's help system has more information, including a teacher's guide.

Last version (4.01) has the following new features:

• It is compatible with Windows Vista and Windows 7.
• It contains a new kind of problems: problems of preimplantacional diagnosis.
• It allows problems with plants or animals. For example, you will be able to work with Mendel's peas.

Download the install program of El Joc dels Gens last version (4.01), compressed with Winrar.