1. Blooket Question Set
Blooket is an interactive game. There are different mini games for each set. Students can compete against each other for first place, earning points by answering questions correctly. This set is full of questions about the central dogma, Punnett squares, and more.
Check out the Blooket Question Set
2. Science Trek Heredity Games
Science Trek is a useful hub of different games that students can play to better understand heredity.
3. OneZoom Interactive Phylogenetic Tree
OneZoom’s website includes an interactive phylogenetic tree where students can search up almost any organism and see how closely related it is to a different species. With this resource, students can find two entirely different species and will get to see how they’re still somehow related to each other. This is also a top-notch resource for teaching students about evolution, and how every single organism on Earth has a common ancestor.
University of Utah has an entire website full of content that covers everything genetics, but one resource we found interesting was “Pigeonetics”. Pigeonetics is a game with 26 levels where students learn about dominance patterns and alleles to make a pigeon with a certain phenotype. This game will keep students engaged by applying their knowledge to beat the levels.
5. Crazy Plant Shop
Crazy Plant Shop is a computer game where the player owns a garden shop and uses Punnett Squares to breed plants to get offspring with specific traits. Even though this game costs $4.99 on Steam and is only available for Windows, we just had to include this resource because it keeps the kids engaged and it can be a great study tool.
6. University of Utah Karyotype Matching
Another resource from the University of Utah, this game where you match the other half of each chromosome when looking at a karyotype—which is a picture of all 23 chromosomes splayed out—can be useful. This resource has real-world application because karyotypes are used in genetic testing frequently.
7. University of Utah Transcribe and Translate a Gene
The last University of Utah resource we want to highlight is this transcription and translation simulation. This activity allows students to practice transcribing DNA sequences into RNA and then translating the RNA into a polypeptide chain.
Check out the Transcription/Translation Game
8. Koi Fish Population Genetics Simulation
The Virtual Biology Lab website houses a virtual simulation where students can manipulate different factors of a koi fish population—such as mortality rate and allele proportions—to see how the population evolves over time. This is an engaging source students can use to better comprehend population genetics.
9. Geniventure
In the storyline of this game, students use their knowledge to save the dragon population from going extinct. This game is unique because there’s a limit to how many changes you can make to the alleles.
10. Wordwall Vocabulary Games
This Wordwall is a network of different vocabulary games that kids can explore to reinforce genetic concepts. There are different kinds of games that students can use for repetition so that they can remember the terms and their meanings.