Integrating the Electronic Desktop into the Natural Sciences

Curriculum Development Project at California State University, Los Angeles

Inbreeding

Inbreeding was created for an introductory college course in population genetics. One window of the application demonstrates how inbreeding coefficients are computed from pedigree data. Pedigree information can be read from an ASCII file and loaded into the program. The program will use this information to construct a pedigree diagram. Students can click on symbols in the diagram to trace out inbreeding pathways. The paths are placed into form cells for use in the calculation of the inbreeding coefficient. Another window of the application shows how the inbreeding coefficient changes under regular mating systems (e.g. selfing, brother-sister matings, parent-offspring matings, half-sib matings) and plots the inbreeding coefficient as a function of time. A screen image of a typical Inbreeding session appears below. Inbreeding was written by student programmer Roy Morita and Dr. Robert Desharnais.

Click to download full resolution image (65.9 KB.)

The Electronic Desktop Project is about improving the way science is taught and learned by bringing the power of advanced workstation technology to introductory science students in both major and general education classes. This involves changing the way in which instruction is delivered using multi-media electronic mail, custom written visualization applications, powerful commercial software packages, and easy-to-use graphical applications that bring the resources of the Internet into the electronic classroom. This project has been funded by grants USE 9153162, DUE 9156142 and DUE 9455428 from the National Science Foundation. For more information contact Dr. Robert Desharnais (biology), (213) 343-2056, rdeshar@calstatela.edu, or Dr. Gary Novak (geology), (213) 343-2406, gnovak@calstatela.edu, California State University, Los Angeles, California, 90032.
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