I’ve been working on our Educational Uses of Second Life wiki resource this evening – a huge task that’s only getting bigger as the fabulous examples of education in Second Life keep on coming!
Anyway, I visited a bunch of places, but tonight’s stand-out was definitely Genome Island (SLurl) .
Developed by Professor Mary Anne Clark aka Max Chatnoir, a Professor at Texas Wesleyan University, the Island is focussed on using Second Life to teach genetics. Using the building and scripting tools in Second Life, Max has created laboratories where her students can take part in virtual experiments that produce analyzable data.
Here I am checking out the results of a experiment that was first done by Thomas Hunt Morgan in 1910 on the genetics of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.
The Island is also designed as a place where students and other residents can meet and talk with professional geneticists. It includes a range of interesting areas, including:
- the Abbey of Saint Thomas in Mendel’s Garden (SLurl) which is focussed on the laws of inheritance, which were discovered by Johann Gregor Mendel in the mid-nineteenth century
- the Tower (SLurl), which includes a Genes are DNA (Hershey-Chase) Experiment, DNA Models, a virtual DNA Sequencer, a model of the human chromosome and also includes quizes, notecards and links to additional information
- the Terrace (SLurl) – which houses a giant model of a Eukaryatoic Cell which residents can enter and interact with
- the Gene Pool (SLurl) which is situated by a lovely virtual pond and includes a series of displays which illustrate Protein Synthesis.
Here I am inside the Eukaryatoic Cell, trying desperately to click on the Excytotic Versicle so I can escape! 
Here I am hanging out with the mixollamas – a crazy bunch of virtual creatures that are very handy for learning about genomes and how the recombination of genetic traits determined by different pairs of alleles is a powerful mechanism for generating diversity in a population.
One more interesting discovery – Dr. Clark also produces music based on protein sequences, which she has presented in Second Life.
If Science had been this cool when I was at school I would have paid way more attention!
