Geneplot, Actpot, and Growplot Versions 4.0
I am announcing the availability of three programs I
wrote as a biology graduate student at the University of Iowa.
These are educational programs for IBM PCs and clones that
allow students to experiment with Population Genetics, Action
Potentials, and Population Growth. I wrote the first version
of these programs while I was a Teaching Assistant for Iowa's
Animal Biology course in the spring of 1988. There has been
continual revision and testing since then, and currently these
programs are a fundamental part of the Animal biology course.
They have also been used at Grinnel College and Yale. I have
recently revised these programs for VGA graphics.
All of the programs have a graphical interface, and
require at least a CGA graphics with 256K RAM, although there
are versions for the PC JR. I wrote these programs with the
philosophy that computer simulations should allow the student
to do experiments that are not feasible to do in a classroom
situation. This is not an animated text book.
Geneplot: Since time and equipment aren't usually
sufficient in undergraduate course to perform evolutionary
experiments with real populations, I wrote this simulation so
that students can experiment with an imaginary population.
This simulation is currently used to simulate four evolutionary
situations: Genetic equilibrium, natural selection, genetic
drift, and natural selection superimposed on genetic drift.
I have used a two allele population genetics model. With
this program one can specify the relative fitness of any
genotype, mutation rate of one allele to the other, population
size (for random drift), and plot the change in allele frequency
for 500 generations.
Growplot: This program plots population growth using
three different models: exponential, logistic, and a time lag model.
The carrying capacity, growth rate, and number of generations.
This program is intended to accompany a lab in which the students
perform a growth experiment with tetrahymena.
Actpot: The goal of this program is to allow students
to learn the basic properties of the action potential. They will
learn about: the relationship between the membrane voltage and the
underlying currents; The initiation of the action potential,
threshold; Absolute and relative refractory periods; Multiple action
potentials; Synaptic integration, the Role of excitatory and
Inhibitory synaptic input. This simulation is based on the
Hodgkin and Huxley model of the squid giant axon.
If you feel that you might be interested in using these programs
please contact me at:
email colburn at handel.cs.colostate.edu
home:
Alex Colburn
130 Brairwood #621
Ft Collins Co, 80521
(303) 221-9489
Alex.
Please excuse me if this post is inappropriate for this news group.
