Learn Genetics

What is Genetics?

Genetics is the reason you have your dad’s blue eyes. And you’re short like your mum!

Of course, our ancestors had a brief understanding of family inheritance simply from looking around each other but genetics as a branch of biology didn’t come into being until around the 1860s.

The founder of the field of genetics is considered to be an Augustinian monk by the name of Gregor Mendel. Mendel’s experiments on pea plants succeeded in explaining inheritance where Darwin had failed.

Genetics studies genes and heredity in living organisms and is interested in both genetic mutation and variation. Students studying genetics are likely to cover topics such as biology and evolution.

Genetics has helped us to understand inherited characteristics and avoid inherited diseases. With groundbreaking work on the human genome, geneticists are in high demand.

Did you know?

Mendel was not as religiously-inclined as you might think. In fact, prior to becoming a monk, he’d already spent his sister’s dowry on his college fees. His main reasons for entering the monastery were to further his academic studies and not having to worry about earning a living!

Careers in Genetics

Geneticists work in a whole host of challenging, hands-on roles. Take a look at the different jobs that Genetics graduates may consider:

Healthcare scientist (genomics/immunology/physiology)

Pharmacologist

Plant breeder/geneticist

Research scientist (life sciences/medical)

Clinical research associate

Epidemiologist

Medical sales representative

Science writer

Most genetics graduates tend to find themselves based in health services. Likely employers include research facilities either in government, education, hospital or industry. Geneticists are key in the development of antibiotics to combat emerging strains of bacteria and disease.

Some genetics graduates pursue postgraduate studies to specialize in higher research possibly in areas of pharmacology or immunology.

Why not check out this quick video from the Crash Course team all about Genetics. You can also find out more about a career in Genetics by checking out The American Society Of Genetics and the Genetics Society of America.

Learning Genetics

As part of a Genetics degree you’ll also be studying subjects such as cellular biology, biochemistry, neuroscience, pharmacology, biotechnology, neurophysiology, and microbiology.

Genetics graduates need to memorize a vast amount of scientific terminology as well as comprehending complex concepts whilst handling large amounts of data using logical and numerical analysis.

Brainscape’s unique combination of learning methods make it the perfect supplementary educational tool faced with such a difficult task.

Genetics in Brainscape

There are lots of search results pages in Brainscape that Genetics majors could find themselves; for example: genomics, gene technology, and bioinformatics.

If you’ve decided that you want to study genetics, then you’ll need to make sure you get the grades. The AP Biology study guide is prepared in partnership with Next Step Test Preparation and contains everything you need to know to get that “5” you need.

There are 13 decks in the guide, organized from Evolution through to The Cell Cycle containing 740 flashcards and covering the whole of the college board test. You can track your learning, study with friends and more importantly ace your scores!

Learn faster with Brainscape

Through lengthy development, we have produced the most powerful learning engine on today’s market that allows you to learn twice as fast and remember longer.

Brainscape has created Confidence-Based Repetition or (CBR) to tackle the issues that learners face. By understanding the brain and how we learn, CBR incorporates three key learning methods: Active Recall, Metacognition and Spaced Repetition. Together these principles can drive outstanding learning results.

In practice, how Brainscape differs from other computer-aided learning tools you might have tried is that there is no randomness in the flashcards that you are shown. Brainscape has a unique way of showing you the perfect flashcard at the perfect time to optimize your time and the amount you remember.

While that sounds complex, it’s actually pretty simple. On completing your review of a flashcard, you’ll be asked to rate your confidence in your knowledge and give a rating from 1-5. It’s that easy. From there, the algorithm can set the frequency of each and every card in the deck. The “5’s” you won’t see very often ; and the “1’s” you’ll keep seeing until your confidence creeps up and they eventually become “5’s”.

If you stick to only your traditional study methods, you are inevitably going to waste time rereading the stuff you know already. With so much to learn can, you really afford to waste time?

The questions in Brainscape make use of the active recall principle, so you won’t see the multiple-choice-style questions and easy-to-recognize answers you see with other online educational sites.

Our goal is for you to remember the information, understand it and be able to use it later, so you’ll have to work a little harder to retrieve the information in Brainscape. The active recall process has your neurons doing a workout so next time you need that information they’ll be up to the job.

Your neurons are further strengthened during the metacognition process of assessing your understanding, whilst powering the flashcard frequency algorithm.

Finally the CBR system also uses spaced repetition, which once again increases the memory trace and neuron strength in the hippocampus as information is repeated in easy-to-digest pieces.

So what are you waiting for? Try out Brainscape today!

How to get started

Ready to get started? The easiest way is to choose a deck of flashcards and try it out.

Take a quick look and you’ll see decks from epigenetics, gene regulation, cytogenetics or basic DNA and chromosome structure. Just choose a deck that is suitable for your learning level and dig in.

All the classes in our search results include at least some stuff you can access for free forever! If you’d like to contribute by creating your own content,  then you are more than welcome to join the Brainscape community of valued contributors. Authoring your own flashcards allows you to create a personalized learning resource and it strengthens your memory trace.

You can get started by clicking on “make flashcards” at the top of the page. Choose your settings to decide whether to share your flashcards or keep them private.

Happy learning from the Brainscape team and all the best in your Genetics studies and career.