The image above is a screenshot from the top of Chapter 2 of the Taste Genetics apps.
Science, meet Art!
These apps focus on a particular taste gene family that I thought would be of interest to a general audience. This gene family will be used to teach certain genetics concepts that many likely haven’t been exposed to (and as a bonus, there’ll be some sides of biochemistry … food pun intended 🙂 ). Even though the science taught will be what is currently generally agreed upon by scientists (i.e. the scientific consensus), the approach taken to teach the science in my apps will be somewhat unique (in other words, rather unconventional). Hence Art, the “Visual Metaphor Facilitator” who’ll help with the visual metaphors that’ll be used to illustrate the science themes for a number of the chapters in these apps. Who’s Art? Well, once my apps are published on the Windows Store, you’ll find out … 🙂
Target Audience (Almost Everyone)
I wanted to avoid using the typical, classroom-like style of many science teaching apps since that style can be deemed as dry by many. The reason for my somewhat unconventional approach to teaching in my apps is because of the audience I want to target. Who is my target audience? Well, that audience is one that I consider to be pretty much a general audience. However, even though I’m targeting a general audience, a baseline level of knowledge of biology by that audience will be assumed with these apps (in North America, that baseline would refer to at least some high school level of biology). So, if you already have a very basic understanding of what cells and DNA are, then you should be able to easily follow the explanations of the science within these apps.
Ken Hawrylak (B.Sc., M.Sc.)
Copyright © 2016 Ken Hawrylak. All rights reserved.
Science, meet Art! 