BioMan Biology vs StarGenetics

BioMan Biology is a biology learning site for students and teachers, with games, review activities, virtual labs, video animations and quizzes. Activities cover physiology, cells, ecology, evolution and classification, genetics and meiosis, life chemistry, respiration and photosynthesis, and scientific methods. Games and quizzes provide automatic, immediate feedback. Students can play games, complete labs and use the standard ad-supported site without an account. Teachers can manage classes, track progress and access premium features through a dashboard. The site describes its materials as standards-based and focused on state and national content standards. A free plan includes interactive games, virtual labs and learning activities with ads. The Individual Teacher plan costs $49 a year and includes ad-free access to BioMan Biology and BrainyBlast; higher annual plans cover additional teachers. The two environments share a login framework and database infrastructure, and an account on either grants access to both. BioMan Biology is listed for web and iOS. Its privacy policy says student scores, quiz metrics and game saves are purged six months after creation or last update.

StarGenetics is a free simulator for Mendelian genetics crosses, intended to teach genetics concepts and experimental design. Its stated audience ranges from high school biology to advanced undergraduate biology. Students can use visualizers for cows, fish, flies, peas, a smiley face and yeast. Instructor resources cover genetic crosses, Punnett squares, complementation, epistasis, gene linkage and mapping, and tetrad analysis. Instructors can customize exercises using Excel workbooks in XLS format. The Punnett Square tool summarizes expected genotypic distributions for monohybrid and dihybrid crosses. Fly mating results can be viewed individually, sorted by sex and phenotype, or summarized by phenotype; DNA markers for genetic mapping are available in the Fly and Fish visualizers. Experiments can be saved to a file and reopened later. Excel export is limited to Fly exercises. StarGenetics is accessible through the web and downloadable for Linux, Windows and macOS. MIT recommends Java Web Start and provides operating-system downloads for users with limited internet connectivity. Users can submit bug reports, feature requests, comments or questions through the in-app suggestions form.