Formation of engineering thinking at school during the lesson-game "solar system"

This paper describes the structure, conduct, and the main stages of the interdisciplinary lesson-game. Some data on the principles of educational technology are given. Methodical recommendations for conducting the lesson, as well as examples of didactic tasks are given. The proposed lesson carries the task - to build a model of the solar system. But this is not a simple design and construction but a deep didactic analysis. The results will be the construction of a model of the solar system, as a result of the application of engineering thinking skills in life, as well as the transfer of the project modeling algorithm from theory to practice

Interacting QTLs for cholesterol gallstones and gallbladder mucin in AKR and SWR strains of mice

We employed quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping in a backcross between gallstone-susceptible SWR/J and gallstone-resistant AKR/J inbred mice to identify additional susceptibility loci for cholesterol gallstone formation. After 12 wk of feeding the mice a lithogenic diet, we phenotyped 330 backcross progeny for gallstones, gallbladder mucin accumulation, liver weight, and body weight. Marker-based regression analysis revealed significant single QTLs associated with gallstone formation on chromosome 9 and the liver weight/body weight ratio on chromosomes 5 and X. A search for gene pairs detected significant gene-gene interactions for mucin accumulation between loci on chromosomes 5 and 11 and suggestive gene-gene interactions linked to gallstone formation between the QTL on chromosome 9 and loci on chromosomes 6 and 15. These findings uncover new QTLs for cholesterol gallstones, reveal independent loci for mucin accumulation, and demonstrate the importance of considering gene-gene interactions in cholesterol cholelithiasis. According to standard nomenclature, the gallstone QTL on chromosome 9 is named Lith5