At the core of the virtual biology environment is the Species Menu, which allows students to select a species and perform experiments on that species. Not all species are available in all of the laboratories, but in general all species are available in the Microscopy, Molecular, and Systematics laboratories. The power of the virtual laboratory is the ability to study species at the molecular, cell, genetic, ecology, and taxonomic level using the different laboratories in Virtual Biology.
The primary purpose of the species menu is to select a species from those available in the virtual laboratory. The left side has a list of species currently available and on the right is a picture and brief description of the selected species. Species are listed by common names in the Species menu but the scientific name is also provided in the description area.
In addition to a complete list of species, species can also be organized or filtered according to different criteria. The different organization or filtering schemes are accessed by clicking on the buttons or using the dropdown list located at the top of the species menu. A brief description of these different schemes is given below. Note that the complete or unfiltered list of species can always be obtained by clicking again on the highlighted or selected button.
There is a search box at the top of the menu where you can type in part of the name for the species you are looking for. This is probably the fastest method to find species of a particular name.
Alphabetical. The alphabetical filter is the default filter and is used to filter species alphabetically. In addition to the alphabetical list, the species can also be filtered into lists of Plants, Animals, Fungi, Protista, Bacteria, and Archaea.
Characteristics. Species can be filtered by nine different characteristics that they possess. The set of characters includes Photosynthetic, Invertebrate, Extinct, Vertebrate, Hard Shelled, Lacking Nucleus, Wings, Autotrophic, and Other.
Classification. Species can be filtered by where they fit in nine different classifications. The set of classifications includes Mammals, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds, Insects, Fish, Invertebrates, Plants, and Other.
Biomes. Species can be filtered according to the biomes in which they can be found. The set of available biomes includes Freshwater, Tundra, Chaparral, Tropical Forest, Grassland, Desert, Temperate Deciduous Forest, Coniferous Forest, and Marine.
Models. Species can also be organized by the particular branch of biology or types of research for which they have traditionally been used. For example, Fruit Fly or Drosophila melanogaster has traditionally been used in a wide variety of genetic studies, thus Fruit Fly belongs to the Genetics group. The set of models or groups available here includes All Models, Disease, Evolution, Behavior, Genetics, Physiology, Ecology, Development, and Molecular Biology.