Education puzzles focus on the biochemistry behind Foldit. Education puzzles can be accessed from the main menu.
The Education puzzles in Foldit are intended for classroom use. Like the Campaign puzzles, the education puzzles introduce Foldit, but they also explore more of the biochemistry behind Foldit.
Some of the education puzzles are nearly identical to the Campaign puzzles with (mostly) similar names, but there are also a several totally new puzzles. The puzzles in the "Popular Proteins" and "Bacteria and Viruses" sections below aren't found in the Campaign, and are considered "challenge level", meaning there's not a lot of help provided.
The Tips page describes how to activate some additional Foldit features that may be useful or at least interesting.
Foldit player cjddig, who goes by cjddig16 on YouTube, has created a series of videos which demonstrate how to solve Education puzzles. Some of the videos were created when the Education puzzles used Foldit's original interface, which has since been retired. Things work differently in the current Foldit interface, but all the tools and techniques are still available.
The Education puzzle master list shows the puzzles in a compact table, with links to the Campaign puzzle help and cjddig's videos.
The Wiggle! puzzle in education mode features help that goes into detail on how the wiggle tool works.
The concept behind the education puzzles was developed by Dr. Scott Horowitz, aka horowsah on Foldit. The implementation of the puzzles was handled by Dev Josh (joshmiller) with instructional direction from horowsah, beta_helix, and others.
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology published the correspondence Introducing Foldit Education Mode in August 2020, describing the goals behind education mode and the organization of the puzzles.
Education puzzles are available from Foldit's main menu, where the Campaign puzzles and Science puzzles also appear.
The education puzzles are grouped into categories, as shown below. Unlike the Campaign puzzles, there's no suggested path through the education puzzles. Players can access any puzzle according to their needs, although it may be best to start with the first few puzzles in the list.
The entries in the list below link to help pages for each puzzle.
Sidechains and Amino Acids
Properties of Amino Acid Sidechains
Primary Structure of Proteins
These puzzles introduce the primary structure of proteins, the sequence of amino acids that make up the protein.
Automating Tools
Types of Secondary Structure
These puzzles introduce the secondary structure of proteins. Patterns of hydrogen bonds determine the presence of helix and sheet sections of the protein. Anything that's not a helix or a sheet is called a loop.
Forming Secondary Structures
From Primary to Tertiary Structure
Forming Tertiary Structure
Proteins in Nature
Popular Proteins
These "challenge" puzzles present real proteins, and offer a wide array of Foldit tools, but don't provide a lots of hints about what to do.
Bacteria and Viruses
These are more "challenge" puzzles, which feature lots of degrees of freedom, but no real guidance on how to use that freedom.