As many commentators have noted, over-simplification of genetic concepts, by scientists, educators and the media, can lead to an overly deterministic view of the role of genes in health and disease, which can affect citizens’ decision making with respect to genetic issues. Thus this problem concerns all four of the communities addressed by this symposium. This paper will focus on a project that is both instantiation and product of the ‘ecology of knowledge’ that arises through the interaction of these communities. As a historian of science, I am drawing on historical and contemporary primary scientific sources (print and archive) to design and deliver an alternative curriculum for teaching introductory genetics to first year undergraduates, which aims to address some of the common mis-conceptions that can arise from traditional teaching methods. In so doing, I engage with historians, scientists (past and present) and educators and with the knowledge resources that they produce, with the aim of producing new resources for the use of all these communities. The experimental curriculum employs a historically-informed, interactionist emphasis (based significantly on the unpublished work and correspondence of the biometrician, W. F. R. Weldon) to facilitate a more subtle and less deterministic view of genetic issues for students. In this paper I will discuss the ways in which this project fruitfully utilises the ‘ecology of knowledge’ to fulfil its aims and demonstrate how, as historians, we can meaningfully contribute to and encourage dialogue between different communities, with practical benefits outside the academy.