SC.912.L.16.1

This is a STEM challenge to assist in teaching the probability of traits being passed down from parents to offspring by creating and playing a board game. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will use appropriate tools (Punnett squares) and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret data.Students will explore various modes of inheritance through a hands-on activity creating offspring of a fictitious organism. Students will complete Punnett Squares for various genetic crosses, and analyze and interpret the results of those crosses. Students will be able to predict the genotype and phenotype of P1 and F1 generations using Punnett Squares. Students will be able to identify complex patterns of inheritance such as co-dominance and incomplete dominance.

Type: Lesson Plan

This MEA is a genetics based lesson for upper level biology students. Students will review the data on several bulls and help a client choose the best bulls to begin a new cattle operation.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson allows for students to solve dihybrid crosses by applying their knowledge of Mendelian genetics. Students should already be familiar with monohybrid crosses prior to attempting this lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will apply their knowledge of genetics and predicting heredity to synthesize an original model of traits.

Type: Lesson Plan

A full lesson plan on teaching Mendelian Genetics and how to use and understand Punnett squares.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lab, Dragon Genetics: Principles of Mendelian Genetics, students learn the principles of Mendelian genetics by using Popsicle sticks, each of which represents a pair of homologous chromosomes with multiple genetic traits. Pairs of students use their sets of Popsicle sticks to represent a mating and then identify the genetic makeup and phenotypic traits of the resulting baby dragon.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a hands-on activity that will help students distinguish between genotype and phenotype.

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn strategies to help you solve genetics problems by applying your knowledge of inheritance patterns. You’ll encounter a few “mystery cases” that you’ll solve through your genetics analysis in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

In this problem set, multiple choice problems are displayed one at a time. If students answer correctly, they are shown a short explanation. If their answer is incorrect, a tutorial will follow, and the students will be given another chance to answer.

Type: Student Center Activity

This Khan Academy video explains and demonstrates how to use Punnett Squares for monohybrid crosses and dihybrid crosses. The video also shows how to use Punnett Squares for inheritance patterns such as codominance, incomplete dominance, and multiple alleles.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial will help you to understand how Mendel, the father of genetics, planned and crossed the pure-bred pea plant to understand the process of genetics. With the help of the animation, you should be able to understand how the alleles are transferred from one generation to another.

Type: Tutorial

This tutorial explores the work of Gregor Mendel and his foundational genetics experiments with pea plants. It provides practice opportunities to check your understanding of inheritance patterns including single gene recessive traits and sex linked traits. The tutorial also covers more complex patterns of inheritance such those resulting from multiple alleles. Note: This resource is part of a larger collection of information regarding Genetics. Users may view information before and after the specific genetics components highlighted here.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

This resource for biology teachers includes a lesson plan section which contains classroom activities, labs and worksheets. The activity sheets are categorized by Science and Literacy, Anatomy, Scientific Method, Cells, Phyla, Evolution and Taxonomy, Genetics, Ecology, and Plants.

Type: Worksheet

This is a lab/activity that uses dragons as "research subjects" for genetics research. It highlights independent assortment as well as gene linkage. Students will do the first part of the activity using independent assortment (genes on different chromosomes). The second part of the activity looks at genes on the same chromosome, and how linkage plays a part in allele assortment. It can be used to show how crossing over allows increased variation when involving linked genes.

Worksheets are available in both Word and PDF formats, for both teacher and student. There is an additional dragon genetics lab that illustrates the principles of Mendelian genetics as a whole.

Type: Worksheet