Tag: mendel

  • Peas, Please! – A Practice Set on Mendelian Genetics

    Peas, Please! – A Practice Set on Mendelian Genetics

    Students practice assigning genotypes (PP, Pp, or pp) to different traits based on whether the trait is dominant or recessive. They set up Punnett squares, and determine the phenotypic ratios of the offspring.

  • Dihybrid Crosses in Guinea Pigs

    Dihybrid Crosses in Guinea Pigs

    Teaching dihybrid crosses can be challenging because it involves layering several biological concepts, like independent assortment and statistics. This worksheet illustrates how gametes are formed from the parents and used to create a 4×4 punnet square that is used in basic genetic problems.

  • Variations on a Human Face

    Variations on a Human Face

    Students use coins to simulate how alleles separate during meiosis.  One student plays the father, and one plays the mother, a coin flip then determines the traits of their theoretical offspring.   Note: This is a representation of how traits may work with simple Mendelian Genetics. Human traits are actually much more complicated. Many are…

  • Are Exit Tickets a Good Way to Assess Understanding?

    Are Exit Tickets a Good Way to Assess Understanding?

    My genetics unit for Freshman Biology always starts with a history lesson on Mendel and our understanding of heredity at that time.   One of the main themes of this lesson is a comparison between two ways of thinking about inheritance and two competing theories:    The Particulate Theory and the Blending Theory. Students struggle…