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Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Name |
Description |
| Dino Discoveries: | Students will discover how paleontologists study and classify dinosaurs and how evolutionary biologists study the relationships between organisms. Students will use fossil and genetic evidence to investigate evolutionary relationships between living and extinct organisms. |
| Genetic Engineering of the Ultimate Dinosaur : | This lesson can be integrated with math concepts/practices comparing probability. The science and engineering concepts/practices are to determine the probability for genotype and phenotype combinations using Punnett Squares and Pedigrees. |
| Genetics and Proportions Design Challenge: | Students will explore principles of heredity through an activity where they design a themed Potato Head toy set. |
| 3D Printing: Designing Robots Using Heredity and Probability: | This lesson explores the importance of Punnett squares in determining genetic characteristics. It uses a 3D printer to demonstrate these characteristics. |
| Smith Valley Farms Horse Pedigrees: | The owner of newly opened Smith Valley Farms is looking to breed the next generation of top race horses. In this MEA, students will study race horse pedigrees as well as horse racing data to determine which is the best stallion to breed with a filly. Students will have to read a horse pedigree, calculate percentages based on a data table, and complete Punnett squares to determine genetic probability.
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. |
| My"toesis" Hurts: | In this lesson, students will learn about the stages of mitosis in cell reproduction and will study an application of mitosis for healing the human body. |
| Biotechnology: Helpful or Harmful?: | This is a lesson that uses Socratic seminars and student-generated arguments to explore the uses of biotechnology and their potential impact on society. |
| Genetics Has Gone to the Dogs!: | This lesson uses pooches to teach about pedigrees and the impact of artificial selection on individuals and populations as well as to drive home math concepts already discussed in lessons on Punnet squares. |
| Monster Mash-Up of Genetics: | Students will participate in determining traits of a monster by throwing a die. Students will develop an understanding of how genetics play a role in determining the phenotype of an individual. |
| Sexual vs. Asexual Reproduction: | This two-day lesson reviews the differences between mitosis and meiosis and how each is used for the processes of sexual and asexual reproduction. The lesson then focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of each type of reproduction. |
| It's Not Easy Being Blue: | After students have an understanding of Punnett squares and their purpose, students will then be introduced to pedigrees. Students will be shown the purpose of pedigrees, how to read them, and how to create one. |
| Can I be just exactly like you, Mom or Dad?: | This lesson was designed to help students understand the differences between sexual and asexual reproduction. It includes multi-media resources and hands-on activities that reveal the benefits and limitations of both. The student will ultimately determine the likelihood of a genotype resulting in a specific phenotype. |
| Genetics can be a Monster!: | In this lesson, students will use Punnett squares to calculate the probabilities of different genotypes and phenotypes produced by genetic crosses. |
| Hair or No Hair- Please tell me Punnett Square: | This lesson is designed to teach students how to read and interpret Punnett square with the final goal of them creating their own squares. The students will be able to determine possible genotypes and phenotypes of offspring based parent alleles. |
| "Hair"-edity: | This is an introductory lesson for middle school genetics with a focus on vocabulary development and conceptual understanding. |
| Location, Location, Location!: | The nucleus of the cell contains genetic material known as DNA. Sections of DNA are genes that code for specific traits and DNA coils to create chromosomes. Students will be able to define DNA, chromosomes, and genes. Students will also create a model to show how these structures are related and where they are found in the cell. |
| To Divide into Two or Four: That is The Question of Meiosis and Mitosis: | Is it meiosis or mitosis? How does meiosis compare to mitosis? There is no life without cell division. Explore the differences and similarities between these processes to understand how they affect your life! |
| Understanding the DNA Replication Process using Reading Strategies: | Students will use reading strategies to help them understand how the DNA replication process works. |
| Manipulating Punnett Squares: | Students will learn how to draw, complete, interpret, calculate the probabilities, and figure ratios for single trait crosses with complete dominance interaction. |
| Genetics: Smile for the Camera, Baby!: | The words "create a baby" will grab the attention of any student. After studying the probabilities for genotype and phenotype using Punnett squares, this is an activity that will unify all previous tasks. The activity asks students to illustrate a baby using prior knowledge of vocabulary such as allele, trait, phenotype, genotype, dominant, and recessive.
The goal of this lesson is to take the pieces and parts of the "genetic language" that has been taught using Punnett Squares and pull everything together to show that "genetic material from mom and dad make me." The creation of a baby from single inheritance traits will reinforce why we study probability of what offspring will look like, what an allele is, and what the difference between phenotype and genotype are.
Note that incomplete dominance and polygenic traits are represented by single gene traits only for the purposes of this lesson. |
| Build-A-Baby: | Students will examine Gregor Mendel's laws of genetics in this lesson. Students will first explore the range of variation in human physical traits and discuss where this variation comes from. They will be then paired into groups and given the role of genetic counselors that are trying to predict the traits of offspring using traits of their parents. A toss of a coin will represent alleles for various characteristics. Students will combine dominant and recessive traits to determine the phenotype and genotype of their genetic babies. Their predicted baby will be displayed for peers to view. As an extension to this activity, the students can learn that through gene technology, parents may soon have more choices available to them: hair color, physical size, intelligence. Students canl research and evaluate how can science answer new and ethical questions. |
| Frankenstein Foods- GMO: | Students will read "Your Genes, Your Choices." They will explore the impact of Biotechnology and create a brochure that represents what they have learned. By the end of the lesson, students will have a better understanding of DNA, GMOs, and Biotechnology. |
| A Taste of DNA: | "A Taste of DNA" is an activity-based lesson intended to be used as a reinforcement of the concepts associated with the structure of DNA and building DNA. It covers information pertaining to base pairing, DNA shape and structure, cellular organelles, and the function of DNA. In this lesson students will have the opportunity to move around the classroom, build a long strand across the science floor, and create their own strand with the knowledge they've gained. |
| Getting the Most Genetics out of SpongeBob: | Students work collaboratively to explore genetics with SpongeBob and the Bikini Bottoms gang! The learners will take pre/post quizzes, watch a short video clip, complete a worksheet cooperatively within small groups, and rate their understanding using the learning scale included with the lesson. The activities within this lesson is best implemented towards the end of a unit on heredity and genetics. |
| Wanted: Your Undivided Attention! Mitosis vs. Meiosis: | In this lesson, students will be doing numerous engaging activities in order to successfully address and target the standard of comparing/contrasting the general processes of mitosis and meiosis. The activities are designed to introduce mitosis and meiosis in an engaging way. Food and hands-on activities are a motivator in this lesson plan, which includes modeling and differentiating mitosis and meiosis. |
| Genotype, Phenotype, Schmenotype?: | The lesson provides a hands-on activity for students to distinguish between genotype and phenotype. |
| Stop-Motion Mitosis and Meiosis: | ResourceID: 75789
The lesson will begin with the teacher engaging the students with a short assessment of prior knowledge using a pre-lesson Q&A with short discussion throughout. Next the teacher will show an animated video clip about Meiosis and an animated video clip about Mitosis http://vcell.ndsu.nodak.edu/animations/mitosis/movie-flash.htm. The teacher will then discuss the differences between Mitosis and Meiosis with the help of a projected or drawn graphic organizer. Next, the teacher will show examples of stop-motion videos made that depict the phases of mitosis and meiosis. The teacher will also show how to make a storyboard that will be required before students can begin making their videos. A rubric will be used and feedback given to make sure that the storyboard is complete before progressing. The students will use digital cameras (ipads, ipods, flip cameras, built-in computer cams, phone cams, etc to take images of the sequential movements of the models representing the process of cell reproduction (meiosis and/or mitosis). Students will present their finished videos to the class and comparing and contrasting meiosis and mitosis will be done throughout and as a whole group afterwards. The videos will be evaluated by the students themselves and by the teacher using a rubric. |
| Discovering Genotype and Phenotype: | This lesson primarily addresses students discovering the concept of dominant and recessive alleles by examining how genotype determines phenotype through a structured inquiry. Punnett squares are also introduced as an extension of the primary activity. |
| Independent Compound Probability: | During this lesson, students will use Punnett Squares to determine the probability of an offspring's characteristics. |
| Genetically Engineering Athletes: | In this lesson, students will learn about aspects of biotechnology and apply their understanding to a debate about using genetic engineering to engineer better athletes. |
| Grandma's Mysterious Plants: | This lesson, which follows the Argument Driven Inquiry model of instruction, asks students to use a Pedigree and Punnett Squares to explain Grandma's mysterious plants. Given physical traits in a small population of plants, students determine which gene is dominant and if a specific group of plants is homozygous or heterozygous. |
| Computer Simulated Experiments in Genetics: | A computer simulation package called "Star Genetics" is used to generate progeny for one or two additional generations. The distribution of the phenotypes of the progeny provide data from which the parental genotypes can be inferred. The number of progeny can be chosen by the student in order to increase the student's confidence in the inference. |
| Fishy Forms - Adaptations Tell Us Lifestyles: | In this lesson, students explore morphology (body shape) of fish and how they can indicate the fish"s lifestyle. |
| Tomato Propagation/Cloning: | In this lesson, students will learn how to take a clipping from a mother tomato plant and make an exact duplicate copy for mass-reproduction that will produce a harvest quickly. This will engage students as they discover this can be done without seeds, and they can grow a plant about 2 feet in height! |
| Super Hero Genetics - Bioengineering & Heredity: | In this Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA), students must help geneticists develop a new breed of scientific explorer. Using knowledge of genetics, genotypes, and phenotypes, students must select a combination of alleles that could create people better adapted for exploring dangerous areas and other worlds. Then, students must choose which genetic alterations to apply to themselves!
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. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought processes. MEAs follow a problem-based, student-centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEAs visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx |
| I Have a Pedigree too, Prince Charles!: | In this lesson students will investigate pedigrees and culminate in an activity where students create their own or imaginary pedigree. |
| Where Do Our Looks Come From?: | This is a lesson on genes, alleles and chromosomes. This lesson will teach dominant and recessive genes. |
| Why Do We Look and Act the Way We Do?: | Beginning genetics lesson for 7th grade students. |
| Probabilities and Punnett Squares: | Students simulate the process of meiosis for an alien society. The students choose physical characteristics for hair, nose and eyes corresponding to genes and then generate two alien babies. Then pictures of the parents and babies are drawn, with similarities and differences noted and explained. |
| Genotype and Phenotype Probabilites With Punnet Squares and Pedigrees: | Lesson to help students understand how to predict genotype and phenotype probabilities using Punnet Squares and pedigrees. |
| The Hunt for mitochondrial DNA: | Through this lesson, students will use pedigree analysis in the context of mitochondrial DNA inheritance to determine how they would identify a missing person. |
| Dog DNA---A Recipe for Traits: | Students will discover how DNA will "code" for traits by performing a lab activity where segments of paper DNA (genes) are picked at random, a list of traits is made, and a dog is drawn featuring its genetic traits. |
| Genotype and Phenotype Activity: | This is a hands-on activity that will help students distinguish between genotype and phenotype. |
| Heredity Mix 'n Match: | Students randomly select jelly beans (or other candy) that represent genes for several human traits such as tongue-rolling ability and eye color. Then, working in pairs (preferably of mixed gender), students randomly choose new pairs of jelly beans from those corresponding to their own genotypes. The new pairs are placed on toothpicks to represent the chromosomes of the couple's offspring. Finally, students compare genotypes and phenotypes of parents and offspring for all the "couples" in the class. In particular, they look to see if there are cases where parents and offspring share the exact same genotype and/or phenotype, and consider how the results would differ if they repeated the simulation using more than four traits. |
| Toothpick Chromosomes: | Students will use toothpicks (representing chromosomes) with dots on them (representing genes) to understand how traits are passed from parents to offspring. They will understand the relationship between genes, chromosomes, and traits. |
| Name |
Description |
| Your Inner Neandertal: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Scientists used ancient bones to compare Neandertal DNA to that of modern humans from around the globe. The results are surprising: many of us are closer to Neandertals than previously thought. Once considered very unlikely, scientists now believe that humans and Neandertals may have interbred. |
| Debate over Genetically Modified Foods Continues amid Confusion: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This text highlights the controversy surrounding genetically modified foods and their labeling. The article explains GMOs and their implications for health according to science and industry. |
| A Success for Designer Life: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article reveals how scientists have found a way to make a synthetic chromosome and insert it into yeast cells. Scientists discovered that this chromosome can alter or create new traits in an organism. This research could lead to creating an entirely synthetic genome, which scientists expect to accomplish in the next few years. |
| What Makes a Dog?: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Studying dog DNA may have many applications including helping scientists to have a better understanding of canine origins and how dogs became domesticated. Understanding and locating certain genes has many breeding applications. Studying and understanding dog diseases may be able to further the study of human diseases. |
| Brazil Approves Use of Genetically Modified Mosquitoes to Combat Dengue Fever: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes a possible solution to the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses like malaria and dengue fever. Scientists have genetically modified mosquitoes to disrupt their reproductive cycle. The article ends with the concerns of the scientific community about the breeding program, while at the same time showing how several countries are already having success with use of the GM organisms. |
| Where Native Americans Come From: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes how scientists have found that Native Americans have ancestral roots in Asia using DNA evidence from a 12,600 year old toddler skeleton from the Clovis culture in Montana. |
| From Stem Cell to Any Cell: | This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Stem cell research findings are discussed with examples of how biotechnology is impacting society. The article explains the different types of stem cells and highlights research on stem cells to cure diseases and help increase quality of life. Ethical questions are addressed using a balanced approach. |
| Concept 41: "Genes Come in Pairs": | This resource comes from the Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory: DNA from the Beginning online module series. There are 41 modules located on this site all focused on DNA and organized by individual concepts. The science behind each concept is explained in each module by: animations, an image gallery, video interviews, problems, biographies, and additional links. This is the 2nd module in the series, and it is focused on how genes come in pairs. |
| Concept 41: "Some genes are dominant": | This resource comes from the Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory: DNA from the Beginning online module series. There are 41 modules located on this site all focused on DNA and organized by individual concepts. The science behind each concept is explained in each module by animations, an image gallery, video interviews, problems, biographies, and additional links. This is the 4th module in the series and it is focused on concept that some genes are dominant. |
| Concept 41: "Genes don't blend": | This resource comes from the Cold Springs Harbor Laboratory: DNA from the Beginning online module series. There are 41 modules located on this site all focused on DNA and organized by individual concepts. The science behind each concept is explained in each module by animations, an image gallery, video interviews, problems, biographies, and additional links. This is the 3rd module in the series and it is focused on presenting the concept that genes don't blend. |
Vetted resources students can use to learn the concepts and skills in this topic.
Vetted resources caregivers can use to help students learn the concepts and skills in this topic.
