Curated OER
Fun with Heredity
Learners explore basic concepts of heredity and collaborate to see genetics in action through several activities provided in the instructional activity. Inherited traits are examined and identified as dominant or recessive.
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Patterns of Heredity Vocabulary
Test your students' biology vocabulary skills with this review sheet, in which students define twelve different vocabulary terms related to patterns of heredity. Using the word bank provided, 9th graders complete eight sentences with the...
Curated OER
Do Your Earlobes Hang down?
Seventh graders listen as the teacher explains the differences between dominant and recessive traits. The data sheet is described and delivered to students. Students collect data about themselves and record it on their sheet. For the...
Curated OER
The Human Mind
Young scholars read and discuss twin studies to explore the debate of nature vs. nurture. They create a list of characteristics and then look for evidence of whether it is primarily a genetic or environmental characteristic. All of the...
Curated OER
Evolution and Genes
In this evolution and genes worksheet, students answer 10 multiple choice questions related to genetics, DNA, polygenic traits and heredity.
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X Is For Wonderment
Students engage in a lesson plan that is concerned with the "X" chromosome and how ti is part of genetics with the use of Punnett squares. They use this tool in order to predict future genetic outcomes while focusing upon specific...
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My Family and Me: Our Similarities and Differences
Young scholars are introduced to basic genetic information to discover how they acquired the traits they have. Individually, they develop a family tree and identify the similarities and differences between two poeple. In groups, they...
Curated OER
Human Heredity Vocabulary
Ninth graders review the terms "aneuploidy," "fetus," and "karyotype" in this vocabulary worksheet, which includes three multiple choice questions about each term. This activity could be expanded into a more developed vocabulary lesson...
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Artificial selection
Students brainstorm a list of improvements they might make to a picture of a skinny cow to improve its milk yield. They draw ideas on the board and compare these pictures with the original and ask the students which cow they would use...
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Simple Genetics Practice Problems
Geneticists of the future identify heterozygous and homozygous genotypes, describe phenotypes, and use Punnett squares to solve problems and determine characteristics of offspring. A total of 15 questions make this a compact quiz or...
Personal Genetics Education Project
How Does Ancestry Testing Work? Exploring Admixture Testing
Find out the science behind ancestry testing! Investigators watch a video exploring how ancestry works before participating in a hands-on group activity. Scholars role play scientists while learning about testing protocols and test...
Kenan Fellows
Unit 4: Bioethics and the Future of Biotechnology
What's the future of biotechnology? Explore a hot topic in the fourth and final unit in a series of Biotechnology lessons. Learners develop an understanding of the many issues in bioethics, then create an argument for or against the role...
Curated OER
Meiosiss Revisited
Seventh graders are engaged in a lesson plan that covers the concept of meiosis with the intention of covered sexual reproduction. They cover the concept of genetic traits and how they are transmitted over generations with or without...
National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science
In Sickness and in Health
Based on family history, how likely is it that a couple's children will have a recessive disease? In an in-depth, but easy-to-follow case study, future geneticists learn the story of Greg and Olga, who are hoping to have children, but...
Curated OER
Designer Babies
Students differentiate phenotypes and genotypes. In this genetics activity, students complete the punnett square. They design their own baby by choosing the phenotype they want.
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A Tasteless Tasty Test
Students review the inheritance patterns of simple dominant and recessive traits in humans. They use PTC tasting as a model trait. Each student determines whether or not they are a taster using PTC paper then they compile and discuss the...
Curated OER
Life Cycles
Students identify inherited traits. In this heredity lesson, students watch a video and construct a genetic description of themselves.
Curated OER
Dare to be Punnett Square
Eighth graders become familiar with Punnett squares, specifically purpose, application and interpretation. Key terms from previous lessons (included below) are reviewed/reinforced before data is applied to a Punnett square and interpreted.
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Frankenfish
Learners learn the difference between a genotype and a phenotype. They demonstrate that recombination of gametes (coins) will result in the formation of unique individuals.
Agriculture in the Classroom
A Rafter of Turkeys
How did that turkey get from the early Aztec culture to your table? Learn about the history of wild and domesticated turkeys in North America, as well as their inclusion in Thanksgiving traditions, with a two-part agricultural science...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Natural Selection and the Evolution of Darwin's Finches
Darwin explained the connection between species of finches 150 years before scientists understood DNA. Technology and progressing science proved he was right, yet many struggle to understand how natural selection happens. Scholars use...
Curated OER
Evolution
In this evolution worksheet, students review genetic variability, gene mutations, biodiversity and adaptations. This worksheet has 22 fill in the blank and 10 short answer questions.
Curated OER
Gene Puzzles
Young scholars come to understand that in sexually reproducing organisms, such as humans, typically half of the genes come from each parent.
Students examine a fictional pedigree and determine which gene is responsible for a given trait....
Curated OER
Cells: Nature's Building Blocks
What you will find on this page is the general outline of a unit on the use of a microscope and the structure of the cell. There is no actual educational content here, so you will need to design the details of each of the four student...