A Ninth Grade Teaching Unit on Human Embryology
Frank Caparulo and Kathleen London
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Give FeedbackLesson 1 Heredity and Traits
Concepts:
that we receive 23 chromosomes from each parent that traits are inherited that we inherit end carry dominant and recessive genes
Terminology:
chromosomes
genes
recessive
dominant
Title of Lesson: Whose Eyes Are These?
Introduction:
Did you ever wonder why you have different color eyes than your sister or brother or even your mother or father? It has to do with inherited traits, traits passed down perhaps from your great grandparents to your grand parents to your parents and finally to you. This exercise will give you an opportunity to get to know yourself and some of your traits. It will deal with just physical traits, if you have a desire to find out about other traits such as temperment, personality, etc., you may want to discuss this with your parents. Genetics is fairly new as a science and no one fully understands how much we inherit and how much is due to environment.
To the teacher:
You may wish to have the students do this exercise for credit or just for fun, feel free. Most traits are self explanatory, a few may take a little explanation, handedness, refers to whether a pers is right or left handed. Give students permission to use nonderogatory words for stature, i.e. stocky, slight, below average in height etc. Ask for volunteers to read their papers and ask if anyone found anything interesting. Suggestion: do one yourself and share it with your students.
Trait
|
Your Feature
|
Family Member with same Trait
|
hair color
|
___________
|
_____________________
|
hair texture
|
___________
|
_____________________
|
eye color
|
___________
|
_____________________
|
stature
|
___________
|
_____________________
|
handedness
|
___________
|
_____________________
|
earlobes
|
___________
|
_____________________
|
(attached or
unattached)
others
|
___________
|
_____________________
|