Curated OER
Camouflage and Protective Coloration: A Model of Natural Selection
Students study protective coloration and camouflage in animals. They create examples of each and conduct simulation-type experiments to determine which is the most effective adaptation.
Curated OER
Reebops a Model "Organism" for Teaching Genetics Concepts
Reebops are cute, marshmallow-based creatures that can be used to teach inheritance. Beginning biologists draw strips of paper that represent chromosomes from two envelopes, one for the father, and one for the mother. Each parent...
Curated OER
Sex-Linked Genes
Students review the concepts of incomplete dominance, co-dominance and multiple alleles. As a class, they are introduced to the concept of sex-linked genes and how they are passed to offspring. To end the lesson, they examine possible...
Curated OER
Wearing My Genes: Basic Principles of Heredity
Students explore heredity. In this science lesson plan, students examine what heredity is, distinguish the difference between the dominant and recessive genes, explain the difference between phenotype and genotype, and predict the...
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Some Genes Are Dominant
Dominate a lesson on genetic traits. Young scholars learn about the difference between dominant and recessive traits with an interactive lesson. An animation demonstrates Mendel's work on the inheritance of traits, and interactive...
Curated OER
Take A Splash into the Gene Pool
Fifth graders perform a simulated experiment where they use simple genetic coding to crreate a personl.
Curated OER
What Genes Do You Have?
A great handout to introduce genetics. Young geneticists will begin to examine which traits are prevalent in their own families, helping them begin to understand the concept of dominant and recessive genes. This is an excellent resource...
Biology Corner
Pipe Cleaner Babies
Ever been told you have your father's eyes? How did it happen? Young biologists get a hands-on experience in meiotic gene expression with a fun pairs-based activity. Participants use pipe cleaner chromosomes with trait beads to make...
Scholastic
Study Jams! Heredity
Mia wishes her blue hair was inherited so that she wouldn't have to dye it, but Sam explains that eye color is. The video does not expound upon the concept of alleles. It does, however, describe inherited traits vs. learned behavior, and...
Curated OER
Principles of Heredity
Students model traits on genes using colored paper and tongue depressors to represent chromosomes. In this heredity lesson plan, students use their "chromosome sticks" to understand chromosome pairs, genes, dominant traits, recessive...
Curated OER
Genetic Science Ethics
In this genetic ethics worksheet, students are given ten ethical questions regarding genetic defects, the possibility of gene therapy, test tube babies and creating a national DNA database. Students are given three choices for each...
Curated OER
Genes, not Jeans
Fifth graders examine the difference between dominant and recessive genes, and what happens when genes are combined. They complete a worksheet on genetics after observing if they can wiggle their ears or roll their tongues. They...
Curated OER
Genes
Students explore the history, inheritance and mutations of genetics. For this genetic lesson students complete experiments on DNA sequences.
Curated OER
Family Pedigrees
Young scholars work as a class to first construct a pedigree of a popular singer, showcasing the singing gene being passed down through the generations. Students then make their own family pedigree and follow two traits through their...
Serendip
Genetics
A handout on genetic inheritance begins with a reading on alleles and how they can result in albinism. Junior geneticists learn to complete Punnett squares and participate in a coin toss simulation of allele pairing. They also learn...
Curated OER
Genes and Heredity
Students identify different traits and whether the traits are inherited or acquired.
Curated OER
Parental Genes
Eighth graders explore how different organisms pass their traits to their offspring. In this life science lesson, 8th graders differentiate recessive and dominant alleles. They predict the phenotype based on the genotype of an organism.
Curated OER
Genes
Fifth graders learn of how genes transfer information from one generation to the next. They flip a penny and circle traits to create an offspring. Next, they will draw a picture using the traits circled with colored pencils on the "Who...
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Genes Don't Blend
Yellow and blue make green—unless you're studying the inheritance of genetic traits. An interactive lesson explains the difference between blended traits and pure traits and gives examples of their occurrence. The resource includes a...
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Genes Come in Pairs
Mendel was the first to look at individual traits within a species. Step in his shoes as an interactive lesson takes users through his journey. An animation describes the design of his experiments and how he isolated individual traits to...
Curated OER
Beans and Birds: A Natural Selection Simulation
Students solve the following problem concerning the evolution of seed color in pinto bean plants: "How does natural selection change the frequency of genes or traits over many generations?" They use the constructivist approach to...
Curated OER
Nasonia Genetics-A Jewel of a Wasp
Students investigate the inheritance pattern of eye color in Nasonia wasps. In this genetics and inheritance lesson plan, students read about the life cycle of Nasonia wasps and hypothesize about the possibilities of eye color inherited...
Curated OER
Basic Genetics
Ninth graders discover where their physical appearance and personality traits come from. In this genetics lesson, 9th graders learn about cells, chromosomes, DNA and genes. Students discover where genes come from as well as dominant and...
Curated OER
How To Use Hardy-Weinberg to Find Gene Frequencies in s Wild Population
Students explore the gene frequency in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium experiments. They inquire into the studies of both black and gray squirrels. Basically the population genetics of certain squirrel populations. The species of each are...