The Benefits of Biodiversity

What does your class know about GMOs? Are they savvy to selective breeding? Challenge young minds to engineer the greatest crop of all time using a hands-on genetics unit. Learners discover the good and bad details of selective breeding,...

Six pages begin with a detailed introduction to meiosis and homologous chromosome pairs. Instructions guide learners through a simulation in which they draw craft sticks marked with autosomes in order to decode the genes inherited by...

Around six percent of babies are born with serious genetic disorders. Young scientists learn more about what causes these disorders and the effect they have. They begin with a case study of cystic fibrosis before expanding to research...

Rotating through five stations, evolutionary biologists explore the question of how changes in DNA facilitate the changes in a population over time. High-quality, colorful cards of animals, skeletons, skulls, and DNA sequences can all be...

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...

Young scholars learn that heredity comes down to the flip of a coin with this cross-curricular math and science lesson. Using smiley faces as a model, students toss coins to determine which dominant or recessive traits...

How do organisms end up with such a wide variety of traits? It's in their genes! Kick off your inherited traits lesson using a brief video that covers alleles and genes. The narrator describes heterozygous and homozygous genotypes, how...

Did you know that selective breeding is behind the food we're eating? Discover the agricultural practice that changed humans from foragers to farmers using an insightful video that is part of the Fuse School playlist on Evolution. Young...

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...

Using chromosome and gene models, students play the roles of two parents in this genetics simulation. The object is to create four offspring and determine their genotypes and phenotypes, and determine the probability of having offspring...