Middle School Science Lessons

It is that time of year again: time to ask everyone you know to save their plastic Easter eggs and that you will be more than happy to take them off their hands – once the kids have emptied out the goodies, of course! 

Objectives: Students will learn how to set up and solve Punnett Squares for traits with incomplete dominance.

NEW FOR APRIL 2025 – Incomplete Dominance Google Slides:

Lesson Materials – for the Incomplete Dominance version using plastic eggs and manipulatives

• Google Slides – animations will guide students on how to complete this activity, make a copy to edit
  • Student Handout – 4 slides per page (pdf)
  • Student Handout – 2 slides per page larger print (pdf)
    • you can cut these apart and laminate them and set up stations or make a booklet
• OLD Student Worksheet (pdf) – I created this handout in 2004 based on the original lesson plan by Anne Buchanan on Access Excellence in the late 1990s (a direct link to the original lesson plan is no longer valid)

NEW FOR APRIL 2025 – Complete Dominance:

I created a new version of this activity for DOMINANT TRAITS that can be used as a guided whole class instruction (students will write answers on the board) or for distance learning (students can type their answers into the Google Slides).

Objectives: Students will learn how to set up and solve Punnett Squares for traits with complete dominance.

Lesson Materials – for the Complete Dominance version using plastic eggs and manipulatives

• Google Slide version – Complete Dominance (view only, make a copy)
• Student Handout (pdf) I would use this guided lesson first, and do incomplete dominance for enrichment as a follow up.
• Student Handout (pdf) in large print with and without colored circles

For Dominant and Recessive Traits – The hands on part of this lesson would have to be modified and use 1 whole egg for each parent, and the answers would NOT be inside the eggs, just the alleles for each parent, then create a Punnet Square.

• Blue & Yellow only (BB, Bb = blue, bb = yellow)
  • (BB) Blue egg – 2 blue egg halves with 2 blue pieces inside
  • (Bb) Blue egg – 2 blue egg halves with 1 blue piece & 1 yellow piece inside
  • (bb) Yellow egg – 2 yellow egg halves with 2 yellow pieces inside
• Purple & Pink only  (PP, Pp = Purple, pp = pink) – similar to Blue and Yellow set up
• Green & Orange only (GG, Gg = Green, gg = orange) – similar to Blue and Yellow set up
• Open eggs for genotypes to reveal the alleles
• Create a Punnett Square with the alleles present then solve for outcomes of offspring

Below are some links to teachers who have used this lesson in the past:

• Surviving MS Science @survivingmsscience has a reel showing how she uses a version of this lesson
• Western Kentucky University (link)
• Science Matters (link)
• Homeschool Life Journal (link)