percentages

Plastic Egg Genetics

Liz Belasic3 Comments

Easter-Eggs

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! 

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

  • University of Southern California (link)
  • Western Kentucky University (link)
  • Science Matters (link)
  • Homeschool Life Journal (link)
  • And a big thank you to Brent from Georgia who did a great job explaining how to set up and use this activity with your students, see his detailed video below.

Resources:

  • Original Lesson Plan (link)
  • Student Worksheet I created for the lesson plan (pdf)
    • NOTE: the colors in this activity represent Incomplete Dominance and their outcomes
    • Here is a nice review of the three different types of dominance from Khan Academy (video link)
    • For Dominant and Recessive Traits only, this lesson would have to be modified and use 1 whole egg for each parent, and the answers would NOT be inside the eggs:
      • Blue & Yellow only (BB, Bb = blue, bb = yellow)
        • Blue egg – 2 blue pieces
        • Blue egg – 1 blue piece, 1 yellow piece
        • Yellow egg – 2 yellow pieces
          • Open eggs for genotypes, then make punnett squares
      • Purple & Pink only  (PP, Pp = Purple, pp = pink)
  • BrainPOP Video: Heredity (free link)
  • BrainPOP Video: DNA (free link)

If you have used this lesson in the past, would love to hear how it went! If you wrote about it on your blog, I would love to add your link to the site as well!

Genetics with SpongeBob – Learning how to use Punnett Squares

Liz Belasic7 Comments
Practice Punnett Squares with SpongeBob & the Gang
Practice Punnett Squares with SpongeBob & the Gang

If you have a unit on genetics, this is a must have as part of your lesson plans. The worksheets were created by Tracy and posted on her website, ScienceSpot.net (link). I created a Google Slides presentation for my 7th graders to help them set up, solve, and analyze Punnett squares.

As a class, we worked on the first few problems together. Then, students worked with a partner and self checked their work using the ppt slides. For homework, they were to finish the problems and self check using the ppt slides. In class the next day, we reviewed some of the problems to check for understanding.

Materials:

  1. Google Slides: SpongeBob Genetics -(public link)
  2. Worksheet: Bikini Bottom Genetics – part 1 (pdf)
  3. Worksheet: Bikini Bottoms Genetics – part 2 (pdf)
  4. Additional Links: More fun with Genetics at ScienceSpot.net (link)

SpongBob Genetics - Public