Columbus City Schools
Diversity of Living Things
Here's a topic classes can really dig—the fossil record. Use the well-organized and thoughtful road map to take eighth graders back in time to unearth the answer. Learn how our climate has changed, and how organisms have changed along...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Zebrafish and Skin Color
You may not know if that zebrafish in your fish tank is a model citizen—but it is definitely a model organism! What can we learn about ourselves from a tiny zebrafish? Discover more about the polygenic trait of skin color through a...
Kenan Fellows
A Farmer’s Challenge to Breed to the Greatest of Grapes
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,...
North Carolina State University
Exploring Genetics Across the Middle School Science and Math Curricula
Where is a geneticist's favorite place to swim? A gene pool. Young geneticists complete hands-on activities, experiments, and real-world problem solving throughout the unit. With extra focus on dominant and recessive genes, Punnett...
Curated OER
Generations of Traits
In this biology worksheet, students track and record the passage of colored pom pom traits through three generations of ginger-bread people. Then they describe that traits are passed from parents to offspring and that siblings may or may...
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Chromosomes Carry Genes
Some traits only exist in males and some only in females. Pupils learn how the location of genes on sex chromosomes determines them using an interactive lesson. An animation illustrates how scientists know this to be true and shows how...
Curated OER
Genes and Inheritance
Young scholars explore genes and inheritance. After listening to a story describing a rare genetic disease, students discuss inheritance and how living things pass on traits to their children. In groups young scholars, students...
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...
Columbus City Schools
Heredity: Traits, Genes, Alleles
If you knew people would pay extra for a bald dragon, could you pick which parents you should breed in order to get the highest number? The unit examines heredity and genetics through breeding dragons, mice, dogs, and tries to figure...
K20 LEARN
You're My 'Karyo'-Type: Karyotype For Chromosomal Disorders
What's your type? Genetically speaking, of course! Immerse your class in the world of karyotypes through an insightful activity from the K20 Center. Scholars take on the role of genetic counselors to determine the karyotype of offspring...
Curated OER
A Bug's Life: Diary of an Insect's Metamorphosis
Fifth graders examine the stages of insect's to understand heredity. For this inherited traits lesson, 5th graders explore the life of the honeybee for its inherited traits. Students recognize the difference between inherited traits and...
Agriculture in the Classroom
Roll of the Genes
Animal reproduction in sheep and cattle is explored with the help of Punnet squares. Scholars employ tools using probability to conclude the color of wool a sheep's offspring will have. Acting as animal geneticists, pupils then take...
Science 4 Inquiry
Genetics, Genetics, and More Genetics: Exploring Independent Assortment and Non-Mendelian Genetics
Two individuals share 99.9 percent of their genetic codes, yet diversity is observed everywhere. Young scientists learn about diversity through hands-on activities and an experiment. They apply the concepts of independent assortment and...
Curated OER
Exploring Learned and Innate Behavior
Compare and contrast learned and innate behaviors between humans and primates. Your biology class members read articles and participate in discussions about the use of tools and communication methods. That's about it, you'll probably...
Curated OER
Fun with Heredity
Learners explore basic concepts of heredity and collaborate to see genetics in action through several activities provided in the instructional activity. Inherited traits are examined and identified as dominant or recessive.
Give and Let Live
Blood and Transplant: Organs
Who donates organs, and how do organ donations work? The third lesson in a four-part series discusses the tremendous need for donor organs of all ages and backgrounds. A variety of materials, included with the teacher's guide, walk...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Lactase Persistence: Evidence for Selection
What's the link between lactase persistence and dairy farming? Biology scholars analyze data to find evidence of the connection, then relate this to human adaptation. Working individually and in small groups, learners view short video...
Curated OER
Exploring Human Traits
Students explore human behavior by participating in a class science game. In this human characteristics instructional activity, students identify different human traits that are passed down by each generation and the purpose each of them...
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
Family Tree Video
Fifth graders create a video with photos with photos of their family members. They demonstrate an explain of traits that are inherited.
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...
Teach Engineering
Don't Be a Square
If Parseltongue is a genetic trait, what is the probability a wizard will inherit the ability to speak Parseltongue? Scholars investigate magical and biological genetics with Punnett squares.
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...
American Museum of Natural History
Nature or Nurture Quiz
Eighteen questions ask pupils whether certain behavior or trait is based on nature or nurture. Scholars take a quiz, reflect on their answers, then challenge a friend or family member to complete it.
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