Traits and Heredity

Scene: How Now Brown Bunnies?

​1 • 2

Lab: Punnett Square and Probability

​1 • 2 • 3 • 4

Lesson: Meet Mendel the Monk

​1 • 2 • 3

Reading: Mendel's Experiments

​links to come

Conversation: Pros and Cons of Genetic Testing

​1 • 2 • 3

Reading: Athletics and Sickle Cell Trait

​links to come

trait

noun – an observable characteristic based on genetic background

What are some traits of a pea plant?

dominant

adjective – always observable, even when paired with a different trait

What is a dominant trait for the stem of a pea plant?

recessive

adjective – only visible when no dominant trait is present

What is the recessive trait for the flower color of a pea plant?

inherit

verb – to receive a trait from a parent or previous generation

What happens when an offspring inherits one dominant and one recessive trait from its parents?

offspring

noun – a person’s children or an animal’s young

Describe the offspring of the black rabbits, Jet and Midnight.

generation

noun – a single step of the ancestry of a living thing (i.e., a mother and daughter are one generation apart)

Explain how a recessive trait can skip a generation.

skeptical

adjective – questioning common beliefs

What theories of heredity made Mendel skeptical?

hybrid

noun – an offspring of two different varieties of plant or animal

Describe how pea plants produce a generation of hybrids.