12/12

On Monday, students worked in groups to complete Punnett squares. On Tuesday, students participated in the "Face Lab." In this lab, students had to play the role of parents and flip coins in order to determine which traits would be passed on to their "child." This lab reinforced how alleles are passed from parents to offspring and how probability (in our case, flipping a coin) plays a major role in genetics. Students had to use the results from their coin flips to draw what their "child" would look like. I must say, we had some VERY interesting looking children as a result of this lab! We began examining X-linked traits this week as well. We discussed how certain traits were located on the X chromosome and that females have XX sex chromosomes, while males have XY sex chromosomes. We used this knowledge to learn how to do X-linked Punnett squares. We spent time practicing these Punnett squares in small groups on Friday, and students really seem to be getting the hang of it! Next week we will discuss genetic disorders and take our Chapter 5 test on Thursday!