Summer SAVY, Session 3 Day 2, Dabbling with DNA (Jenkins) (3rd – 4th)
We had a terrific Tuesday in Dabbling with DNA!! We began the morning reviewing the different types of traits and discussing how parents pass them down to their offspring. We discussed the difference between dominant and recessive traits and watched a short video to enhance our understanding of them.
The geneticists then began their incredible work on our “Monster Lab.” We had a blast creating these! Students had a packet to determine the Mommy and Daddy traits and decided what each looked like. Once the monster parents were complete, students were then able to pick out what their baby monsters were going to look like by choosing the dominant/recessive traits that were being passed down! Some fun and interesting baby monsters were created, to say the least! We placed our finished monsters on a table and completed a gallery walk to look at all the creativity. It was a huge hit!
After our monster lab, we started “Inventory of My Traits” investigations. I would call out different traits, such as “are you right-handed or left-handed,” and students would check a box to indicate the trait. After we completed the inventory, they compared/contrasted the traits they each had and tallied up the number of people in the group who had each one. We then completed an inventory of the whole class and created a bar graph to represent our data from our different traits! They all did such an amazing job at completing their data graph tables!
We continued our discussion about traits and learned the difference in DNA “flavors.” I used the term flavors instead of alleles because it was easier for them to grasp that concept. Students learned the difference between homozygous and heterozygous flavors (alleles).
Key takeaways/questions for today:
* What is the difference between dominant and recessive traits?
* How are traits passed from parents to offspring?
* How does DNA have different flavors or alleles?
Have a wonderful evening!
Warmly,
Shelley Jenkins