Learning Exercise

Allow students time to explore the different heredity and genetics gizmos available on the site, each one giving interactive practice in the process of inheritance. Next, follow up the computer simulation with a classroom hands on simulation. Give each student a set of genotypes for approximately five (or how many the instructor deems appropriate) different traits (example: small ears, brown hair, big feet, purple eyebrows, etc). Next, instruct the students to pair up with another student and "create offspring"-- that is, each partner takes one allele of their genotype for each trait to combine it with an allele from the other student. Finally, have students present their original individual genotypes and the resulting phenotype of the offspring. Follow up with classroom discussion.