Overview
● Every organism inherits a unique combination of traits.
● DNA is a set of instructions that specifies the traits of an organism.
● Variations in the DNA lead to the inheritance of different traits.
By taking an inventory of their observed traits (phenotypes), and their parents and possibly
grandparent’s phenotypes, they can see which traits they inherited, and might be able to determine the
genotypes that they have. Students may also compare their inventory and see the relative abundance of
recessive and dominant traits. Students will learn about the basics of Mandellian genetics, they will learn
about dominant and recessive traits, alleles, heredity, and phenotypes and genotypes. They will be able
to see which traits are inherited from their parents or grandparents, which of their traits are recessive
and dominant, and see how common different
Objectives:
Students will be able to tell which traits they have inherited and from which parents or grandparents.
Students will be able to tell the different between recessive traits and
Background Science
Our personality and physical traits can be due to either environment or they can be inherited from our
parents and grandparents. These inherited traits are encoded in our genes, genes have two
Procedure/Protocol
1. Fill out the personal inventory of traits, mark which traits you have, for those that need tested
follow instructions detailed on the chart.
2. After chart is filled out, ask the student to hypothesize which traits they think are inherited, and
which they think are learned traits.
3. Have students compare charts with each other and make a larger chart for the class taking
tallies of which categories have the most students. Ask students to use this to further
hypothesize which traits are recessive and dominant by looking at these results.
4. Have students take inventory of traits chart home and ask their parents, grandparents, or other
relatives to help them complete this chart and answer which traits they have.
5. After students have brought back completed charts ask them to now see if they can tell which
traits are inherited and which are learned? Can students tell which traits are dominant or
recessive, could they guess their genotype now that they know the phenotype of their parents?
6. Have students answer questions about genotypes and phenotypes.
Materials
Personal Inventory of Traits Worksheet
Inventory of Traits Inheritance Worksheet
Trait Trait Personal Trait Recessive or
Dominant?
Cleft Chin No Cleft
Widows Peak No Widows Peak
Dimples No Dimples
Brown/Black Hair Blonde Hair
Freckles No Freckles
Brown Eyes Blue/Green Eyes
Free Earlobe Attached Earlobe
Right Handed: Have Left Handed: Have
someone toss you a someone toss you a
ball do you catch it ball do you catch it
with your right hand? with your left hand? Or
Or Do you write with Do you write with your
your right hand? left hand hand?
Tongue Rolling: Can No Tongue Rolling
you roll your tongue up
into a tube shape?
Punnet Square Worksheet
