Students will construct a model of a dragon based on traits inherited from the parent dragons. This activity demonstrates the inheritance of dominant and recessive traits, codominance, and incomplete dominance. Students will use Punnett Squares to predict genotypic and phenotypic ratios of the dragon population in the class. This project could serve as a culminating activity for Genetics and the Inheritance of traits. This activity was adapted from Alabama Science in Motion. This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.

In this media-rich, self-paced lesson, students explore some of the technologies designed to detect and treat inherited diseases and the ethical debate surrounding them.

With the emerging genetic testing companies such as “23 and Me” and “Ancestry”, it is becoming more popular and accessible for families to test their own genes rather than from a primary care provider. The purpose of this activity is to analyze multiple angles of genetic testing. Students will look at multiple areas of health including mental, emotional, and physical health and how it can impact their personal health and the health of loved ones.

This fun Web site is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here, they examine "the gene scene." The online slide show provides an overview on the subject of genetics.

A break down of what genetics is and why it is important that we educate ourselves about it.

The Genetics Student Edition book is one of ten volumes making up the Human Biology curriculum, an interdisciplinary and inquiry-based approach to the study of life science.

Writing a Wikipedia article about a genetic disease is a good culminating activity for a genetics course or module, as it requires synthesizing and interpreting a wide range of genetic information. This assignment also includes a potential service component, which is normally very difficult in genetics.

The January 2012 issue of PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases presented an Editorial, a Viewpoint, and two accompanying Expert Commentaries that focussed on the application of genetically modified (GM) insects for control of animal and plant diseases. These articles describe the technological advances these tools represent, the regulatory framework, and the societal dialogue that is necessary for their wide-scale application for disease control. Here, we have assembled a collection of articles published in the PLOS journals that describe the technical and applied aspects of GM insects. We also included articles that are not strictly GM, but aim to modify the disease transmission traits of insects through the use of symbiotic microbes.

This resource is intended for an introductory or intermediate-level college genetics course. It begins with an exploration of DNA and genome structure and continues with a study of the molecular mechanisms that drive gene expression. Concepts of classical transmission genetics are linked to the molecular mechanisms that underlie observable phenotypes. It concludes with specific topics that synthesize information from both molecular and transmission genetics, including consideration of topics like epigenetics, cancer biology, and evolution. Examples of both historical and current problems in genetics are presented, along with conversations of the relationship between genetics and society.

By keeping a field journal, kids gain insight into local wildlife and the role of genetics in this OLogy activity. The activity begins by telling kids that scientists learn about animals by observing them and by analyzing DNA. They then are given directions for how to keep a field journal that tracks the appearance and behavior of an animal of their choice. Kids are asked to write down any questions they have about the animal that could be answered with DNA analysis. The activity includes a sample field journal page for reference.

These lessons demonstrate how a good understanding of mitosis, meiosis and fertilization and a basic understanding of the roles of DNA and proteins can provide the basis for understanding genetics. Important genetics concepts for students to learn are summarized and multiple learning activities are suggested to help students understand Punnett squares, pedigrees, dominant/recessive alleles, X-linked recessive alleles, incomplete dominance, co-dominance, test crosses, independent assortment, genetic linkage, polygenic inheritance, etc. This overview provides links to suggested activities which include hands-on simulation and laboratory activities, analysis of class data, review games and discussion activities and questions.

Lesson Plan Format Date:   1/29/18                                                Grade Level: 9th Concept: Genetic Traits and Heredity Objectives:Students will recognize that traits are inherited from parents.Students will demonstrate that sexual reproduction produces variation in their genotypes and phenotypes.Students will be able to define the difference between genotype and phenotype.Students will be able to predict the genotype and phenotype of offspring given the parents alleles.Students will be able to distinguish between dominant and recessive alleles.Introduction:            We previously learned the difference between recessive and dominant alleles and how those can affect the genotypes and the phenotypes. Dogs have phenotypes based on the color of their fur and the length of their fur. Take into consideration that you have a litter of puppies with a mother dog that’s Brown with the genotype bb and a father dog that’s Black with genotype Bb. Vocabulary:Heredity—the passing on of physical or mental characteristics genetically from one generation to another.Dominate allele—An allele or a gene that is expressed in an organism's phenotype, masking the effect of the recessive allele or gene when present.Recessive allele—An allele that produces its characteristic phenotype only when it’s paired allele is identical.Genotypes—The genetic constitution of an individual organism.Phenotypes—The set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction o its genotype with the environment.Homozygous—A set of alleles that are different from each other.Heterozygous—A set of alleles that are identical to each other.Punnett Square—A type of grid used to show the gametes of each parent and their possible offspring. Body of Lesson:As a class, I will provide the class two examples on the board and ask the class as one group to answer which square looks to be correct. Next I will ask the students to split into groups of two, I will give parent alleles and ask the groups to solve what the offspring’s genotypes and phenotypes will be. They will come to the board and put the answers that the group got. Finally on their own, using the alleles of the parent dogs, find what alleles, genotypes, and phenotypes of the puppies will be. The alleles for the fur color are B for the dominant allele and b for the recessive allele. Black fur is a dominant and brown is recessive. Using the parents from the introduction find the percentage for what the offspring will possible look like if the litter was composed of four puppies.Accommodations/Modifications:For ELL students I will have the paperwork printed in their native language. So they will get the instructions written in their language they understand best and I will ask them to write in English for their answers.For diverse learners I will provide different organisms or examples based on their background that I have gather through out the year to better relate the topic to the students. Examples if they have a cat I will explain to them that the animals can be cats instead of dogs.For different learning styles, depending on the type of learners in the classroom I will modify the lesson based on the amount of learners in my class. Such as if I have a lot of kinetic and visual learns I will use colorful cards to show the movement of alleles into the offspring, for auditory I will show them alleles pairing up in a video, and for reading/writing I will provide examples of the offspring on the board. For special need students I will provide the students with pictures with the letters instead of asking them to write it out. So that they will have a picture of the father dog with a Bb under it and a picture of the mother dog with a bb under it. I will also give them the alleles they can use to make the offspring and not ask them to make the alleles themselves. Assessment: Formative assessment: At the beginning of the lesson I will write out examples on the board and ask the class which example they thing is correct. After I think they have gotten the concept, I will ask them to split into groups and work together to figure out example and come to the board to show the class their answer.Summative assessment: The paperwork I hand out after each group has come to the board with the question about the parents having the litter of puppies will be done on their own in class. I will gather their papers at the end of class and grade for setting up the Punnett Squares correctly, putting the correct alleles in each spot, and for putting down the correct genotypes and phenotypes based off their gather alleles. Materials:Copies of worksheet (1 per group; containing the genotypes of the parent dogs a Punnett Square.)Slips of scratch paper (represent the alleles)Colored pencils, markers, or crayons (used to mark the paper for the alleles) Standard(s):SC12.3.2 Students will describe the molecular basis of reproduction and heredity.SC12.3.2.a Identify that information passed from parents to offspring is coded in DNA moleculesSC12.3.2.b Describe the basic structure of DNA and its function in genetic inheritanceSC12.3.2.c Recognize how mutations could help, harm, or have no effect on individual organismsSC12.3.2.d Describe that sexual reproduction results in a largely predictable, variety of possible gene combinations in the offspring of any two parents 

This unit includes one week of lessons which immediately follow the Genetics and DNA units. The previous knowledge gained from these units, as well as a previous project where students researched and shared with their classmates a specific genetic disorder, will provide the background for students to participate in a debate about the ethical issues of applying information available through the Human Genome Project (HGP).

In this video segment from Greater Boston, learn about conflicting theories regarding the cause of autism.

Syllabus for course at Western Oregon University that outlines course goals and program outcomes and includes a schedule with weekly topics and reading. Included reading assignments come from the open access textbook "Introduction to Genetics" (Singh et al, 2023) available at https://opengenetics.pressbooks.tru.ca.

This resource is a genetics case study adapted from the National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science for use as a laboratory exercise in an introductory online biology course. It utilizes a fillable form pdf lab answer sheet created by the instructor, Tina B. Jones.

Attributions and references are provided at the end of the laboratory write-up.

Please refer to the "Completing Lab Reports in Canvas Orientation Exercise" in OER Commons also authored by Tina B. Jones for student instructions on downloading, completing, and uploading the fillable form answer sheets in Canvas.

*Lab answer sheet created by instructor using Adobe Acrobat DC Pro.

This online article is from the Museum's Seminars on Science, a series of distance-learning courses designed to help educators meet the new national science standards. Genetically Modified Food: Bt Corn, part of the Genetics, Genomics, Genethics seminar, briefly covers the planting of genetically modified corn instead of using insecticides and the possible ill effects this corn may have on monarch butterflies.

This blog post from the Fast Plants Team addresses the question "Are Wisconsin Fast Plants Genetically Engineered Plants?". This post describes the origins of Fast Plants (they are the result of conventional plant breeding, not genetic engineering), defines terms related to plant breeding and genetic engineering, and describes the selection criteria that led to the Wisconsin Fast Plant.