Name MonicaCamacho

Submitted on 10/25/2005 10:41:30 PM

Topic: Any1

 Nelson,J.M. (2002). Out of This World Genetics. The American Biology Teacher, 64, 608-611.

Summary

Imagine, if you will, having an alien family with a dad who has four eyes and two, a mother with one eye and one ear, and two child aliens-one having two eyes and three ears, and the other having four eyes and one ear. What was up with that first child alien? How do you find the traits of that alien? Julie Marie Nelson's activity article is a creative way to discover the concepts found in genetics, including dominant and recess traits, monohybrid and dihybrid crosses,Punnett squares and Mendel's Laws of Segregation and Independent Assortment. The article is creative in the sense of using Extraterrestrials to formulate how genetics work in a unique activity. The activity includes six steps in discovering the concepts of genetics with Extraterrestrials. In step1, students are to depict the traits or characteristics their aliens would have. There goal is to determine the genotypes and phenotypes of an alien family.Step2, once they figure the dominant and recessive traits the their alien mother and father, the students use a Punnett square to figure out the alien family.Step3, students make predictions of monohybrid crosses of the offspring.step4, students make predictions of dihybrid crosses using the Punnett square. Step5, students determine the offsprings genotype by looking at the parents genotype for a specific trait. Lastly, step6, students create an Alien family by drawing a picture of what the family would look like based on the genotypes. Further, students can create names for each family members and write a story about the alien family.

Reaction

This article brings creativity to the topic of genetics. Genetics is a difficult subject to teach. The activity brings imagination to genetics as well as learning. This activity is an enrichment activity to the skills already taught in the classroom. Nelson gives a step by step approach to the activity. It also allows students to make predictions and use their creativity when figuring out traits. The activity also gives Teachers a worksheet to follow when presenting the activity which uses critical thinking skills and gives a list of open-ended questions for students to respond. This is a fun way to expand students learning with genetics. Teachers should make learning fun and memorable and this activity will make students never forget learning about Punnett squares after they do this activity. This is a great science activity that assesses students fundamental understandings of genetics in a fun and exciting way.