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Mendel & His Peas
Gregor Mendel – an Austrian monk, scientist, and gardener –
was a keen observer of the world around him. Curious about heredity
(how traits passed from one generation to the next), he grew and
tested almost 30,000 pea plants.
During the 1850’s, Mendel studied genetics by doing controlled
breeding experiments with pea plants. Pea plants were used because
they reproduce quickly, have easily observed traits, and Mendel could
control which pairs of plants reproduced. Mendel allowed one group of
flowers to self-pollinate. Another group he cross-pollinated himself.
Mendel cross-pollinated hundreds of plants for each set of traits –
flower color, seed color, and seed shape. Mendel recorded the traits
that appeared in the offspring.
A cross between true-breeding plants with purple flowers
produced plants with only purple flowers. A cross between truebreeding white flowers produced plants with only white flowers. When
Mendel crossed the true-breeding purple with true-breeding white
flowers, all of the offspring had purple flowers. These offspring are
called hybrids (different forms of the same gene – ex. Tt). When he
crossed two hybrids, the trait that had disappeared in the 1 st
generation reappeared in the 2nd generation. After analyzing the result
of his experiments, Mendel concluded that two genetic factors control
each inherited trait. He proposed that the sperm and egg each
contributed one factor for each trait.
Mendel also hypothesized that each hybrid had a dominant trait
(a genetic factor that blocks another genetic factor) and a recessive
trait (a genetic factor that is blocked by the presence of a dominant
factor). Dominant traits are represented using capital letters and
recessive traits are illustrated using lower case letters. A recessive trait
is only observed when two recessive genetic factors are present in the
offspring.
Today, Mendel is called the father of genetics (the study of how traits
are passed from parents to offspring). After Mendel published his
findings, however, his “laws of heredity” were ignored until the early
1900’s.
1-Pager Directions
Before reading article
1. Number paragraphs
2. Scan the text and circle any words that are unfamiliar, any
words that seem important or any vocabulary words
Read the article
3. Circle any additional important or vocabulary words
4. Underline any important or main idea sentences (5 word
limit)
After reading (each section below should be done in a different
colored pencil)
5. Around the edge of the page, write all circled vocabulary
words
6. In the top ¼ of the page, create a title based on the article
(may not be the same as the article)
7. In the next ¼ of the page, draw a picture that represents
what you read (or a piece of it)
8. Around each side and the bottom of the picture, do a mini
boarder of vocabulary words that you had circled in the
article. Use the most important words.
9. In the next ¼ of the page, copy the most important thing
from the article. Make sure to use quotation marks.
10. In the last ¼ of the page, write a Higher Order Thinking
Question about the article and answer it if you can.