Download Mendel and His Pea Plants

Lesson 1: Mendel and His Pea Plants
Purpose: This lesson will provide students with a historical background of genetics. In
particular, students will investigate Mendel’s experimentations with pea plants and the process
through which he developed his laws of heredity. This lesson will provide a context for the
development of understanding of genetics, a look into the process of scientific investigation, and
an introduction of basic genetics ideas and terminology.
Objectives:
The Students Will Be Able To:
~Summarize Mendel’s experiments.
~Explain Mendel’s laws of heredity.
~Apply the concepts of Genotype, Phenotype, Dominant, Recessive, Gene, Allele, Homozygous,
and Heterozygous to Mendel’s experiments.
Related Standards:
SOLs: BIO.2 The student will investigate and understand the history of biological concepts.
Key concepts include:
e) The collaborative efforts of scientists, past and present.
BIO.6 The student will investigate and understand common mechanisms of inheritance
and protein synthesis. Key concepts will include:
d) Prediction of inheritance of traits based on the Mendelian laws of heredity.
NSES Content Standard A: Science as Inquiry
• Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
• Understandings about scientific inquiry
NSES: Life Science Content Standard C
• Molecular basis of heredity
NSES Content Standard G: History and Nature of Science
• Science as a human endeavor
• Nature of scientific knowledge
• Historical perspectives
Materials and Resources:
Gregorian chant music, props to illustrate Mendel’s pea experiments, activity sheet.
Class Management and Safety:
No significant safety issues are relevant to this lesson.
Classroom management will consist of effectively directing students to begin their opening
question upon entering class, monitoring group progress as students are discussing their opening
question, and effectively keeping students engaged during the demonstrations and lecture on
Mendel.
Procedures:
Engage (10 min)
1. Set mood: play Gregorian chant music as students arrive to class.
2. Introductory question: “What is ‘Genetics’?”
3. Think-Pair-Share: In group of four, discuss definitions and come up with a group
definition.
4. Briefly discuss group definitions as a class
Explore (15 min)
5. Using props, have students predict the results of Mendel’s experiments.
6. Reveal to the students what Mendel actually found for the F1 and F2 generations .
7. Have students draw conclusions based on Mendes’s findings
Explain (20 min)
8. Brief lecture on Mendel including
History behind his investigations
His findings: Law of Dominance, Law of Segregation, Law of Independent
Assortment
Introduction to genetic terminology: Genotype, Phenotype, Dominant, Recessive,
Gene, and Allele
Discussion about Mendel’s success as a scientist
Elaborate (Homework assignment)
9. Color Plate and Activity Sheet (see below)
Note: The Color Plate for this activity is taken from Robert Griffin’s The Biology
Coloring Book.
Evaluate
Students will be evaluated based on completion of their Activity Sheet and Color Plates.
In addition, questions related to this lesson’s material will be incorporated into a quiz
covering the first three lessons of the Genetics Unit (Mendel, Monohybrid Crosses, and
Dihybrid Crosses), as well as the Genetics Unit Test.
Criteria: Students have completed Color Plate and Activity Sheet
Evidence: Completed Color Plate and Activity Sheet
Scoring: Students will receive a 10 point completion grade for this assignment
MendelandHisPeaPlants:
1. What is genetics?
2. Explain Mendel’s Laws of Heredity in your own words:
a) The Principle of Dominance:
b) The Law of Segregation:
c) The Law of Independent Assortment:
3. List 3 reasons why Gregor Mendel was successful as a scientist:
4. Complete the following using the “Flower Color Hybrids” color plate:
a) The color plate shows one of Mendel’s experiments in which he cross-pollinated purple
flowered plants with white-flowered plants. Using the codes provided, COLOR the P1
Generation, representing Mendel’s cross-pollination of the Parental Generation.
b) Color the F1 Generation.
Describe the offspring in this generation.
c) Color the F2 Generation.
How many purple plants resulted?
How many white plants resulted?
What is the ratio of dominant plants to recessive plants?
FlowerColorHybrids:
P1Generation:
PurpleFlowersA
WhiteFlowersB
Cross-PolinationC
F1Generation:
F2Generation:
Self-PollinationD