Download How Do You Measure Up?

Name _________________________________________________________
Date _________
Activity: How Do You Measure Up?
Goal: To construct a graph to help determine if height
is controlled by more than one gene (polygenic).
Background Information: How many different shades of blue or brown eye color do
you detect among your classmates? Eye color is an example of a single trait that is
produced by a combination of many pairs of genes. This is called polygenic inheritance.
Polygenic inheritance occurs when a group of gene pairs act together to produce a
single trait. The effect of each allele may be small, but the combination produces a wide
variety.
Many human traits are controlled by polygenic inheritance. Height, weight, body
build, and shape of your eyes, lips, and ears are traits controlled by polygenic
inheritance. It is estimated that skin color is controlled by three to six pairs of genes.
Even more gene pairs control the color of your eyes and your hair. (Information is from
Merrill: Life Science)
Materials: meter stick, graph paper, pencil
Procedure:
1. What I Know: Write two sentences describing what you already know about traits
controlled by more than one gene (polygenic inheritance).
2. Working with a partner, determine your height to the nearest centimeter.
_________cm
a. Record your height interval on the class data chart on the Smartboard.
b. Record the height intervals of all the students in your class on your data chart.
c. Use the data to create a bar graph. The height intervals should be graphed on
the vertical axis and the number of students for each height interval along the
horizontal axis. (To create the bar graph, see the last page of this packet)
3. What I Observed: This will include all of the data you collected and the graph you
completed.
Date Table:
Height in cm
121-130
131-140
141-150
151-160
161-170
171-180
Number of Students
Bar Graph:
20
N
U
M
B
E
R
15
O
F
S
T
U
D
E
N
T
S
10
5
0
120
130
140
150
160
170
180
Height in Centimeters (cm)
190
4. Questions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences.
a. How can you tell if a trait is controlled by more than one gene?
b. How does your data and graph support that height is a polygenic trait?
d. Compare and contrast multiple allele inheritance and polygenic inheritance.
5. What I Wonder: Pose a question about what you wonder about this topic or what
you may still like to know about this topic.
6. Claim and Evidence Writing Prompts: Use the following prompts to help you
construct your lab conclusion, What I Learned.
 Goal: State the goal of this lesson.
The goal of this lesson is…
 Claim: What did you learn from the activity that satisfies the goal of this
lesson? This is an I Learned statement.
I learned that…
 Evidence: How can you prove from your observations that you learned
what you claim? This can be a general statement that you will explain in
detail in your explanation.
I know this because….
 Explanation: Use specific data from your observations to support your
claim and describe the evidence. Use details to support your claim.
 Concluding Statement: Reword the goal and either add information you
learned about the topic from your text book, class discussions, and/ or
personal research OR you can extend the statement by adding a relevant
question.
7. What I Learned: Write at least a one paragraph summary of what you learned from
completing this activity. Use the Claims and Evidence Writing Prompts to help you
compose your summary.
Extra Credit: Learn about the Human Genome Project.
Go to: http://www.ornl.gov/hgmis/project/about.html
Answer the following questions:
1. What is the purpose of the Human Genome Project?
2. List two goals of the Human Genome Project.
3. What organisms are being used for this study?
4. What is a genome?
5. What are some practical benefits to learning about DNA?