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Learning from the Fossil Record
Grade 8 Science
Name:
Date:
Colette Gilbert
January 15, 2011
Genetics Simulation Activity
Below are a male and female puffalump. They have fallen madly in love and have
decided to have children. What are their chances of having children with two
horns, which makes them better at defending themselves?
The cells in the male puffalump have
two genes for one horn (O).
The cells in the female puffalump
have one gene for one horn (O) and
one gene for two horns (T).
When the male makes sperm it only contributes one of the two genes to the sperm.
When the female makes an egg it only contributes one of the two genes to the egg.
This is done randomly.
1. Use a penny to represent the male’s sperm. There is an O on each side of
the penny.
2. Use a nickel to represent the female’s egg. There is an O on one side and a
T on the other side.
Learning from the Fossil Record
Grade 8 Science
Name:
Date:
Colette Gilbert
January 15, 2011
3. You will flip each coin for each time they make a new sperm cell and egg cell.
You will do this 15 times to make 15 sperm and eggs. Record which gene
randomly was contributed to the sperm and egg each time below.
SPERM (penny) O or O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
O
EGG (nickel) O or T
O
O
O
T
T
O
T
O
T
O
O
T
O
O
T
Two or One Horns
One
One
One
Two
Two
One
Two
One
Two
One
One
Two
One
One
Two
Random
4. If the sperm and egg combine during reproduction each time they “make a
baby” the two horns will always appear if they have the T gene. If they do
not have a T gene they will only have one horn. Fill in the “Two or One
Horns” column.
5. How many of the puffalump offspring have one horn?
9
6. How many of the puffalump offspring have two horns?
6
7. Why are there differences between some of the siblings?
Some of the siblings took after the mother and some took after
the father, if the mother gave a two-horn gene, than that was what
Learning from the Fossil Record
Grade 8 Science
Name:
Date:
Colette Gilbert
January 15, 2011
the baby got. If the mother gave one-horn gene, than it would get
one horn. It was all based on what gene the mother gave.
They siblings received the same amount or combination of genes as
the parents. They got the same random gees to get one horn or two
horns
8. Why are there similarities between some of the siblings?
It was all random whether or not the baby got one horn or two from
the mother. Randomly got an O,O combination to get one horn. Starts
over when the genes are transferred from each kid, but could also
get the same genes that are similar. Odds stay the same. Same from
mother, father, both or neither.
9. Why are some of the offspring similar to one parent and not the other?
Sometimes the offspring would look like one parent because the
genes it gave, could be more ‘powerful’ and the offspring would copy
those to look like the mother more than the father, or vice-versa. No
set order at all, and the kids could get the genes from one parent
that are more dominant than the other.