Copy the diagram and write down the traits for each

organism.

Did you know… Dog’s share 60% of their genes with humans! Insects share 30% of their genes with

humans!

Similarly, these organisms share the very same organ systems. Why is

that?

What is Genetics?

Why do we look the way we do?

Genetics is… Study of how traits from organisms are passed

from parents to offspring.

Gregor Mendel Father of Genetics Discovered genetic material is passed on from

parents to offspring.

Example: Parents pass their genes down to you. A section of DNA that has information about a

specific trait of an organism is a gene. Genes code for traits such as eye color, BUT we

don’t all have the same eye color. Differences/variation among each gene are called alleles.

Genes and Alleles

Mendels 1st Experiment

Bred pea plants. Mendel took a plant with

purple petals and crossed(fertilized) it with a plant with white petals All of the new plants had

purple petals

Mendel crossed plants with seven different traits (plant height, seed shape, etc) and the dominant trait always appeared and the recessive trait vanished into the background

Mendels 2nd Experiment

The plants that came out of the first experiment were allowed to self-pollinate

Purple flowers were allowed to reproduce with itself

This time the recessive trait showed up again (plant with white petals).

Mendel tried this out with pea plants and the same thing happened!

Mendel’s Results Mendel counted how many times each

trait showed up He found the dominant (genetic factors

that blocks another genetic factor) trait showed up in a ratio of 3 to 1 to the recessive trait (genetic factor that is blocked by a dominant factor) 3 purple flowers to 1 white flower Mendel used punnet square to explain and

predicts what traits show up.

A visual of Mendel’s results for his pea

plants.

His experiment continued

His experiment with the alleles shown

With your group: You are to create a poster to present to the class.

You have been working for Professor Mendel and are an expert on his experiments. Make sure to reread Gregor’s experiment and begin by:

Creating a simple poster that has the following:

1. Purpose of Gregor Mendel’s Experiment.

2. Procedures and all the steps of his experiment.

3. Data from his experiment.

4. Conclusion from his experiment.

5. Be creative, colorful and illustrate your work. Must include vocabulary terms!