Investigations in Science 7 March 17, 2017

What we did this week:

This week we spent focused in on genetic traits. Monday we spent building our basic
understanding of genetics. Genetics is the study of how traits are inherited. Traits are
determined by genes. And each trait has different alleles, which are different forms of a
trait that give us specific information about the trait. Everyone has two alleles for the
trait, one from the mother and one from the father. Alleles that are stronger than others
are called dominant alleles. Weaker alleles are called recessive. Recessive alleles will only
be expressed (shown) if there are no dominant alleles present (both alleles are
recessive). For example, brown eyes is a dominant trait and blue eyes is a recessive
trait. Someone will only have blue eyes if they have two recessive alleles.

When we came back together on Wednesday (hopefully everyone had fun in the
snow!!) we used toothpicks with different colors on them to model inheritance and see how
genes and alleles are passed on to the next generations. The toothpicks represented
chromosomes and the colors represented genes, we completed a genetic cross diagram for
two generations to begin to see some of the patterns of single trait inheritance.

Thursday we took a class inventory on Google Forms of many easily visible traits,
such as presence of a widows peak, ability to roll their tongue, and presence of dimples.
We used this data to draw the conclusion that the dominant trait is not always the most
common trait. For example, it was more common to not have dimples, which is the recessive
form of the trait. Today we did a Baby Traits lab where students flipped a coin to
determine if their "baby" received a dominant (heads) or recessive (tails) trait. They then
combined mom and dad's alleles together to determine the genotype of their offspring for
each trait. Once all the traits were determined by coin flipping, they got to draw their
baby with the traits that they flipped for.

This section is filled with a lot of vocabulary which we practice constantly in

class. Below are the list of vocabulary we have been working on while completing practice
problems and answering questions on heredity. Over the weekend students should
complete a vocabulary worksheet to help them reinforce the definitions of these words.
This worksheet is due on Tuesday.
Heterozygous: hybrid, two different alleles for a trait (Rr)
 Homozygous: purebred, two of the same alleles for a trait (RR or rr)
Allele: Different forms of a gene; can be dominant or recessive; one letter passed
from a parent
Dominant: this trait always shows up when an allele is present
Recessive: this kind of trait can be hidden by a dominant allele

Announcements:

We have a school minion store on Fridays for students to buy items with their
minion money. If you ever have left over candy, small toys, fun pencils or any other items
you want out of your house, I am always looking for donations to keep the store
stocked. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

Coming Up:

Topics:

Punnett Squares
Artificial Selection

Dates:

March 17, 20, 21 MISA (Science test) for 8th grade

March 22 - Orchestra Festival
March 22 6th Grade Field Trip to see Titanic at Good Counsel HS
March 27 - Tech Week begins for the play
March 28 - Band Festival
March 29-31 Chesapeake Bay Trip I will be out of the building
March 31 - Play performance in the morning (8:45-12:15)
March 31 - Hairspray Jr. Play at 7:30 pm
April 1 Hairspray Jr. play at 7:30 pm
April 2 Hairspray Jr. play at 2:00 pm
April 6 - 7th Grade Holocaust Speakers during 3rd period
April 6 Last Day of Quarter 3
April 7-17 Spring Break
April 18 First Day of Quarter 4
April 19 Town Hall Meetings
Period 1 Grade 6
Period 2 Grade 7
Period 3 Grade 8
 April 20 Spanish Classes Field Trip
April 24-28 Roadrunner Week
April 26 Spanish Classes Field Trip
April 27 Take Your Child to Work Day
April 28 Roadrunner Night