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The teacher told us that they students were just about to start a unit on genetics and heredity, so we decided to do an activity on genetics to introduce the material to them. First we reviewed what we learned last week and some of the kids remembered the word restoring force. Then we moved onto the lesson. First we asked the class what they knew about genetics and some students seemed to have some previous knowledge. Then we taught them about dominant and recessive genes. At first, the students did not quite understand the concept, but after doing the activity I think they had a better understanding. Each student was given a picture of a face which had the genes of the face listed underneath. Then each student had to write the genes of their face on a worksheet and then switch with the person next to them and write down the genes of their face. This part was a little confusing as the kids did not understand where and what they were supposed to write down. Also one of the students was supposed to be the mom and the other was supposed to be the dad and this causes a little bit of confusion for groups that didn't have one boy and one girl. Once everyone had filled out their worksheet, we explained that they were going to flip a coin and select the genes of the child of the two parents. This was also a little confusing to the kids and involved going around to each table and explaining the instructions better. Everyone eventually had all the genes of their child and then I handed out the key which said what features corresponded to what genes. The students were able to follow the key once I explained dominant and recessive genes again. In the end everyone produced a face that was created from two parents. We then discussed the similarities and differences between two faces from the same parents. Finally we briefly mentioned genetic engineering and how that can be helpful to create the best fruit and vegetables. Overall the activity was a little confusing and the teacher made a few suggestions on how to make it better, but I think it was a good activity to demonstrate genetics.
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