Virtual Galápagos
Unit 4 Lesson 1: DNA and Inheritance of Traits
Tortoise Curriculum Lesson Plan
LEARNING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:
- Goal 1: Students will be able to create a species by drawing and describing three traits it possesses. Then, students will explain how the included traits help the species to survive in a specific environment/ecosystem.
- Goal 2: Students will be able to define “trait” and “species”
- Goal 3: Students will be able to model how traits are inherited when parents pass their DNA down to their offspring and how genetic variation increases with each successive generation.
- Goal 4: Students will be able to understand the role of DNA in inheritance of traits.
STANDARDS
Next Generation Science Standards
- 3-LS3-2: Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment.
- 3-LS3-1: Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS
- Trait: a physical characteristic of a living thing
- Species: a group of living things that look similar to one another and can reproduce
- DNA: genetic material that gives the information for how living things build themselves
- Inheritance: each parent’s DNA is duplicated and then ½ of the DNA from each parent is passed down to the offspring(children) through the process of inheritance
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
- Students will know that living things are unique and different from one another.
ADVANCE PREP FOR TEACHER KNOWLEDGE
DNA is the genetic material that codes for specific traits in our bodies. DNA is duplicated through a process called meiosis and is passed down from parents to offspring. Mutations occur in DNA, so no one has identical DNA (even identical twins).
MATERIALS AND SETUP
- Virtual Galápagos Ancestry Unit Interactive Game:
- Virtual Galápagos Fieldbook
- Pom-pom Inheritance activity materials:
- Four different colors of pom-poms (each set-up will need 6 pom-poms of each color)
- Coffee filters (10 filters for each set-up)
- Colored pencils/markers that correspond with the colors of the pom-poms
LESSON SEQUENCE
ENGAGE
- Students watch the video that introduces the module, and encourages students to consider whether Becki and Tomás are related to each other.
- Students make an initial claim as to whether or not Becki and Tomás are related on their Scientific Field Notes page at designated pauses during the video.
EXPLORE
- Students create a species in step 1 of the “Build-a-Species” activity.
EXPLAIN
- Students watch the Species and Traits video.
- Then, students write definitions of a species and a trait in step 2 of the “Build-a-Species” handout. We suggest giving students time to discuss the definitions with their classmates (in partners or as a whole class) afterward.
- Next, students complete steps 3 and 4 of the “Build-a-Species” handout where they explain how the species traits help them to survive.
- After, students watch the DNA video and record the given information using the “DNA Video Guided Notes” worksheet.
- Again, we recommend that the teacher assess students’ understandings of the video by giving students time to discuss what they learned, their ideas, questions, and curiosities afterwards. One way to accomplish this is by using an anchor chart, and students can write down their thoughts on post-it notes and place them on the anchor chart. This way, all students can participate in sharing their ideas without having to be called upon.
ELABORATE
- The elaborate piece of this lesson plan is the Pom-Pom inheritance activity where students demonstrate how traits are inherited when parents pass their DNA down to their offspring and how genetic variation increases with each successive generation.
- This activity is intended to be completed in small groups of ideally 4 students. One student should take on the role of the “reader” and they are responsible for reading the instruction steps aloud to their group members. Another student should be the “notetaker” and they are responsible for recording what color pom-poms are randomly selected and placed in each coffee filter by coloring in the spaces of the pie chart in the handout accordingly. Lastly, one more student should be the “pom-pom mover”. This student is responsible for listening to the instructions and moving the pom-poms accordingly in the model.
- All of the following is explained on the student instruction handout as well.
- First, students will get 10 coffee filters and label each one: grandparent 1, grandparent 2, grandparent 3, grandparent 4, parent 1, parent 2, child 1, child 2, child 3, child 4.
- Students should separate the coffee filters into two groups; group one includes grandparents 1 and 2 and parent 1. Group two includes grandparents 3 and 4 and parent 2.
- Students place six pom-poms of the same color in the grandparent 1 coffee filter.
- Students repeat with a different color for each of the other grandparents (in other words, each grandparent should have one color of pom-pom, but every grandparent is a different color).
- Students should color the corresponding pie chart on the Pom-Pom Inheritance worksheet with the color of each grandparent.
- Each section/slice of the pie chart represents 1 pom-pom.
- Starting with group one, students blindly pick three pom-poms from grandparent one and two and place them in parent one’s coffee filter.
- Next, move to group two and blindly pick three pom-poms from grandparents three and four and place them in parent two’s coffee filter.
- Now, students should color the corresponding circles to parents one and two with the colors of their pom-poms.
- Then, students blindly pick three pom-poms from parents one and two and place them into child one’s coffee filter.
- Color the corresponding circle on the worksheet.
- Return the pom-poms to parents one and two.
- Repeat this process three more times and each time, color the corresponding circle with the colors of the pom-poms.
- The pom-poms represent traits being passed down. Blindly picking the pom-poms represents how living things don’t get to choose what traits they inherit.
- Potentially useful resource introducing DNA mutations:
EVALUATE
- Students complete the Pom-Pom Inheritance questions after finishing the activity, either as a small group or individually.
- Students watch the video that transitions to the next lesson.
DIFFERENTIATION
- For the Pom-Pom inheritance activity, students can work together to complete the activity, taking on different roles.
- For all activities, it is always an option, up to the teacher’s discretion, for some or all students to respond to the questions verbally, or in another form besides writing, with each other or with the teacher.
ASSESSMENT
- Teachers can give students adequate time to return to their “My Scientific Field Notes: Ancestry” handout and follow the CER (claims, evidence, reasoning, and revision) guided thinking to work towards coming up with an answer to the ancestry module mystery question of “Are Becki and Tomás related?”
- Students can further reflect on their own learning by using the “comprehension, confusions, and curiosities” chart provided.
- Teachers can print out additional charts if wanted or use alternative student reflection tools. Then, teachers can collect students’ field books after each lesson in the module and assess their comprehension, confusions, and curiosities thus far.
This unit was designed by Regan Todd and Andrew Lass, and edited by Ava Wojtaszek and Sarah Jekel.
You can download the lesson plan here:
Virtual Galápagos
virtualgalapagos.colgate.edu
