Making A Face:

A Genetic Simulation Lab

Make a Face: Genetic Simulation Lab

Introduction:

Congratulations! You are going to simulate creating a baby! You have been given a page of chromosomes that represents YOUR chromosomes.

·  If you are representing the mother, color your chromosomes PINK.

·  If you are representing the father, color your chromosomes BLUE.

Cutting Out the Chromosomes

Step #1 Step #2 Step #3

Procedure:

1.  To start, we are going to pretend that both you and your partner are both HETEROZYGOUS for each trait (the dominant allele is on one side of your chromosome and the recessive allele is on the other side of your chromosome). This, of course is not accurate in real life, but this is a simulation.

2.  To determine the facial appearance of your child, you and your spouse will put all of your chromosomes into a beaker, shake them up, and (carefully!) drop your 23 pairs of chromosomes onto your desk. Each parent, mom and dad, donates one AND ONLY ONE of each of their 23 pairs of chromosomes, so the side that lands face up is the allele that you randomly “donate” to your child.

3.  After you’ve dropped your chromosomes, you and your partner both line them up according to size.

4.  Then, you will pair them up with your partner’s chromosomes, one at a time, until they are all matched up side by side.

5.  Record the genetic contributions (genotype) from each parent on the chart provided. Circle the resulting genotypes onto your data sheet. These are the genes that make up your new baby’s genotype. If your dropping of genes resulted in two “XX” chromosomes, then you are the very lucky parents of a little girl. If it resulted in an “Xy” combination of chromosomes, then you are the very lucky parents of a little boy!

6.  Translate the genotype into the phenotype (what your baby will look like) and record that onto your data sheet.

7.  Time passes, you get older, and your baby is growing up! What does your child look like when he or she is a teenager? Fast forward 15 years and make a full page, color drawing of your teenager’s face using your best drawing ability. Color is necessary as some of the genes produce pigment!

Making a Face: Genetic Simulation Questions

1.  What is the significance of only one or the pair of chromosomes ending its random journey facing up?

2.  When you and your partner pushed the like pairs of chromosomes together, what was the number of chromosomes before and after you pushed them together?______After? ______

3.  What does epistatis mean? Give an example.

4.  Hair color is polygenic. What does this mean?

5.  How is it that there are so many colors of skin?

6.  Take a look around at some of the “children” made in class today. How is there so much variation in the way they look if they come from the same parents?

7.  Explain why people that had the genotype “ll” had to skip the rest of the chin characteristics.

Self Scoring Rubric

TASK / OUTSTANDING / GOOD / POOR
DATA SHEET / 20: Complete, fully filled in, neat / 10: Partially filled in; sloppy. / 0: Blank or missing
QUESTIONS / 25: Complete, thoughtful answers, correct. / 15: Fully answered; answers short, inaccurate, and/or incomplete / 0: Blank or missing
DRAWING OF FACES / 35: Complete, accurate, colored, neatly done, creative. / 20: Mostly complete, mostly accurate, colored, some creativity. / 0-15: Incomplete, partially inaccurate, not colored.
COOPERATION & FOCUS / 10: Worked diligently, cooperatively with partner / 5: Lack of focus, not working cooperatively all the time. / 0: Disruptive, distracted, and/or did not work cooperatively with partner.
GRADE SHEET / 10: Filled in and totaled by student. / 3: Partially filled in, but not totaled. / 0: Not done.

TOTAL SCORE (100 POSSIBLE): ______

COMMENTS:

Draw Your Teen!