Investigating Human Traits Inheritance Investigating Human Traits

Investigating Human Traits Key Question: What do we inherit from our parents? Initial Thoughts:

Evidence 1: Notes Has anyone ever told you that you have your mother’s or father’s eyes? Or have you ever wondered why the children in a certain family look so similar? These similarities not only occur in people, but in plants and animals as well. This is called HEREDITY.

Heredity Heredity is the process of passing on traits from parents to offspring. These are called inherited traits.

What are Traits? Characteristic vs. Trait Characteristic - i.e. Eye Color Trait - different versions of a characteristic; i.e. brown, blue, green How much variation is shown in our class?

Inherited Traits vs Acquired Traits Inherited Traits: traits you are born with. Acquired Traits: skills that you have learned over time.

Evidence 2: Inventory of Traits Detached earlobes Cleft chin Tongue rolling Allergies Dimples Left thumb over right Right-handed Color Blindness Freckles Widow’s peak Curly Hair

Trait: Not Attached vs. Attached Earlobes http://www.edquest.ca/Projects/GHTS/FET.jpg http://student.biology.arizona.edu/sciconn/heredity/graphics/nolobe.gif

Trait: Tongue Rolling http://www.ncrtec.org/tl/camp/gene/curl.jpg

Trait: Dimples

Trait: Right-Handed

Trait: Freckles http://www.szarvas.org/freckles.jpg

Trait: Curly Hair http://www.szarvas.org/freckles.jpg

Trait: Cleft Chin

Trait: Allergies

Trait: Thumb Position

Trait: Sees colors red and green

Trait: Widow’s Peak or Straight No peak! http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=student.biology.arizona.edu/sciconn/heredity/graphics/widow2.gif&imgrefurl=http://student.biology.arizona.edu/sciconn/heredity/worksheet_heredity.html&h=131&w=100&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwidow%2527s%2Bpeak%26start%3D20%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN

Trait Survey Complete the Inventory of My Traits Survey. Complete the An Inventory of My Traits – Data Chart Complete the Inventory of My Traits - Graph

Human Traits Number of People Traits

Misconceptions Many people think that dominant traits are more common than recessive traits. A dominant trait is not necessarily more common. A recessive trait is not necessarily rarer.

Analysis Questions What is the conclusion of your graph? What would happen if you were able to ask more people? List your individual traits.

Summary What did you think about the variation of human traits before this lesson? What does your evidence show you that you learned about the variation of human traits? What are some thoughts or questions you have about human traits?

Reflection Create an analogy for characteristics and traits.

Big Idea We inherit genes from our parents which result in us having different traits.