1. Collecting Data For Inherited Characteristics
D. Crowley, 2007

2. Collecting Data For Inherited Characteristics
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Collecting Data For Inherited Characteristics
To be able to collect, and use data, about inherited characteristics

3. Inherited Or Not?
Below is a picture of a family, plus a table of features (the girls are identical twins)
The features include some which are inherited, and others which are strongly affected by the environment
Mum
Dad
Jane
Becky
Eye colour
Brown
Blue
Freckles
Few
Many
Weight (kg) 64 80 40 55
Height (cm)
168
180
148
Shoe size 5 9
Hair colour
Black
Blonde
Hair texture
Curly
Straight
Hair length
Long
Short

4. Inherited Or Not? Inherited Environmental
Produce two lists - one containing all the inherited features, and one containing all the environmental features
Mum
Dad
Jane
Becky
Eye colour
Brown
Blue
Freckles
Few
Many
Weight (kg) 64 80 40 55
Height (cm)
168
180
148
Shoe size 5 9
Hair colour
Black
Blonde
Hair texture
Curly
Straight
Hair length
Long
Short
Inherited
eye colour;
freckles;
height;
shoe size;
hair colour;
hair texture
Environmental
weight;
length of hair

5. Collecting Data
How could you design an experiment to find out what if a characteristic is inherited?
What would you need to know?
Key information to collect is data from yourself as well as from your biological parents
It is also important to get a large amount of data for accuracy

6. Collecting Data
Your task is to collect enough data which you can then analyse, and tabulate to give you an indication of whether a characteristic is inherited or not
You need to identify a few characteristics to tabulate to answer this question
Possible characteristics to collect data on: -
Eye colour
Hair colour
Tongue roller
Height

7. Results
Using the table, collect data from within the class about inherited features. Once you have done this, analyse the data and answer the questions (add the data to the class results)!
Draw a bar chart to represent the information (x axis will have feature; y axis for no. in class (higher: represent this as a %)
Finally answer the questions: what can you conclude? Are these all inherited characteristics?
Was the experiment fair? How could this be improved upon?

8. Results
Data suggests all the characteristics are inherited, as most of the features present in the child were present in one or both of their parents.
Height was the least significant in terms of being inherited, however this is probably due to the age of the child, and the fact they are still growing