Welcome to the Mendel Page!
This page contains 3 topics that will help you learn more about Gregor Mendel and his experiments. Each topic contains a brief introdcution and online actvities. At the end of each topic there is an activity for you to complete and turn in to your teacher. You can identify these activities by looking for the orange check. 
Topic 1: Explain the relationship between traits and heredity.
Genetics is the science of genes and heredity. Inside the nucleus of all your body cells are 23 pairs of chromosomes. Each chromosome carries hundreds to thousands of genes on it. Each gene describes some of your traits. Your hair color, eye color, allergies, body shape, your health, tastes, and on and on. These are all traits described by your genes. The genes describe these traits with a kind of code - a genetic code. This genetic code is written on your DNA which is located inside the nucleus of your cells. Heredity is how we pass these coded traits on to our children.
Watch Tour the Basics: What is Heredity? Be sure to click on the question along the top that says “What is Heredity?” http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/tour/
Complete the 3-2-1 Exit Ticket . You are welcome to re-watch the video to help you with this.
Topic 2: Describe the experiments of Gregor Mendel.
Gregor Mendel was an Austrian monk. He experimented with pea plants in the mid-1800's. He kept track of a number of traits over several generations, including: color of the seeds, plant height, whether the pod was smooth or wrinkled, and the shape of seeds. Over time, he noticed that certain plants produced new plants that were similar to the parents. For example, short "parent" plants produced more short plants, and tall "parent" plants have tall offspring. When he bred plants with different traits, he found patterns in the appearance of the new plants. He concluded that some genes are dominant and other ones are recessive. Dominant genes hide other genes that are present, and the recessive traits will not appear. Traits represented by recessive genes will only appear when the dominant gene is not present.
Use these websites to learn more about Gregor Mendel and his pea plants.
Gregor Mendel’s Genetics Discoveries with Peas http://www.exploringnature.org/db/detail.php?dbID=22&detID=54
Wikipedia: Gregor Mendel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Mendel
Gregor Mendel (1822-1884) http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BC/Gregor_Mendel.php
Your textbook (Holt: Life Science) is also a good resource for information on Gregor Mendel starting on page 114.
Complete Mendel’s Scientific Method. You may work on this with a partner.
Topic 3: Explain the difference between dominant and recessive traits.
Genes contain information about a specific characteristic or trait and can either be dominant or recessive. Genes are found on chromosomes, but not all copies of a gene are identical. The different form of a gene is called an allele. Allele’s are represented using capital letters (dominant) and lower case letters (recessive). When the alleles are identical, the individual is homozygous for that trait. If the pair is made of two different alleles, the individual is heterozygous. A homozygous pair can be either dominant (AA, BB) or recessive (aa, bb). Heterozygous pairs are made up of one dominant and one recessive allele (Aa, Bb). In heterozygous individuals only the dominant allele is expressed, while the other allele, the recessive, is hidden but still present. Remember: Capital letters represent dominant genes and lower case letters represent recessive genes.
What does all this mean? Let’s look at an example: In bunny rabbits, brown fur color is dominant over white fur color. We would represent a brown allele with an uppercase “B”. We would represent a white allele with a lowercase “b”. If a baby bunny rabbit inherited two dominant alleles “BB”, his fur color would be brown. If the baby bunny rabbit inherited one dominant and one recessive allele “Bb”, his fur color would still be brown. This is because the dominant allele would cover up or hide the recessive allele. Finally, if the baby bunny rabbit inherited two recessive alleles “bb” he would have white fur. White fur would only be possible if no dominant allele was present.
Watch Tour the Basics: What is a trait? http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/tour/
Follow the link and watch the image slideshow called “OBSERVABLE TRAITS”. Be sure to identify which traits you express. You may need to ask a shoulder partner for assistance. http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/traits/
A Tree of Genetic Traits: Your teacher will give you a genetic “leaf” to fill out. When you are finished place it on the correct branch of the class genetic tree.
Culminating Activity
Create one of the following describing the experiments of Gregor Mendel: How-to-Manual, Imaginary Diary, Documentary, Song, or Resume. You may produce your project using Power Point, Moviemaker, or Word. Be sure to review the rubric before you begin, so you know how you will be assessed.