Some Suggested Activities with the Simulations

Teachers at Madison West High School have developed a series of exercises to help students maximize their learning with the plant simulations (you can find suggested worksheets for these activities along at "PDF files"):

1. First, you can have students predict crosses for individual traits.

For example, you can have students fill out a prediction table before they do use the simulation:

Cross	Leaf color (must total 64)	Stem color (must total 64)
P1 x P1	Green = _____ Yellow = _____	Purple = _____ Green = _____
P2 x P2	Green = _____ Yellow = _____	Purple = _____ Green = _____
P1 x P2	Green = _____ Yellow = _____	Purple = _____ Green = _____
F1 x F1	Green = _____ Yellow = _____	Purple = _____ Green = _____
P1 x F1	Green = _____ Yellow = _____	Purple = _____ Green = _____
P2 x F1	Green = _____ Yellow = _____	Purple = _____ Green = _____

2. Then, students can perform those crosses with the simulation to evaluate their ability to predict the single trait genetics.

3. After the students examine the single trait cross, they can try to predict crosses for two traits.

For example, the students can fill out a prediction table similar to the one below:

Cross	Green leaves and Purple stems	Green leaves and Green stems	Yellow leaves and Purple stems	Yellow leaves and Green stems
P1 x P1
P2 x P2
P1 x P2
F1 x F1
P1 x F1
P2 x F1

4. Then, the students can perform these crosses with the simulation to evaluate their ability to predict two-trait genetics. Additionally, if students perform the crosses in the classroom with real plants, they can compare their experimental results to those predicted by the simulation.

5. After the students have successfully gained an understanding for Mendelian genetics, they can be asked some more challenging questions, such as: "Are all green leafed purple stemmed F2 plants the same 'on the inside'?" To further probe this question, the students can cross different Green leaf and Purple stem F2 plants with the same plant of known genotype (such as P1 or P2). Students can perform these crosses with the simulation and record their data using the table below:

Ideally, the students will see different and similar patterns when they cross the different Green leaf and Purple stem F2 plants. This result will help reveal to the students that the Green leaf and Purple stem plants may contain other genes which will only be revealed in their progeny.