Details
| Type of Product: | Science Object |
| Publication Title: | Heredity and Variation SciPack |
| Publication Date: | 10/2/2012 |
| Grade Level: | Elementary School, Middle School, High School |
Description
Science Objects are two hour on-line interactive inquiry-based content modules that help teachers better understand the science content they teach. This Science Object is the second of three Science Objects in the Heredity and Variation SciPack. It explores sexual reproduction and the process of meiosis.
We now know that structures and functions at the molecular and cellular levels provide the mechanism for reproduction and the continuity of species. Instructions for development are passed from parents to offspring in thousands of discrete genes, each of which is a segment of a molecule of DNA. An organism’s particular genetic information, coded in its DNA (genotype), contains genes that provide the information necessary to assemble proteins. Offspring of asexual organisms inherit all of the parent's genes. In organisms that reproduce sexually, specialized female and male sex cells (gametes) are formed during a process of cell division called meiosis. Each of these sex cells contains a random half of the parent's genetic information.
When a particular male gamete fuses with a particular female gamete during fertilization, they form a cell with one complete set of paired chromosomes, a combination of one half-set from each parent. This random combining of gametes and their chromosomes during fertilization results in millions of different possible combinations of genes, which causes the offspring genotypes to vary from their parents’. Some of the new gene combinations make little difference in the ability of the offspring to reproduce or survive, some can produce organisms with capabilities that enhance their ability to survive and reproduce, and some can be deleterious, resulting in an inability to survive and/or reproduce.
Learning Outcomes:
- Distinguish among the following structures by describing their relationship to one another: DNA, chromosomes, genes, and alleles.
- Describe the role genes play in the production of proteins and defining the phenotype of an organism.
- Compare and contrast the DNA in cells produced during asexual reproduction versus the DNA in gametes produced during meiosis.
- Indentify and describe those steps within the process of meiosis that explain the random distribution of genotypes among offspring resulting from sexual reproduction.
- Explain how the recombination of the allele pairs for individual genes during sexual reproduction results in phenotypic variation among offspring.
Ideas For Use
Science Objects are two hour learning experiences teachers can use to enhance their understanding of a particular scientific concept. Teachers can access any topic “on demand” from the Internet. Topics are based on the science literacy goals in the national standards (NSES, Science for All Americans, Benchmarks, and the Atlas of Scientific Literacy) and tied to state standards.
Each Science Object provides an understanding of the science content by providing a structured set of learning experiences through simulations and practice assessments. Science Objects challenge teachers to explore and explain real world phenomena and are founded on the principle that learners must be challenged with a problem, observation, data, etc., in order to develop scientific understanding. Science Objects utilize the five phases of inquiry-based learning: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate
Learning Outcomes:
- Distinguish among the following structures by describing their relationship to one another: DNA, chromosomes, genes, and alleles.
- Describe the role genes play in the production of proteins and defining the phenotype of an organism.
- Compare and contrast the DNA in cells produced during asexual reproduction versus the DNA in gametes produced during meiosis.
- Indentify and describe those steps within the process of meiosis that explain the random distribution of genotypes among offspring resulting from sexual reproduction.
- Explain how the recombination of the allele pairs for individual genes during sexual reproduction results in phenotypic variation among offspring.
Additional Info
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Science Discipline:
(mouse over for full classification)
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Scientists and inventors
Careers
Fields of science
Nucleic acids
Cellular structures
Chromosomes
DNA
Genes
Protein synthesis
Asexual reproduction
Sexual reproduction
Analyzing data
Asking questions
Collecting data
Communicating
Hypothesizing
Interpreting data
Observing
Predicting
Using mathematics
Using scientific equipment
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| Intended User Role: | Elementary-Level Educator, High-School Educator, Middle-Level Educator, New Teacher, Teacher |
| Educational Issues: | Inquiry learning, Professional development, Teacher content knowledge, Teacher preparation, Teaching strategies |
Technical
| Resource Format: | application/x-shockwave-flash, audio/mp3, text/html, video/quicktime |
| Requirements: | Requires Macromedia Flash Player and Apple Quicktime Player |
National Standards Correlation
This resource has 29 correlations with the National Standards.
[HIDE CORRELATIONS]
- Life Science
- Life cycles of organisms
- Plants and animals closely resemble their parents. (K-4)
- Structure and function in living systems
- Cells carry on the many functions needed to sustain life. They grow and divide, thereby producing more cells. (5-8)
- Reproduction and heredity
- Reproduction is a characteristic of all living systems; because no individual organism lives forever, reproduction is essential to the continuation of every species. (5-8)
- Some organisms reproduce asexually (5-8)
- Some organisms reproduce sexually. (5-8)
- In many species, including humans, females produce eggs and males produce sperm. (5-8)
- Plants also reproduce sexually--the egg and sperm are produced in the flowers of flowering plants. (5-8)
- An egg and sperm unite to begin development of a new individual. That new individual receives genetic information from its mother (via the egg) and its father (via the sperm). (5-8)
- Sexually produced offspring never are identical to either of their parents. (5-8)
- Every organism requires a set of instructions for specifying its traits (5-8)
- Heredity is the passage of these instructions from one generation to another. (5-8)
- A human cell contains many thousands of different genes. (5-8)
- Each gene carries a single unit of information. (5-8)
- An inherited trait of an individual can be determined by one or by many genes, and a single gene can influence more than one trait. (5-8)
- Hereditary information is contained in genes, located in the chromosomes of each cell. (5-8)
- The characteristics of an organism can be described in terms of a combination of traits. (5-8)
- The cell
- Cells store and use information to guide their functions. (9-12)
- The genetic information stored in DNA is used to direct the synthesis of the thousands of proteins that each cell requires. (9-12)
- Molecular basis of heredity
- In all organisms, the instructions for specifying the characteristics of the organism are carried in DNA, a large polymer formed from subunits of four kinds (A, G, C, and T). (9-12)
- The chemical and structural properties of DNA explain how the genetic information that underlies heredity is both encoded in genes (as a string of molecular "letters") and replicated (by a templating mechanism). (9-12)
- Each DNA molecule in a cell forms a single chromosome. (9-12)
- Most of the cells in a human contain two copies of each of 22 different chromosomes. (9-12)
- In human cells, there is a pair of chromosomes that determines sex: a female contains two X chromosomes and a male contains one X and one Y chromosome. (9-12)
- Transmission of genetic information to offspring occurs through egg and sperm cells that contain only one representative from each chromosome pair. An egg and a sperm unite to form a new individual. (9-12)
- The fact that the human body is formed from cells that contain two copies of each chromosome--and therefore two copies of each gene--explains many features of human heredity, such as how variations that are hidden in one generation can be expressed in the next. (9-12)
- History and Nature of Science
- Science as a human endeavor
- Science and technology have been practiced by people for a long time.
- Men and women have made a variety of contributions throughout the history of science and technology.
- Doing science or engineering can be as simple as an individual conducting field studies or as complex as hundreds of people working on a major scientific question or technological problem. (9-12)
- Nature of science
- Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using observation, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models. Those ideas are not likely to change greatly in the future. (5-8)
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