1. Main Ideas Members of the same family often resemble one another. A family tree may be used to analyze how family members are related to one another. People who are not related may share certain physical traits. All living things demonstrate four essential properties of life.

2. What is Genetics? -The study of heredity -How characteristics are passed down from parents to offspring. What is Heredity? -The process of passing on traits from parents to offspring. -Children inherit their parents genes.

3. Four Essential Properties of Life Self-Preservation: Staying Alive; obtaining energy to live and grow Self-Regulation: The control of life processes, such as respiration (breathing) Self-Organization: Forming grouping and repairing body cells Self-Reproduction: Making new life of the same kind (humans from humans, whales from whales, etc).

4. What is a geneticist? -A scientist who studies genes and heredity. Important geneticists – Gregor Mendel Francis Crick and James Watson RC Punnett

5. Vocabulary Family Tree – A diagram used to show how individual members of a family are related. Generation – A stage in a family’s line of descent that includes all of the individuals born within one life cycle.

6. Vocabulary Gene - A specific sequence of DNA inherited from your parents; controls transmission and expression of one or more traits (like green eyes). Genome – ALL the genetic material of an organism. Inherited Traits – Genetically determined characteristics of individuals. Acquired Traits – Characteristics NOT determined by genetic factors.