Create a lesson plan about Mendelian genetics and transgene inheritance for students across the English- speaking world. Get students thinking critically about the science of inheritance and the ethical implications of genetic engineering. Overall provide a challenging educational experience for kids.

Methods Met three times over the month of April to put together three main parts of our project: Background information for the students, expanded upon for the teacher with extra explanation and more examples. A worksheet to test students’ understanding as they work to determine the parents of a pictured cross. An answer key, for obvious reasons.

 These are the photographed progeny of the cross we chose. Homozygous red and hemizygous blue parents are not shown. Templating courtesy of Dr. Liang.

 Short review of key concepts in Mendelian genetics  Introduction to transgenes as a concept and transgene nomenclature  Brief mention of genetic engineering and application of transgenic organisms, including GloFish (pets)  All topics expanded upon for the teacher with so that students can ask for help if they need it but smarter students are not bogged down by excessive explanation.

Results (Worksheet) The worksheet we created asks a number of questions designed to get students to apply their knowledge towards determining the parents of the GloFish cross pictured earlier. Instead of making students figure out the parents from scratch, we provided three possible pairs and had students make Punnett Squares for each one and see which one matched the pictured cross.

Worksheet (cont.) We also asked students to come up with arguments for and against genetic engineering. We offer a suggestion for the teacher to allow students to access the Internet. It is important that people, especially younger people, not only understand what can be done with science, but also what should be done. Then we also made an answer key, again, for obvious reasons.

Conclusions In summary, we hope we’ve created something good here. What did we learn? Going back and having to think about middle school = having to remember middle school = not fun. Writing to teach others ≠ writing to demonstrate your own knowledge to a class or a professor. Procrastination in library study rooms = very easy.

Questions?