1. This is Gregor Mendel. He was a monk who lived in Austria.

2. This is
Mendel’s
garden.

3. Mendel grew peas. Many peas.

4. He liked peas a lot. Here are some of his jars of peas.

5. He knew peas reproduced sexually (with and egg
and pollen), and he began to control what peas
crossed with other peas.

6. “Funny,” he thought. “Some of my peas
are tall. Some are short.”

7. “If I cross a tall pea with a short pea, I get only
tall peas.”

8. Mendel, a friend, and his tall peas.

9. “But when I take two tall pea children from
that cross and mix them, I get some tall and
some short. Hmmm….”

10. Mendel
Started
Adding.

11. He started counting
all of the short peas
he got, and all of the
tall peas.
He seems very puzzled
in this photo.

12. Gregor Mendel is called “The father of modern genetics” because of his
work breeding and analyzing peas
in the 1800’s.
He looked
carefully at his numbers, and
thought hard about:
PROBABILITY- the chance something
will happen. Expressed in percentage
or fraction or ratio. Ex. 25% or 1/4 or 1:3