Unit 7 Reflections: Worksheets Galore

Holy worksheets!  Unit 7 could be re-titled "the unit of a thousand exercises."  Or at least that's what it feels like.  Most of the units in the curriculum until this point have had less than five exercises. Unit 7 has nine!

Granted, they are pretty good worksheets, as far as worksheets go.  I really liked Exercise 3, which basically has students work through some of Mendel's pea plant data on their own and support Mendel's conclusions.  Challenging, but not too challenging.  Unit 7 doesn't bring up Mendel's name until well after we've discussed punnett squares.  I'm becoming a big fan of this pedagogical style-- students using what they've learned to support the findings of past influential scientists.  In my mind, it's far superior to the alternative of me rambling on about Mendel's laws, then trying to have the students apply them to real life.  The engagement level seems much higher-- students were much more willing to muddle through pea plant data when they already understood what should be going on.

The worksheets are broken up by some readings in The Cartoon Guide To Genetics by Larry Gonick and Mark Wheelis.

A few weeks ago, I ordered myself a copy of this from Barnes & Noble for $11.70... Barnes & Noble had the lowest total price when you included shipping.  Well, you get what you pay for.  My lovely book FINALLY arrived today ("arrives in 2-6 business days" yeah right).  While it looks like a nice enough book, I'm past the point of utilizing it this semester.  I'm looking forward to breaking it out next year.

Exercise 4 isn't actually a worksheet, but rather a genetic disorder research activity.  It also was a nice change of pace from the worksheets upon worksheets.  Groups are assigned one of six autosomal disorders:  Cystic Fibrosis, PKU, Tay Sachs, Huntington's, Polydactyly, and Sickle Cell Anemia.  The students in the group are to research the disorder and create a circle chart of the symptoms, genetic cause, treatment, and prognosis.

Exercise 4 Circle Chart

The students then presented this information to the class.  This was a nice, low key presentation that got everybody in the room talking and presenting, since I assigned each group member a "wedge" to research and present.  In my state standards "Checks for Understanding" section, it states that students should "Design an informational brochure to describe a human genetic disorder."  While not a brochure, I think this sufficed quite nicely, especially with limited time.

We then applied what we learned about genetic disorders to a way to track these disorders in a family (enter the pedigree chart).  We also introduced the concept of sex-linked.  I sent them home with the Hemophilia:  A Royal Disease reading and a couple questions.

Tomorrow is our last day of instruction for the SEMESTER.  Seriously.  Our state EOC exam will be administered next week.  Friday will be a review day, as well as whatever days next week that my students aren't missing for other subjects' EOC exams.

So tomorrow's plan is to apply a little more practice identifying autosomal vs. sex-linked in pedigree charts, briefly discuss dihybrid/polygenic crosses, and to bust through as many of exercises 5-9 as we can.  My early prediction is that we won't get through many...

Instead of the unit test, my students will just be taking a quiz on the unit due to lack of time.  This is the first time I have had to heavily modify one of the AMTA unit tests because I thought it was too rigorous for my students.  The test has a lot of differentiation between co-dominant and incomplete dominant.  While we covered those topics in the Potato Head Genetics activity, we just didn't have time to go into as much depth as I would have liked.  Instead, I substituted sample EOC questions on genetics, which lean more towards straight Mendelian crosses and pedigree charts.