So today was one of those days when the kids had a MILLION questions. I wish I had the time to address them all, and that I knew all of the answers. They are so curious about why they look the way they do!
I did explain that we are currently only looking at traits in pea plants...and those are distinct. We discussed how traits such as height are controlled by an interaction of four genes along with environmental influences. We discussed how skin color is also controlled by multiple genes, and that's why two parents can have a variety of "shades" in their children (just look at my pale Irish boy and my slightly darker Italian boy).
And hair color, this is why the hair color can vary so much!
http://www.ehow.com/about_6653824_hair-colors-inherited_.html
They are hooked, which is good! I love it when the kids are interested. It makes my day! Soon (maybe tomorrow, if we have time) we will be planting some tomato seeds...and some of them are MUTANTS!! Then when they grow, we will analyze the seedlings to find out if they are mutant or not...and then we will be looking at the alleles.
What's an allele? I guess you will just have a few more days until your kids will be PROS at explaining alleles to you!
STUDY FOR THE MIDTERM
FINISH READING 3.1, and ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS ON p 81
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