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Ms. Marino’s Classroom Edit display name

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If you walked into my classroom, you would see students with brown hair, curly hair, blonde hair, green eyes, wavy hair, dark skin, light skin, etc. Genetic inheritance everywhere! Each of my students has inherited a set of genes from their biological mother and set from their biological father, with different versions of the same gene being called alleles. Some are the spitting image of their family members, and others have no idea who they got their looks from. They also share patterns of health with their family members. Those characteristics are harder to spot, but follow the same basic laws of Mendelian genetics. My students want to see gene inheritance in action! The most straightforward way for them to explore inheritance patterns is to breed Wisconsin Fast plants (Brassica rapa) in our classroom. Fast plants have a short life cycle, so they can be grown in our classroom in no time. There are standard fast plants, purple-stem fast plants, rosette-dwarf fast plants, ones with hairs on their leaves, ones with variegated leaves, etc. Because fast plants do not self-pollinate, students can breed different plants together, each with different alleles, to grow plants with unique characteristics. Fast plants love continuous light and thrive under these ideal growing conditions. We don't have any windows! That is where the plant growth cart comes in. The plant growth cart has 4 shelves, one for each of my four sections. The lights on the cart are adjustable, so students can find the perfect growing conditions for their plants. My students will take care of their plants throughout the entire 45-day life cycle. They will plant their parent seeds, care for them through the germination process, pollinate their plants, harvest seeds, and grow the second generation and look for patterns of Mendelian gene inheritance.

About my class

If you walked into my classroom, you would see students with brown hair, curly hair, blonde hair, green eyes, wavy hair, dark skin, light skin, etc. Genetic inheritance everywhere! Each of my students has inherited a set of genes from their biological mother and set from their biological father, with different versions of the same gene being called alleles. Some are the spitting image of their family members, and others have no idea who they got their looks from. They also share patterns of health with their family members. Those characteristics are harder to spot, but follow the same basic laws of Mendelian genetics. My students want to see gene inheritance in action! The most straightforward way for them to explore inheritance patterns is to breed Wisconsin Fast plants (Brassica rapa) in our classroom. Fast plants have a short life cycle, so they can be grown in our classroom in no time. There are standard fast plants, purple-stem fast plants, rosette-dwarf fast plants, ones with hairs on their leaves, ones with variegated leaves, etc. Because fast plants do not self-pollinate, students can breed different plants together, each with different alleles, to grow plants with unique characteristics. Fast plants love continuous light and thrive under these ideal growing conditions. We don't have any windows! That is where the plant growth cart comes in. The plant growth cart has 4 shelves, one for each of my four sections. The lights on the cart are adjustable, so students can find the perfect growing conditions for their plants. My students will take care of their plants throughout the entire 45-day life cycle. They will plant their parent seeds, care for them through the germination process, pollinate their plants, harvest seeds, and grow the second generation and look for patterns of Mendelian gene inheritance.

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About my class

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