My students need Crazy Traits to learn about traits people and animals inherit from their parents. Concepts of traits, alleles, genotypes, and phenotypes are explored.
Do you remember the first time you were asked to interpret the concept of traits and heredity in Biology class? My students think they are not excited about learning, but when Crazy Traits are introduced, they cannot wait to come to class each day to learn about these important topics.
My students are from middle to low income homes.
Many are 1st generation Americans who never spoke a word of English until they entered school. Many of my students are also inter-district transfer students from an inner city in Missouri. Our school will cost almost as much to fix everything that needs to be fixed as it would to build an entirely new school.
These students are amazing once they become inspired to learn about the fascinating topics of genetics and adapting to survive. They are very inquisitive and want to learn more to understand why certain traits-once inherited-allow different animals to survive in our ever-changing world.
My Project
What role does chance play in an organism’s heredity? Crazy Traits is a fun and innovative manipulative to help students learn about genetics and adaptations. Through a series of games and activities they learn that the traits people and animals inherit from their parents are based on chance. Student will be able to see "living" examples of the concepts such as traits, alleles, genotypes, and phenotypes. Once using the Crazy Traits to learn about how their traits are inherited, students will then be able to play a game of, "If this were me, would I survive?" It is amazing how excited the students get about learning what traits are important to have in the artificial environments that exist in the game. They recognize-because of the game-that some traits are better to have than others depending on the environment in which they live.
Students walk away from this project with an enduring understanding of how they inherit traits from their parents, why some traits are more valuable than others when placed in different environments and an overall excitement for learning about Science that they wouldn’t have gained had it not been for experiencing the activities in these lessons with these manipulatives.
More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Waldhauser and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.