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his resource describes an inquiry-based, in-class exercise designed for students working in small groups. It is designed to review and enrich student understanding of probability, how probabilities of individual events can be combined to make predictions about more complex outcomes, and how observed data can be compared to a null model based on probabilities using a chi-squared test. These skills are used extensively for classical genetic analysis. Throughout the activity, peers and instructors guide students through the process of developing and solving problems using probabilities and chi-squared tests in small groups.

An innovative new breeding simulation helps reveal genetic ratios in offspring. With the heredity level of the ConnectedBio Multi-Level Simulation (MLS), students breed pairs of mice with different fur colors and observe the phenotypic ratios in the resulting offspring. The goal of this activity is to demystify the science behind Punnett Squares and encourage students to explore data and statistical representations in genetics and heredity.

Paul Andersen shows you how to calculate the ch-squared value to test your null hypothesis. He explains the importance of the critical value and defines the degrees of freedom. He also leaves you with a problem related to the animal behavior lab. This analysis is required in the AP Biology classroom.

Learn the steps to completing a dihybrid cross! This video will show how to set up everyone's favorite 16 square Punnett square. This video uses vocabulary that was previously defined in the Amoeba Sisters Monohybrid Crosses video.

12 min video punnett squares intro

This set of mini cases on the ecology of eastern cottontail rabbits is designed to give students practical experience using statistics in a scientific context. Given a dataset and experimental design, groups of students are asked to play the part of a wildlife management researcher to determine the results for each study. Students practice the scientific process and gain experience making hypotheses and predictions, choosing an appropriate statistical test, interpreting and displaying results, and presenting data to others. Students choose between four basic, commonly used, statistical tests (t-test, one-way ANOVA, linear regression, and Chi-square test), and justify their choices. This activity was developed for undergraduate level students and is applicable to biology courses, particularly those dealing with ecology or management. The case is designed for student groups, but could be modified into clicker questions or individual assignments.

Learn how to set up and solve a genetic problem involving multiple alleles using ABO blood types as an example! The Amoeba Sisters walk you through the different phenotypes/genotypes of ABO blood types and how to solve these problems using a Punnett square.

This PowerPoint-driven, flipped case study begins with a short video about a woman suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF) in the 1970s, a friend of the lead author's, whom she met in college and who died in her twenties. Hooked by this personal story, students then delve into the genetics and biology of cystic fibrosis as they learn about the difference between dominant and recessive genes, make Punnett squares that depict various types of inheritance, distinguish between probability and actual numbers, differentiate types of mutations, and learn about the opportunistic infections that CF patients often succumb to.  Students conclude the case by watching two additional videos on chest compression machines and the contemporary life expectancy of patients with CF.  In addition to the scientific content presented in the case, it is hoped that students will empathize with, and be motivated by, the young people presented in the videos as they struggle with a very real, incurable disease deeply rooted in genetics.

Interactive genetics site.  Straight forward games based on Punnett squares using bunny families.

This interrupted case study introduces basic modeling to investigate a decline in an American marten population on an island in Southeast Alaska. Two summer field technicians working on a long-term field ecology project for one of their professors notice that there are fewer marten captures this year. Through discussions with their professor, conversations with a local fur trapper, and based on their own observations, they develop a plan to model the population and the potential causes of the decline to solve the mystery. Students use Excel or other database software along with life tables and introductory population ecology to investigate three potential causes of the marten population decline. This case was developed for use in an environmental science or wildlife management course but could also be used in an advanced science high school course or general ecology course. It would be beneficial for students to have some background in statistics including how to interpret R-squared values, p-values, and 95% confidence intervals.

4:00 video, Our skin is the largest organ in our bodies, with a surface area of about 20 square feet in adults. When we are cut or wounded, our skin begins to repair itself through a complex, well-coordinated process. Sarthak Sinha takes us past the epidermis and into the dermis to investigate this regenerative response. 

Our skin is the largest organ in our bodies, with a surface area of about 20 square feet in adults. When we are cut or wounded, our skin begins to repair itself through a complex, well-coordinated process. Sarthak Sinha takes us past the epidermis and into the dermis to investigate this regenerative response.

President Obama approved a bill on Monday banning soaps, toothpastes, and bodywashes that contain a harmful ingredient. That ingredient is microbeads - tiny, nearly impossible-to-dissolve plastic particles that enter water streams by the billions. The beads are typically found in cleansing products because they can be used as tiny scrubbers, helping to wipe away oil and dirt from the skin or teeth. A recent study found as many as 1.7 million of the tiny particles per square kilometer in the Great Lakes region's Lake Erie, where much of our trash ends up.

Comprehensive tutorial site.

Explore inheritance when carried on the X chromosome with the Amoeba Sisters!

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