Making Faces
You are heterozygous for each trait on your
chromosomes. You will combine your alleles with a
classmate’s to see if your offspring look like you – and
hopefully not like this guy!
Partner up with a member of the opposite sex. If you are
left with a member of the same gender, one of you will have to use a class set
of chromosomes for the under-represented gender. If you are a boy, you will
have to use one of the class sets of chromosomes reserved for girls (the pink
one).
Once you have found your “mate,” move away from other pairs of two
students and begin by producing your gametes (this is called
gametogenesis). Follow the instructions below to make a baby!
1. Hold no more than three chromosomes at a time high in the air above your
head.
2. Drop your chromosomes at the same time. If they do not twirl, drop them
again.
3. When you pick up each chromosome, make sure that it stays in the
position in which it landed.
4. Repeat steps 1 – 3 for all of your chromosomes.
Once you have finished dropping chromosomes, it is time to figure out what
combinations you and your class-mate have!
5. Find a desk or lab bench and lay all of your chromosomes out in
descending size order (Chromosome 1 will be the largest and
Chromosome 22 will be the smallest)
6. Use the “Genotype to Phenotype Translation Booklet” to determine what
your baby will look like. Start on the first page with “Sex Determination”
and work through each trait in the book.
7. Fill in the data log on the page as you combine traits with your class-mate.
Make sure to note the genotype and phenotype.
8. Once your chromosomes are organized, you should be able to answer the
following:
What is the gender of your baby?
Use the table on the next page to fill in your genetic information. Remember that
some traits will have many genes that code for the trait!
9. Answer the questions that follow the data table, and on an unlined sheet
of paper, and in color, each partner should draw an accurate picture of
their "child" based upon the data collected above. The child’s name, as
well as both parent’s names should be written at the bottom of the image.
Trait
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
Trait
Face Shape
Chin Shape
Chin Shape
Cleft Chin
Skin Color
Hair Type
Widow's Peak
Color of Eyebrows
Eyebrow Thickness
Eyebrow
Placement
Eye Color
Eyes-Distance
Apart
Eyes-Size
Eyes-Shape
Eyes-Slanted ness
Eyelashes
Mouth Size
Lips
Protruding Lip
Dimples
Nose-Size
Nose Shape
Nostril Shape
Earlobe Attachment
Darwin's Ear points
Ear Pits
Hairy Ears
Freckles on
Cheeks
Freckles on
Forehead
Gene from Gene from
Genotype
Mother
Father
Phenotype
Classmating Questions
1. When you originally cut the chromosomes up in pairs (before folding),
these represented the chromosomes of your cells. Are your cells diploid or
haploid? __________ Why?
2. When you folded the pair of chromosome and dropped them so only half
of your chromosomes were facing up, what does this have to do with sex
cell formation?
_____
Were these sex cells haploid or diploid? ______________
Why? ______________________________________________________
3. What is the number of the chromosomes you had before you dropped
them to the floor? (think of both sides as being two separate
chromosomes) ______________________________________________
4. How many chromosomes did you donate to the sperm or egg? (when you
dropped them) ______________________________________________
5. When you and your mate pushed the homologous pairs of chromosomes
together, what process did this represent? _________________________
6. What was the number of chromosomes in your new baby (after you
pushed the chromosomes together?) _____________________________
7. What is the female gamete called? ________________
What is the male gamete called? _________________
What process created the gametes? _____________________
8. Explain why people that had the genotype "ll" for non-prominent chin had
to skip the rest of the chin characteristics. _________________________
___________________________________________________________
9. How is it that there are so many colors of skin? _____________________
___________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
10. What is the difference between a genotype and a phenotype?