Chapter 5 – Heredity
Directed Reading Guide
Directions: Please complete the following reading guide as you read Chapter
5. Use your best writing skills (e.g. complete sentences, correct spelling, etc.)
Section 1 – Mendel and His Peas
(pg. 106)
1. How does heredity explain why you don’t look like a rhinoceros?
2. What did Gregor Mendel study in the monastery garden?
3. Complete the “activity” in the margin of pg. 106 in the space below.
(pg. 107)
4. Why did Mendel choose to use garden peas for his investigation into how
traits are passed on (be sure to include 3 reasons)?
5. How can a plant self-pollinate?
(pg. 108)
6. What are three of the characteristics that Mendel chose to study and the
corresponding traits for each of them?
7. What are true-breeding plants?
8. How did Mendel control which pollen would fertilize which plants?
9. What is the difference between self-pollination and cross-pollination?
(pg. 109)
10. Look at Figure 6. What happened when Mendel crossed plants that had
round seeds with plants that had wrinkled seeds (include the term “first
generation” in your answer)?
11. For each characteristic, Mendel called the trait that always appeared
and the trait that seemed to disappear
.
12. Mendel then allowed the first generation of self-pollinate. What were the
results of the second generation?
13. What always happened when the first generation of Mendel’s plants was
allowed to self-pollinate?
(pg. 110)
14. What was the procedure that Mendel had done to help him explain his
results, which no one had done before?
15. Look at Mendel’s results. Complete the table below.
Characteristic
Dominant Trait
Flower Color
705 Purple
Seed Color
Seed Shape
Pod Color
Pod Shape
Flower Position
Plant Height
Recessive Trait
2,002 Green
Ratio
16. What is the dominant-to-recessive ration pattern for each characteristic?
(pg. 111)
17. Define the following terms:
Gene-
Allele-
Genotype-
Phenotype-
18. Read through “How to Make a Punnett Square” and answer the question.
(pg. 112)
19. Read all of pg. 112 -113. Figure 8 shows a Punnett square for a selfpollinating, first generation, purple plant. What are the alleles that are
contributed by both the male and female parts of the plant?
20. What is the probability that this scenario will produce a purple flower? A
white flower?