Learning Activity: Gummy Bear Genetics
Ages: 13 and up
Objectives:
 students will learn about Species Survival Plans
 students will understand the basic genetics that goes into trait selection
 students will discuss why an SSP is needed to track Zoo animal mating
Materials:
 Gummy bear genetics charts
 Family worksheets
 Gummy bears
 Paper bags
 Dice with 5 and 6 blacked out
 Coins to flip
Vocabulary:
 Species survival plan (SSP)
 Genetics
 Inherited trait
 Genotype
 Genes
 Dominant
 Recessive
 Variation
 Diversity
Procedure:
 Ask students to raise their hands if they have brown eyes; then if they have blue eyes; hazel eyes; green
eyes. Write numbers on board.
 Explain that we all have different colors of eyes because we inherited them from our parents.
o There are more people with brown eyes because it is a dominant trait
o Sometimes one parent has brown eyes and one parent has blue eyes—what happens?
 Usually child will have brown eyes—explain dominant and recessive genes
 Usually, but not always, explain why by showing some basic Punnett Squares (see
above examples).
o Where one parent is YY (brown eyes) and another parent is GG (green
eyes). The child will always have brown eyes because the Y is dominant
over the G.
o Where one parent is YG (brown eyes) and another parent is YG (brown
eyes). In three circumstances the child will have brown eyes, but in one
circumstance the child could have green eyes.
 When 2 animals mate the baby gets a combination of traits from both parents, and that can decide
things like what color eyes you have.
 Tell students about SSPs
o Explain that the AZA has an SSP for every animal to make sure that all the Zoo animals in the
country stay diverse in traits (i.e. if all people were blonde haired and green eyed that would be
boring).
o Diversity is also important because it protects from disease and physical problems—explain
why.
o For example the Phoenix Zoo recently aquired Harry the jaguar, who was brought all the way
from Jacksonville FL to mate with their female Caipora because he is genetically diverse. (One
of his parents was wild).
o Explain that with smaller populations it is not always easy to keep animals genetically diverse
with lots of different traits, which is why SSPs were created.
 Tell students: for this activity you will be in charge of keeping a rare species of endangered gummy
bears genetically diverse.
 Divide group into pairs and give each pair a gummy bear trait chart, a dice and a paper bag of gummy
bears
 Run through one example before letting the pairs do their own.
 Procedure:
o Assume each gummy bear is a pure parent with only one genotype—each row equals 1
generation
o Close your eyes and choose 1 gummy bear—
this is your female parent (mother)—whatever
color it is, write this genotype down in the first
circle
o Close your eyes and choose another gummy
bear—this is your male parent (father)—
whatever color it is, write this
genotype down in the second circle
o Keep randomly choosing gummy bears
until you have 4 females and 4 males
o Next, we are going to “mate” our
gummy bears. Using the chart figure
out all the potential genotypes the
child could be (we are going to assume
each parent pair has 1 baby).
o When there are more than one potential genotype, roll the dice (or flip the coin) to determine
which genotype the child is.
o Continue through the generations until you have one baby.
o Do this for families one and two and as a group, tally how many of each genotype you have.
o Now, for families three and four, allow the student pairs to pick which of the gummy bears
from the whole population mate. They get to choose (from the 20 in their bag) eight gummy
bears, and they get to choose which two mate. When they are done tally how many of each
genotype there are.
o If time permits, they can graph this information in their journals
Debrief:
 Discuss the trials (families 1 & 2 vs. families 3 & 4). Which one was more diverse?
 Why is diversity a good thing?
 Reiterate the importance of SSPs in making sure diversity remains in Zoo populations. Liken the
second trial (families 3 & 4) to an SSP, where zoo experts decide which animals mate with one another
to keep the population genetically diverse.
 Let students split the gummies and eat them!
Notes:
 Paper bags should each have 20 gummy bears with the following numbers:
o 8 Red (RR)
o 5 Green (GG)
o 3 Orange (OO)
o 2 Yellow (YY)
o 2 Clear (CC)