Hardy Har Har- Weinberg Pre-Lab Investigation
Name: ____________________
Each class contains approximately 36 allele pairs, representing a population of 36 pirates. For this activity, the allele that
will be investigated is a newly discovered trait in a population of pirates that exist around the Weinberg Islands. This
population is unique for two reasons: it has large number of female pirates, and the population has been determined to
have a gene (L) that enables them to maintain balance in a rocking ship and climb ropes atop the highest masts. The
population describes people with this trait as having “sea legs.”
This “sea legs” gene exhibits complete dominance like free earlobes, straight thumbs, or widow’s peaks. Those
individuals that are homozygous dominant or heterozygous will have sea legs. An individual that has homozygous
recessive genotype will not have sea legs.
Genotype
Homozygous Dominant
Heterozygous
Homozygous Recessive
Total
Frequency of allele
pairs in population
LL
Ll
ll
Total # of students
(A) Calculating allele frequencies p and q arithmetically.
The gene frequency of LL is .25.
p²=______
p= √ of p² p=______
1 – p = q 1-____=q
p+q= 1

q=_____
check your work _____ + _____ = 1
(B) Plug in part (A) data into the Hardy-Weinberg equation:
p² +2pq + q²=1
2pq=_______
q²=________
p² +2pq + q²=1  check your work ___________+_____________+_____________= 1
(C) Use this information to complete your table above.
Gene frequency
(Freq. #/Total)
.25
p²
2pq
q²
Hardy Har Har- Weinberg Lab
Objective:
Students will calculate the allelic, genotypic, and phenotypic frequencies of populations by utilizing
the Hardy-Weinberg principle.
Hypothesis: Go back and read about the Hardy-Weinberg Principle (Table 1). Using what you know about the
HWP, please formulate a hypothesis for what you would expect to see happen to the alleles in the population
from generation to generation.
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Draw a table for 6 generations of pirates (P1, F1-F5).
Include a section for each of the three types of genotypes (LL, Ll, ll).
Include a space for each section for gene frequency calculations
*Use your frequency data from yesterday to fill in the parental (P1) generation and gene frequencies.
Analysis Questions- Answer on a separate piece of paper.
1. Do you see a tremendous change in the percentages of each genotype in the parental generation
compared to the F1 generation?
2. Looking at the six existing generations, hypothesize what would happen to the genotypic
percentages in the seventh generation.
3. Are there any observable trends?
5. If this population continued for 50 more generations, what would you predict to take place?
6. Why do you think these numbers remained consistent over the three generations?
7. What could we do to this population for there to be a more drastic change in the percentages
of the genotypes?