Authentic Learning: Using Puppies to Teach High School
Genetics
Aloha, Erica! Thanks so much
for inviting me to write on your Nitty Gritty Science Blog. I’m going to start
my own Blog one of these days, but in the meantime I’ll practice on yours.
At the time I wrote this
project, my German Shepherd puppy had just started AKC obedience training
classes. One night, while I was cruising around on the Internet, I came across
an AKC page that mentioned coat colors in the Labrador Retriever and the
disqualification of the “Dudley”. While a perfectly wonderful pet, a Dudley is
a yellow Labrador with chocolate (brown) nose, lips and eye rims instead of the
accepted black. I read a bit more and learned about the inheritance pattern
that determines the three coat colors in Labs.
The next few days were spent
working out a performance task with a real-world scenario for my students. The
project asks students to assume the role of a genetic counselor for dog
breeders who are currently breeding black Labrador Retrievers, but now want to
expand into breeding chocolate labs. The students are provided with information
about six dogs, 3 male and 3 female, the genotypes of their parents and records
from past litters. They have to apply what they know about patterns of
inheritance, Punnett Squares, and the Law of Independent Assortment in order to
develop a recommendation for the breeders. In addition, students learn about
epistasis, a more advanced genetics concept usually not introduced until AP
Biology.
Over the next 10 years, I
watched students work on this project with a mix of enthusiasm and
frustration. But, it became obvious that
they were enjoying this new challenge and, more importantly, they were
determined to figure it out. A teacher’s dream! I have never had so many
students stop by my room during recess or stay after school to ask questions
and work on their project. They spent hours looking for pictures of Labrador
Retrievers and puppies, drawing Punnett Squares, and trying to interpret them. I
even had teachers from other departments stopping me in the office to discuss
the project they had heard about from their students.
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| Click image to check out this product! |
In the December 23, 2009 edition of Education.com researchers Christopher
Harris and Ronald Marx state that “Authentic tasks are not the norm in schools
and classrooms, but research and contemporary perspectives on how students
learn suggest that these types of tasks are powerfully effective for learning.”1 I believe my Genetics Project, “The Inheritance of Coat Color in Labrador Retrievers”, is an authentic task with proven
effectiveness in deepening student understanding. The combination of a
real-world scenario, one of America’s favorite dog breeds, and the challenging,
but achievable goal of the project all added up to great success.
I looked forward to this
project every year and I’d love to share it with you. You can find it in my
store by clicking the image above.
Aloha,
Carla Brooks
Brown Scruffy Wavy Frame Clipart: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Frames-Scruffy-Wavy-907948
Small Dots Background: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Free-Digital-Papers-Megapack-White-Polka-Dots-over-30-Color-Backgrounds-696134
