HEREDITY OR NOT?
Overview:
Some traits, like eye color, are easily recognized as inherited traits. Other characteristics, such as the ability to be
a successful hunter, are a result of environmental factors, such as family, who teach the skill.
Objectives:
The student will:
• play a game to gather data about inherited characteristics among classmate;
• graph the data collected;
• hear an Athabascan legend, “Raven Lost His Eyes”; and
• determine which traits are inherited versus which characteristics are not inherited.
Targeted Alaska Grade Level Expectations:
Science
[3-5] SA1.1 The student demonstrates an understanding of the processes of science by asking ques tions, predicting,
observing, describing, measuring, classifying, making generalizations, inferring, and communicating.
[5] SC1.1 The student demonstrates an understanding of how science explains changes in life forms over time,
including genetics, heredity, the process of natural selection and biological evolution by contrasting inherited
traits (e.g., flower color, number of limbs) with those that are not (riding a bike, scar from an accident).
[3] SF1.1-SF3.1 The student demonstrates an understanding of the dynamic relationships among scientific, cultural,
social, and personal perspectives by exploring local or traditional stories that explain a natural event (L).
[4] SF1.1-SF3.1 The student demonstrates an understanding of the dynamic relationships among scientific,
cultural, social, and personal perspectives by connecting observations of nature to a local or traditional
story that explains a natural event (e.g., animal adaptation, weather, rapid changes to Earth’s surface) (L).
[5] SF1.1-SF3.1 The student demonstrates an understanding of the dynamic relationships among scientific, cultural,
social, and personal perspectives by telling a local or traditional story that explains a natural event (e.g., animal
adaptation, weather, rapid changes to Earth’s surface) and relating it to a scientific explanation*(L). [5] SC1.1
The student demonstrates an understanding of how science explains changes in life forms over time, including
genetics, heredity, the process of natural selection, and biological evolution by contrasting inherited traits (e.g.,
flower color, number of limbs) with those that are not (riding a bike, scar from an accident).
Vocabulary:
gene – a segment of DNA, occupying a specific place on a chromosome, that is the basic unit of heredity; genes
act by directing the synthesis of proteins, which are the catalysts of all cellular processes; physical traits,
such as the shape of a plant leaf, the coloration of an animal’s coat, and the texture of a person’s hair, are all
determined by genes
heredity – the passage of biological traits or characteristics from parents to offspring through inheritance of genes
inheritance – the process by which traits or characteristics pass from parents to offspring through the genes
widow’s peak – a distinct point in the hairline in the center of the forehead
Whole Picture:
It is important for students to understand which traits are inherited, through genetics, versus characteristics
influenced by environmental factors. A person can be born with curly hair or can go to the salon and ask for a
permanent wave to get curls. One is genetic; the other is not.
Materials:
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Seed packet (any)
Clipboard (one per student)
Colored pencils (shared)
Scissors
Tape
One piece of chart paper
AKSCI ©2011 Alaska Department of Education and Early Development
Heredity or Not?
HEREDITY OR NOT?
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TEACHER INFORMATION SHEET: “Raven Lost His Eyes”
TEACHER INFORMATION SHEET: “Heredity Versus Environment Activity”
STUDENT WORKSHEET: “Heredity Data”
STUDENT WORKSHEET: “Inherited or Not?”
Activity Preparation:
1. Prepare chart paper for students to graph eye color. Use four eye color columns: brown, blue, green and hazel.
Activity Procedure:
1. Ask students to help carefully push desks to the edge of the classroom so there is space to move around. Using
the TEACHER INFORMATION SHEET: “Heredity Versus Environment Activity,” complete part one of the activity.
2. Hold up a packet of seeds. Show students what the package says. Ask students what kind of plant will grow
if the seeds are planted? Seems obvious, right? How does the seed know what to become? (The seeds are
genetically programmed to become that specific plant.) What would happen if the seed were planted in a dark
place and never watered? Why wouldn’t it grow? (Environment affects how things grow, too.)
3. Hand out STUDENT WORKSHEET: “Heredity Data,” and clipboards. Discuss vocabulary and allow students to
color the eye with their eye color. Again, allow students to divide following the inherited traits listed on the
worksheet. (See TEACHER INFORMATION SHEET: “Heredity Versus Environment Activity,” part two.) Students
must record data after each division. After data is collected, students can complete the second page of the
worksheet. If necessary, demonstrate how to do a bar graph prior to having students do their own graphs.
4. After students complete the bar graphs, allow time to cut out the eye on page one. Ask students to place
the eye in the appropriate column of the prepared graph with a piece of tape. (See Activity Preparation.)
5. Using TEACHER INFORMATION SHEET: “Raven Lost His Eyes,” read the story to students. Discuss.
6. Hand out STUDENT WORKSHEET: “Inherited or Not?” Read through and discuss terms in the word bank, then
allow student time to write them in the correct column.
7. Ask students to journal about something they are proud to have inherited from their parents.
Extension Ideas:
1. Have students bring in family pictures to share with peers. Ask students to share what they feel proud to
have inherited from family. Display family pictures in the classroom.
2. Research different animals and the traits they pass on to offspring, such as fur color, etc.
3. Allow students to choose unmarked seeds to plant. Ask them to predict what kind of plant they think will
grow from the seed. Draw the prediction. Monitor the growth of the plant and see if predictions come true.
Answers:
STUDENT WORKSHEET: “Heredity Data”
Answers will vary according to class. All student worksheets, in each class, should contain identical data and results.
STUDENT WORKSHEET: “Inherited or Not?”
Inherited Trait
Not Inherited
brown eyes
can ride bike
straight hair
good hunter
roll tongue
respectful to Elders
dimples
scar on arm
widow’s peak
good at fishing
skin color
broken bone
hair color
curly hair
hazel eyes
height
boy or girl
glasses
AKSCI ©2011 Alaska Department of Education and Early Development
Heredity or Not?
HEREDITY VS ENVIRONMENT ACTIVITY
Part One
(NOTE: For the first part of this activity, do not tell students the purpose – let them make observations.)
Ask students to help carefully push desks to the edge of the classroom so there is space to move around. Explain
you are going to ask students to stand on one side of the room or the other, depending on what you describe.
Ask students:
• with curly hair to stand on one side, everyone else on the other.
• with dimples to stand on one side, no dimples on the other.
• who have at least one scar to stand on one side, no scar on the other.
• who have pierced ears to stand on one side, no pierced ears on the other.
Ask students, “What do you observe about the way I am dividing you?” Allow students to respond. Guide them
toward discovering that some things, like curly hair and dimples, they are born with. Others, like scars and
pierced ears, they are not born with. If necessary, ask, “Are you born with dimples? Are you born with a scar?”
Part Two
Hand out clipboards and STUDENT WORKSHEET: “Heredity Data.” Explain students will record data about the
heredity of classmates. Discuss vocabulary and allow students to color the eye according to their eye color.
Again, have students divide according to the traits on the worksheet and record the number of classmates in
each:
• Curly hair versus non-curly hair – explain this applies to the way it is without intervention, i.e. permanent
waves, curling irons, straightening irons, etc.
• Widow’s peak versus no widow’s peak – explain this is the way the hairline sits on the forehead. Students
will want to consult with one another on this point. Illustrate on the difference between a widow’s peak
and no widow’s peak on the board:
The widow’s peak forms a “V” on the forehead, no widow’s peak shows a rounded hairline.
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Tongue rolling is also genetically inherited. Ask volunteers to demonstrate if they are willing.
Dimples and eye color are also inherited traits. If students don’t feel they fall into one of the four eyecolor categories, ask them to pick the closest choice.
AKSCI ©2011 Alaska Department of Education and Early Development
Heredity or Not?
RAVEN LOST HIS EYES
Story by Miska Daphon from Nikolai, Alaska as told to
his granddaughter, Terry Coral EchoHawk
Here is a story of Raven and what he did.
Raven sat on the edge of a bank. He looked up
and down the river but he did not see anyone.
His eyes were getting tired so he took out
his eyes. “I will sleep. If someone comes, you
tell me,” he said and hung up his eyes on a tree.
Raven went inside and went to bed. Not long after
that his eyes started to tell him that someone was
coming, so he got up and went out. He put his eyes
back on himself and looked up the river. He saw a tree
root drifting down and he told his eyes, “You did not
see very good. It was only a drifting log. There is no
one on the river.” That was what he said, and he hung
his eyes on the tree again and went back inside.
A long time later his eyes again started to tell him that someone was coming down the river. This time he thought
to himself, “My eyes are lying to me again.”
The eyes kept saying that someone was coming closer. After a while, his eyes did not say anything any more.
Raven was blind without his eyes, so he felt his way back out. He felt for his eyes where he thought he left them
hanging. He kept searching for his eyes. He really lost the place and he felt the ground and found a deep trail.
Up a little ways, there was a ridge coming down from a mountain. He knew of this place where there was no trees.
He thought, “Maybe if I put a berry in my eye, I will see again.” So he started for that place. He had a hard time. He
even crawled. When he got there, he found blueberries, which he put in place of his eyes. When he put the berries
in, he could not see with them. They were too dark.
He knew there was another ridge coming down from the mountains and a trail going across there so he crawled
across there. He found something like cranberries and tried those for his eyes. But when he put them in, everything
looked red to him. They did not fit either. They kept falling out because they were too small.
He did not know what to do, so he kept climbing and found another berry. It was the Canadian Jay’s eyes. He could
see with this berry, but his eyes were red. He looked like a man but a person from some other place.
He came back down to his house, and he thought to himself, “Maybe I should paddle up river to see where they
put my eyes.” He had a canoe and he started up river. He was paddling when he heard up there among the big
trees what sounded like a lot of people laughing. He wanted to find out what all the noise was about.
He stopped on the bank and pulled his canoe up, and started to walk back there into the woods. But when he
walked back there was nobody there. The noise was still heard in the woods, however.
He went down to the river and found a house. Before he went to the house, he put a bunch of spruce boughs in a
pile. He spread them out and they became clothes. He put these fancy clothes on. The mukluks were the prettiest.
Then he put on another pile of spruce boughs and there were more clothes. These he put in a bag. He carried
them along as he walked.
AKSCI ©2011 Alaska Department of Education and Early Development
Heredity or Not?
RAVEN LOST HIS EYES
He came down to a house by the river. There was a young girl there who did not go with the others. She was a
single girl waiting for the right man to come along.
She told him she was asked a lot of times by men to marry her but she did not. When Raven showed her the
beautiful clothes that he had in the bag, the girl told him, “I will marry you.”
By this time, the people that were in the woods came back down. They saw Raven. They thought he was an odd
stranger. The girl told them that she wanted to marry this person. The people told her to go ahead and marry him
so they got married.
In the daytime, the people went back into the woods to have fun, but the couple never went there. One day, Raven
asked his wife, “What are those people doing back there?”
His wife told him, “I don’t know. They are playing with something that someone said are Raven’s eyes which
someone brought back. They sewed something over them so they do not look like Raven’s eyes.” So Raven found
out that they were playing with his eyes.
The people came back in the evening, but in the morning, they went back up and started to play with the balls.
“Let’s go up and see what they are doing,” he told his wife. “I want to know what they really do.” So they started up
the trail.
He sat by the edge to see the game of ball they were playing. As he was sitting there, he watched the balls. There
were two of them. Sometimes the eyes feel far apart. He really wanted to get his eyes back, but there was no way.
He sat there wishing they would both fall where they were sitting. As he wished, the eyes fell where they were
sitting. He grabbed them and took them back. As the players reached for him, he flew off and cawed like a raven.
He became Raven again. He put his eyes back on himself. And he flew off saying, “These are my eyes.”
He landed on top of a big tree. The players were really mad at him. They were telling him how bad he was. They
told him, “Maybe we should hit you with an arrow.”
He sat there for a while then took off. As he was going up, his wife who was still standing there, her clothes became
Raven’s droppings. They were all white with it. The clothes that she was wearing were very pretty before all this
happened. Everyone was mad at Raven. He flew back to his canoe and became a man again. Now that he had his
real eyes back, he threw away all those berries that he used for his eyes, and he came back to his home.
AKSCI ©2011 Alaska Department of Education and Early Development
Heredity or Not?
NAME: __________________________
HEREDITY DATA
Vocabulary:
genes – the set of directions, called DNA, that tell
your cells how to form and determine what you look
like
heredity – things you are born with, like hair color,
eye color and height, that are passed on from parents
to their children through the inheritance of genes
inheritance – the traits you are born with, passed on
from your parents
What color are your eyes?
Directions: Record the number of classmates that fall into the categories below.
Curly Hair:
Non-curly Hair
Widow’s Peak:
No Widow’s Peak:
Tongue Roll:
No Tongue Roll:
Dimples:
No Dimples:
Brown Eyes:
Blue Eyes:
AKSCI ©2011 Alaska Department of Education and Early Development
Green Eyes
Hazel Eyes:
Heredity or Not?
NAME: __________________________
HEREDITY DATA
Directions: Using the data collected on page one, make a bar graph to represent each inherited trait.
Widow’s Peak or No Widow’s Peak?
Number of Students
Number of Students
Curls or No Curls?
Dimples or No Dimples?
Number of Students
Number of Students
Roll Tongue or Not?
AKSCI ©2011 Alaska Department of Education and Early Development
Heredity or Not?
NAME: __________________________
INHERITED OR NOT?
Directions: Write each of the terms or phrases from the word bank in the appropriate column of either “Inherited
Trait,” or “Not Inherited.”
Word Bank
brown eyes
scar on arm
curly hair
can ride bike
good at fishing
hazel eyes
good hunterdimplesheight
straight hair
widow’s peak
boy or girl
respectful to Elders
skin color
broken bone
roll tonguehair colorglasses
Hint: Remember, inherited traits come from genes passed on by your parents. Other things are learned or happen
by accident.
Inherited Trait
Not Inherited
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AKSCI ©2011 Alaska Department of Education and Early Development
Heredity or Not?