Name ______________________________
Period ___________ Date ______________
Mendel, First Geneticist
Web Lab
*Open a web browser and go to http://www2.edc.org/weblabs/WebLabDirectory1.html
*Click on Mendel’s Peas and then click on Enter Web Lab
*Follow these directions and those in the lab to work through the Web Lab, answering the
questions as you complete the activity.
*Throughout the web lab you can roll your cursor over red italicized words to see their
definitions.
Introduction
Gregor Mendel is your guide for this Web Lab. He is considered the Father of Genetics.
When did Gregor Mendel live?
_____________________________________
Where did Gregor Mendel live?
_____________________________________
What kind of organisms did Mendel
like to do experiments with?
_____________________________________
What topic did Gregor Mendel study?
_____________________________________
Plant & Cross
This section of the web lab allows you to explore the traits on which Mendel experimented, then cross
pea plants to see what offspring they produce.
What are the seven traits studied by Mendel?
(1)
(3)
(2)
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
Using the five plants that you grew, cross any plant with itself or with another plant. For each cross,
pay attention to the traits of the parent plants and resulting traits of the offspring plants. It might be
easier if you focus on one trait, like flower color.
What patterns did you see in the way that the traits are inherited? Give evidence from the five crosses
you performed.
Predict Results
In this section, you will explore plant crosses and predict what the offspring will look like.
Complete the following table:
Parent 1 Pea Shape
Parent 2 Pea Shape
Round
Round
Wrinkled
Wrinkled
Predicted Offspring
Pea Shape
Actual Offspring Pea
Shape
What did you learn from these two crosses?
What is a dominant trait?
What is a recessive trait?
Which peas shape is dominant? ____________ Which pea shape is recessive? _________
How did you determine this?
Pedigree/Explore
In these sections, you will experiment with pea plants to discover which traits (alleles) are dominant
and which are recessive. You will be using black and white boxes to represent the plants. White boxes
signify that a plant has one variation of the trait, while black boxes signify that a plant has the other
variation.
Complete the following table:
Parent 1 Flower Color
Purple
Purple
White
White
Parent 2 Flower Color
Purple
White
Purple
White
Offspring Flower Color
Which color is dominant? _____________
How do you know?
Select which trait you want to explore from the pull-down menu in the upper left corner of the screen.
Perform the crosses needed to complete the following table:
Trait
Pea Shape
Flower Color
Dominant Version
Recessive Version