There are so many fun lessons and activities that you can use for teaching Punnett Squares! I honestly set aside 4-5 days (or more) to teach this topic to middle school students because there are some aspects that can be confusing.
Some common things that students struggle with when learning about Punnett squares is not knowing where to place the genotypes on the diagram, not knowing how to “drag” the letters in the correct boxes, and understanding what the percentages mean.
I’ve listed five tools that teachers can use to teach this topic, whether it be just one tool or all tools. These tools can help ALL students understand not only HOW to complete Punnett squares but to determine the meaning of the results. These tools can be used in the perfect lesson!
Video or Direct Instruction
First, students need to learn WHAT a Punnett square is, as well as the pre-requisite knowledge that goes along with it. Before beginning a lesson on Punnett squares, students should have learned about Gregor Mendel and his contribution to genetics, and students should know about the process of meiosis. In middle school, they do not need to know every single detail about meiosis, but it’s important that they understand how sex cells are formed, and in addition, what happens when a sperm and an egg come together and the egg is fertilized.
During the lesson on Punnett squares, or before, students should learn about the terms genes, alleles, dominant, recessive, genotype, phenotype, homozygous, and heterozygous. These terms are critical in determining and understanding the results of a Punnett square.
I “spun” my science classroom, so I created a video for students to watch and take their notes. Depending on your teaching style, the first thing that you’ll need to do is make sure that students learn the content, whatever that looks for your classroom.
Teaching Punnett Squares with an Interactive Google Slides Lesson
I usually do a little bit of instruction myself before allowing students to move on their own; however, I think it’s extremely important for students to learn many things on their own, and definitely to practice on their own. This particular interactive lesson includes all of the “pre-requisite” vocabulary words that are great to review as well as practice with using Punnett Squares. This is an interactive lesson and practice where students are able to type their answers to questions in a text box, drag and drop, match vocabulary using lines, and more! Technology is taking over in the classroom, so this is an activity that students would appreciate.
Practice on Mini-Whiteboards
Need more practice and a quick formative assessment? Grab some of those mini-whiteboards! Many schools have them in stock; however, if your school does not have any, there are many ways to obtain them. I’ve heard that you can get them from Lowe’s, or somewhere similar, for really cheap. They’ll cut a large board into smaller boards for you. You could also go to Dollar Tree! I have bought a few from there before! I will say that the dry-erase marker that comes with it isn’t that great, but the board works! You could also put in a project on Donor’s Choose to obtain a class set for your class!
Once you have the boards, you can just come up with a few examples for your students to assess such as:
- P = purple lips and p = green lips
- Cross Pp x pp
- What is the probability the offspring will have green lips?
Do some think-pair-shares or make it a competition! Be creative and make the formative assessment fun!
Punnett Squares Task Cards
Task Cards are a great way to review, and there are so many ways that you can use task cards!
These particular task cards review Punnett Squares AND other parts of the genetics unit, including Gregor Mendel and his peas and incomplete dominance. If these particular task cards do not work for your classroom, I’m sure there are others created or you can create some as well. Do what is best for YOUR classroom!
Punnett Squares Animal Project
This is one of my ALL TIME favorite projects for teaching Punnett squares in my classroom. It’s definitely a student favorite. In summary, students will create an animal/creature using certain genotypes that they discover using two coins. Students will then get with a partner to discover what both of their animal’s offspring will look like through Punnett squares! Students will then draw four offspring based off of those Punnett squares.
In order to determine the genotypes of their animals/creatures, they can use two coins, one for each parent. After students create their animal/creature, they will get with a partner. When with their partners, students will use each of their genotypes for each trait to create Punnett squares for each characteristic of their animal/creature.
Students will then use these Punnett squares to create four offspring with the traits shown in them. A draft is recommended before the final copy.
Students are SO creative. It’s amazing to see what they come up with. Also, the most amazing part is to see how well they understand Punnett Squares after this project. For my students, this project was the number one tool that I used that really helped them grasp the concept of why and how we can use Punnett squares and how to interpret them.
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