In a given population, is the
dominant trait the most frequently occurring? One way
to find out would be to participate in the
Genetics Project: A Worldwide Search for the Dominant Trait
and ask a lot of people all over the world which traits they have,
and then analyze the collected data.
While participation in this
telecollaborative project can be both exciting and an
authentic learning experience for students, it unfortunately may
take longer to implement in a college course than the time allotted.
However, given a limited timeline it is possible to make use of this powerful learning
opportunity through the use of archived data.
For this activity, students
will make predictions and conduct a brief genetic survey with their
peers in their classroom by analyzing several common dominant /
recessive traits and then use archived data collected from the
Human Genetics project to determine if dominant traits occur
more frequently in a given population.