Collecting Data For Inherited Characteristics

D. Crowley, 2007

Collecting Data For Inherited Characteristics

To be able to collect, and use data, about inherited characteristics

Friday, April 21, 2023

Inherited Or Not? Below is a picture of a family, plus a table of features (the girls are identical

twins)

The features include some which are inherited, and others which are strongly affected by the environment

Mum Dad Jane Becky

Eye colour Brown Brown Blue Blue

Freckles Few Many Few Few

Weight (kg) 64 80 40 55

Height (cm) 168 180 148 148

Shoe size 5 9 5 5

Hair colour Black Black Blonde Blonde

Hair texture Curly Straight Curly Curly

Hair length Long Short Short Short

Inherited Or Not? Produce two lists - one containing all the inherited features, and one containing

all the environmental features

Mum Dad Jane Becky

Eye colour Brown Brown Blue Blue

Freckles Few Many Few Few

Weight (kg) 64 80 40 55

Height (cm) 168 180 148 148

Shoe size 5 9 5 5

Hair colour Black Black Blonde Blonde

Hair texture Curly Straight Curly Curly

Hair length Long Short Short Short

Inherited

Environmental

eye colour; freckles; height; shoe size; hair colour; hair texture

weight; length of hair

Collecting Data How could you design an experiment to find out what if a

characteristic is inherited?

What would you need to know?

Key information to collect is data from yourself as well as from your biological parents

It is also important to get a large amount of data for accuracy

Collecting Data Your task is to collect enough data which you can then analyse, and

tabulate to give you an indication of whether a characteristic is inherited or not

You need to identify a few characteristics to tabulate to answer this question

Possible characteristics to collect data on: - Eye colour Hair colour Tongue roller Height

Results Using the table, collect data from within the class about inherited

features. Once you have done this, analyse the data and answer the questions (add the data to the class results)!

Draw a bar chart to represent the information (x axis will have feature; y axis for no. in class (higher: represent this as a %)

Finally answer the questions: what can you conclude? Are these all inherited characteristics?

Inherited Characteristics Of Class, In Comparison To Their Biological Parents

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Eye Colour Hair colour Tongue roller Height

Feature (blue = same as parent(s); red = different to parent(s))

% C

lass

Was the experiment fair? How could this be improved upon?

Results

Data suggests all the characteristics are inherited, as most of the features present in the child were present in one or both of their parents.

Height was the least significant in terms of being inherited, however this is probably due to the age of the child, and the fact they are still growing

Inherited Characteristics Of Class, In Comparison To Their Biological Parents

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Eye Colour Hair colour Tongue roller Height

Feature (blue = same as parent(s); red = different to parent(s))

% C

lass