Stations: Sex Determination (Explore)

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Before this lesson: melanin & folate for survival of allelic diversity, then Pigeonetics to open up complex inheritance, then give KWL for sex diversity in nature

Task: Visit each station and answer questions on worksheet.

Stations topics:

  1. Science, Sex, and Society

    1. (Spoken Check for Understanding: How has the scientific model for biological sex changed?)

  2. Myths and Misconceptions

    1. (Spoken Check for Understanding: Who do you think should be heard from the most in conversations about sex and gender?)

  3. Variation

    1. (Spoken Check for Understanding: What have you learned and what information could improve your understanding?)

  4. SRY Gene and Testosterone

    1. (Spoken Check for Understanding: Are sports rules for fairness or entertainment? How do you think we should decide who gets to play and why?)

Introductory slides and previews, as well as printable slides for the stations. Feel free to distribute and modify. Fill-in-the-blanks sections has the first letter as the clue.

Download Links

Previews

Excerpts from Stations and Introduction Slides

Worksheet Tasks by Station w/ checkboxes & self-inventory

 

References

Activity: Laetoli Footprints Topographic Puzzle

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The now-defunct ENSI website had a great pdf to scale of the 3.6 million year-old footprints found at Laetoli, Tanzania, possibly the earliest evidence of bipedalism for Australopithecus afarensis. Year after year, this is a popular introductory activity for my high school students. Fresh from the Great Fossil Find, they spontaneously try out different ways to analyze the topographic maps.

click here to download them for yourself. Many other updated maps, lesson plans, and worksheets, including HHMI Biointeractive’s graphics, are available for this activity online, but I have yet to find one that lets you print out on 8x11s.

When I did this years ago, I think I clipped some of the edges. Results may vary. (“It’s only a model.” - Monty Python) It takes about 20-minutes for someone with sciatica to tape together on the floor. I recommend laminating them before taping them together.

Students will take off their shoes to walk on them and experiment with different gaits and pairings of heights. If the ground is wet outside or there is sand, they will ask to try it outdoors. Wrap their feet in plastic bags and require they film it and photograph the imprint with a scale reference looking from the top-down.

Suh-ggested Warm Up: Have them graph the class left foot lengths and heights using sticker dots on poster graph paper.

I cannot yet find the original large-res pdf in my folders but when I do, I will link it here, too.

Reebops Nursery (gender-inclusive independent assortment)

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Adapted to be more inclusive from slides created by Laura Funk (staff profile page) by modifying “mom” to egg-giver and “dad” to sperm-giver, and adding UDL supports for students with cognitive differences.

Instructional note: I find it best to give these to students without explanation, so that they must derive what the components of the Reebops model are. Also, HS students are unusually protective over their Reebops. In-person, I put their completed models into plastic slips with their “birth certificate” ie. worksheet.

See steps below and the questions for the assessment at the end.

NGSS Works towards HS-LS3-1. Follow up with meiosis and HS-LS3-2.

Step 1: Flip a coin and highlight the capital or lowercase letter for that row.

Step 1: Flip a coin and highlight the capital or lowercase letter for that row.

Step 2: Combine the results from Step 1 to create a genotype (two letters).

Step 2: Combine the results from Step 1 to create a genotype (two letters).

Step 3: Use the third slide to decode the phenotype.

Step 3: Use the third slide to decode the phenotype.

Step 4: Build the reebop based on the phenotype.

Step 4: Build the reebop based on the phenotype.

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Assessment: Answer the questions in the Google Form.

0. Attach completed Reebops Nursery from your Drive.

1. Name your Reebop

2. What do you think each letter represents in the model?

3. What do you think combining the letters represents in the model?

4. All models are wrong. Some models are useful. What are some things missing from this model? List as many as you can think of.

5. Gametes (egg & sperm cells) contain 1 pair of chromosomes (n = haploid), the other body cells contain 2 pairs of chromosomes (2n=diploid). Is your baby reebop haploid or diploid?