Lesson Plan: Inherited Disorders Biology • First Year of Secondary School
This lesson plan includes the objectives, prerequisites, and exclusions of the lesson teaching students how to use genetic diagrams to predict probabilities of offspring inheriting recessive or dominant genetic disorders.
Objectives
Students will be able to
- define the terms gene and allele,
- define a dominant allele as one that is always expressed in a phenotype and a recessive allele as one that is only expressed when two copies are present,
- describe inherited disorders as diseases or disorders caused by the inheritance of certain alleles,
- carry out a genetic cross to show the inheritance of recessive and dominant alleles,
- understand that the inheritance of some alleles can be lethal (e.g., alleles causing yellow fur in mice, the absence of chlorophyll in plants).
Prerequisites
Students should already be familiar with
- the concept that genetic material is passed from parents to offspring,
- some diseases being caused by mutations in genes,
- the basics of probability.
Exclusions
Students will not cover
- the details of mutation,
- the ability to recall symptoms of various diseases.
