Thursday, March 2, 2017

Genetics

I am a Science teacher. I teach 6th grade science to some pretty amazing sixth graders. Each year while teaching I tend to fall into a rut, I love animals I really do, but they are not exactly my favorite thing to teach about each year. This is also the unit with the least amount of labs so I know that the kiddos aren't having as much fun as they normally do.

But then I get to Genetics. And this is when I get my joy back! I LOVE genetics I love explaining to my kiddos the why they look the way they do, why they can or cannot roll their tungs into tacos, and so many more amazing things! We fill out punnett squares, so many punnett squares. And I get to see my students get so excited about something that I have so much passion for. We also get to talk about genetic mutations...and this is where the cats come in!

Did you know Calico cats are usually always female? Well I do and here is why. The Calico coloring is carried on the X chromosome. In order for this "mutation" of colors to show up the cat has to have two X chromosomes! Isn't this just crazy?? Now there is a like 1 in 1 million chance that the Calico cat will be male. Which is even more amazing!!

Anyway, I thought all my loyal readers would appreciate a mini genetic lesson today about cats! I also feel that I have the cutest female Calico cat there is. See Below...


Zoey protecting the back yard from birds!

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for this. Brought back memories of my calico as a kid. I miss that three legged cat.

    ReplyDelete