BIO/350 v5

Mendelian Inheritance: From Genes to Traits

Lab Reporting Worksheet
In science, reporting what has been done in a laboratory setting is incredibly important for communicating,
replicating, and validating findings. However, writing scientific reports can be a little overwhelming. There
is a set of agreed-upon components that the scientific community requires when reporting scientific
research. Answer the following questions to describe what occurred during the lab you conducted in
Labster. Be sure to use complete sentences and descriptions that fully represent what you experienced.
Writing a lab report is less about being correct or incorrect than it is accurately reporting what happened
and why. So, do not worry about reporting data that might seem counterintuitive or unexpected. Focus on
clearly communicating what you did and what you observed.
Write your answers on a new line.

Title
1. What was the title of the lab you completed?
Mendelian Inheritance: From Genes to Traits

Topic
2. What was the subject you were trying to understand better in the lab?
In this lab I am trying to better understand how traits from parents to offspring are passed down
and the cause of variation between siblings such as daughters or sons, learning and
understanding Mendel’s laws of inheritance and its relation with colorblindness, compare and
predict phenotypes of offspring when given the genotypes and getting comfortable with using
Punnett squares, and lastly analyzing and getting more informed on the topic about dominant and
recessive alleles.

Background Information
3. What information from the textbook and classroom is relevant for the subject you were trying to
gain a better understand of in the lab? Identify the concepts and explain how they are related to
the lab topic.
Some information that the textbook provides is some useful information about Mendelian
inheritance, its concepts and understanding the experiments on heritable characteristics,
traits, crossing, Punnett squares, alleles, phenotypes and genotypes. Phenotype is the
observed traits, genotype is the genetic makeup of an organism, Punnett squares is a method
that is used to predict the probability of genotypes and phenotypes in offsprings. All of these
concepts that we learned about this week are important for the lab. The law of segregation
mentions that the allele pairs are separate during gamete information. Each of the gametes
carry one allele for each of the gene so the offspring has an equal chance of inheriting either
of the factors. Law of independent assortment mentions that the genes do not influence each
other gametes and this helps in predicting phenotype ratios. The lab instructs us how to
apply all of these concepts to find out why some people may be colorblind, and if the son
Joseph will pass on his color blindness to his future children. Also, we will experiment
crossing for different colored mice and see what happens to their fur color.

4. During the lab, what information from the theory section provided additional background
information about the subject? (To review the theory section, launch the lab and click the Theory

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tab on the top of the data pad). Identify the concepts and explain how they are related to the lab
topic.
Genotype involves the living organisms DNA. Phenotype is an organisms observable traits that
can be seen with our eyes. Hybridization is the mating of two individuals from different breeds.
During the lab we experiment with two mice that are different colors, brown and black. When we
have the two mice mate together, we get three brown mice and one black mice and that is the
hybridization process. The Punnett square is a method that is used to see crosses and help
predict genotypes. A Pedigree tree is an overview of inheritance patterns and frequency of a
certain trait. We practiced our understanding of the topics by making our own pedigree tree
showing the different eye colors in Josephs family including brown and green eyes, then we
proceeded to figure out who would be affected by color blindness.
5. Most scientific observation involves examining phenomena or processes. What phenomenon or
process were you observing in the lab? What were you able to change and explore? What did the
simulation not allow to change?
The phenomena that was first observed was the experiment of hybridization with two purebred
mice that were brown and black. The genotype of black mouse is aa and for the brown mouse
was AA. We begin to cross experiment to observe what will happen next. The outcome after
those reproduce was three brown mouse and one black. We can predict the ratio by using the
Punnett square. The phenomena there is the Law of segregation where each offspring inherits
one allele from each parent. The mine that inherited the dominant allele (A) in all combinations
will inherit brown fur and the one that only inherits recessive allele (a) will have black fur. This
comes from the law of inheritance where it helps to determine if Joseph will have children in the
future that will inherit color blindness. Something that we were not allowed to change was the
phenotype and genotype in the pedigree tree.

Method
Describing what you did during a lab supports other scientists in replicating your work. It is through this
consistent replication that scientists are able to see repeating patterns and develop ideas that help move
science forward. When you discuss your observations, in a later section, you will have to describe, in
detail, what you did. You may also have to describe what choices you made, why you made them, and
any concerns about things that occurred that were unexpected. To have enough information to do this,
you need to keep very detailed notes. What doesn’t seem important in the moment may end up being
something that explains your findings later. A benefit of conducting virtual labs when learning science, is
that many potential errors are controlled for you. The virtual lab environment often will alert you if
something is not going the way it should. This does not occur in non-virtual settings. The virtual lab setting
can be very helpful to learners for this reason. However, we still need to practice documenting so those
skills are practiced for the lab experiences when technology will not be there as a coach.
6. You have already described the phenomenon or process you studied in the lab in the previous
section. Now, take some time to fully describe the steps you took during the lab. Do not include
the process of you logging into the lab in your description. For this virtual lab, a short, high-level
summary will suffice.
Firstly, we start by finding out that Joseph’s is unable to see red and green ice cream which leads
us to think that he is color blind. We had the genetic information from the parents and figure out
how to find out how the genes influence physical characteristics. We learn about traits and how it
is passed down by conducting if Joseph’s children will inherit his color blindness or not. We then
went to experiment with the mice, we observed hybridization and see that there are three brown
mice and one black mice in the offspring. We use the Punnett square to see if our observations
are right and find out that using the Punnett square helps us predict traits without physically
performing the crossing process. This relates to Law of segregation and Law of Inheritance. The
next phase was to create a pedigree tree to map out the phenotypes of the family and see how the
traits are being passed down within the family. We mapped out an interactive pedigree tree
involving green eyes, brown eyes, and color blindness that dated from Joseph’s parents and

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grandparents. The last step of the lab was to use the Punnett square of Joseph’s potential
offspring to determine the chances of passing on his color blindness however we would need
traits from his partner to predict.
7. Describe some of the observations you made. What did you write down or keep track of? What
did each of your senses observe during the lab process? What did you see (e.g., changes in
colors, movement, shapes, sizes, patterns)? What, if anything, did you measure? What did you
hear (e.g., sounds from reactions, collisions, error messages)? What did your lab character
touch? Did you notice anything that seemed unexpected? Did you notice anything that you did
not expect to observe?
This lab required a lot of observation for each of the parts. The Punnett square process that
didn’t require crossing was able to help us predict the genotype and phenotype traits. What I
realized is that it is important to gather information from family history from both sides of the
family in order to predict the traits of potential offspring. We were able to predict the color of the
mice fur and the color blindness that runs in Josephs family but unable to tell if his kids would
inherit color blindness because we did not have information from his partner. I think what was
unexpected for me was the outcome of crossing the mice and getting 3 brown mice and 1 black,
before this lesson I would think that black is just a dominant color and more would come out
black but its not about the actual color and instead the allele that is dominant.
8. Which parts of the lab required you to think more than others and required more time? Which
parts were simple and completed easily?
This lab was pretty straightforward I believe the hybridization of the mice took a little more time
and the part that was more simple was creating the Punnett squares.

Observations
Many lessons learned from scientific research come from the reporting and analysis of data and
observations. This part of scientific reporting requires detailed descriptions of technical information and
observations, as well as high-level synthesis of information. High-level synthesis requires a mastery of
foundational content in the related scientific field and a complementary mastery in some field of
quantitative and/or qualitative analysis. For this report, let’s focus on big picture patterns.
9. What did you notice about the phenomenon or process you explored?
What I noticed during this experiment is that it is important to gather information and knowing
that the genotype and phenotype always play a vital role when it moves to the Law of segregation.
For example, with the pedigree tree we were able to determine Josephs eye color by knowing the
eye colors and colorblindness of his grandparents and parents. We learned that some recessive
inheritance can play a role in colorblindness.
10. Describe any information about the phenomenon or process that you learned.
The Punnett square is a visual guide of crossing. When an allele is dominant, the one copy is able
to be observed and be a phenotype. To bring out the recessive phenotype, the individual would
need two of the same copies of the gene. We can see the possible genotypes of osspring by
getting different alleles and inputting it on the grid. We found out that females can have one copy
of color blindness and still have normal vision but in men they can have one copy of the gene and
it will be enough for them to be color blind due to the normal allele of the second X chromosome
having the ability to compensate for the dysfunctional gene in females. I would always hear that
color blindness is more common in men and this makes a lot more sense after this lab.

Discussion
The discussion section is used to explain why things might have happened the way that they did in your
research. Here, scientists describe any potential anomalies or mistakes and why they think they may
have occurred.

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 Mendelian Inheritance: From Genes to Traits Lab Reporting Worksheet
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11. During your lab, what happened that might have had an impact on the accuracy of your
observations? Did the simulation alert you that an error was occurring? If so, how did you resolve
it?
Thankfully no errors had occurred during the lab. It was very interactive and straightforward.
12. The discussion section also is used to summarize big ideas from the lab. What were the
important learnings about the phenomenon or process from the lab?
Some important learnings about the lab would be to know how traits are passed on from parents
to offspring. We are able to know the different gene variation and predict phenotypes when we
know the genotype, using Punnett squares. We are also now able to analyze dominant and
recessive alleles.

Conclusion
The conclusion section of a lab report describes how the learnings from the lab research fit in to prior
scientific knowledge. This is done by comparing new information to previously known information that was
identified in the section of your report that discusses background information.
Review the background information section of your report from above and describe how the results of
your lab compare to the information you discussed before.

13. After scientists have identified how the new knowledge fits into the old knowledge, they discuss
the implications of the new information for moving forward. In this class, the purpose of study is to
learn some foundational science ideas represented by the course learning outcomes. Review the
course learning outcome aligned to this lab in the assignment directions in Blackboard. How is
the information from this lab related to the course learning outcome? What knowledge has the lab
supported you with learning that is related to this course learning outcome?
We are now able to predict genotype and phenotypes that offspring can inherit genetically with
the knowledge and understanding of Mendels Law. We collected information, and using the
Punnett square we were able to analyze and predict the dominant and recessive alleles. Using the
mice as an example gave us a great visual understanding of the lab. This information is related to
the learning outcome because it relates to our reading chapters for the week and put everything
that we read about into a better perspective.
14. Following scientific research, scientists usually come up with new questions that result from what
they learned. These new questions often end up leading to new research in the future. What
additional scientific things do you wonder about after completing and writing about your lab
experience?

This lab helps us understand simple traits such as fur color, eye color, or color blindness.
Can we use what we learned and try to figure out height, personality, or intelligence?

Regarding the pedigree tree, we are able to see the inheritance of a trait through
generations of a family, is it possible for dominant traits to skip a generation?

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