Mendelian Genetics of Corn Kit

Product Details
Intermediate—Easy to perform; requires some background knowledge.

This kit provides students the opportunity to examine Mendelian inheritance up close by scoring the inheritance patterns of traits on genetic corn ears and comparing results to those predicted by Punnett squares.

Designed for advanced high school or introductory college-level classes, this comprehensive kit covers all the basics of Mendelian genetics such as segregation, independent assortment, and monohybrid and dihybrid crosses, while also providing opportunities for analyzing data using chi-square analysis. For 8 groups of 4 students.

For teaching beginning high school or middle school, consider our Monohybrid Genetics with Corn Kit (item #176362)

Corn ears from this kit can be purchased individually (items #176500, #176600, #176540) as a refill or for more student groups.

Performance Expectation(s)
HS-LS3-1

Crosscutting Concepts
Cause and Effect

Disciplinary Core Ideas
LS3.A: Inheritance of Traits

Science and Engineering Practices
Asking Questions and Defining Problems

Time Requirement
One to two 45-minute class periods.

Digital Resources
Includes 1-year access to digital resources that include a teacher’s manual, student guide, and more.

Learning Objectives

• Use corn to study genetic crosses and recognize contrasting phenotypes.
• Collect data from F₂ ears of corn, and analyze the results from monohybrid and dihybrid crosses.
• Study dominance, segregation, and independent assortment of alleles in corn.
• Compare predicted results with results obtained from actual data.
• Analyze the data using Chi-square techniques.
• Predict patterns of inheritance given relevant data.

Prerequisite Knowledge and Skills
Students should have some understanding of meiosis, chromosomes, Mendelian genetics, Punnett squares, and chi-square analysis.